How the new Facebook Timeline changes will affect you

How the new Facebook Timeline changes will affect you

As you are no doubt aware, Facebook are currently implementing some major changes to the way Business Pages work. As of March 30th, all Facebook pages will be forced over to their new design which will incorporate their new “timeline” layout.

How does this affect you? If you haven’t already, you will need to start preparing your Facebook page for their new timeline format. This is relatively simple, however, there are a few things you need to be aware of with their new layout.

Landing pages no longer exist
One of the unfortunate drawbacks of their new format, is that you can no longer automatically direct new visitors to a special landing tab. This is quite unfortunate, however Facebook believe that by incorporating the large cover photo instead allows for a richer user experience, which is what it is all about at the end of the day.

Rules with the cover photo
The ability to add a large cover photo to the new page is quite exciting and is a great opportunity to include something cool. Just be aware that Facebook do not allow you to include the following: 

• Promotions, coupons, or advertisements
• Price or purchase information
• Contact information
• References to “Like” or similar (so no cool arrows pointing to the “like” button any more)
• Calls to action

Custom Tabs
Some Facebook pages currently have custom tabs on the left-hand side which allow you to include things like a portfolio, promotions or news. With the new layout, Facebook limit you to only displaying 4 tabs at a time.

The layout when you visit a tab is also very different. Previously, the width of the tabs were a slim 520 pixels, the new tabs will be 810 pixels. This is pretty nifty and gives us creative and technical types a bit more room to play with.

Aside from the fact that these changes are being forced upon Facebook pages, we think the new timelines are pretty cool and look forward to seeing what creative solutions businesses come up with.

As always with these things, if you need any help at all with these – feel free to get in touch.

DS