Source: templates.com via Larry on Pinterest
Facebook has finally launched its timeline feature for Page owners. Brands that have a presence on the popular social network are now free to update their profile to activate the feature and start putting it to use. As you may know by now, the timeline uses a two column-like format that presents information in reverse chronological order for fans and visitors to follow. And while it is far too soon to gauge any results, brands definitely appear to be excited to finally get their hands on this potentially game changing feature.
Facebook | A Glimpse at the Present and Past
Not all Facebook users are onboard with the new timeline. A March poll conducted by community site SodaHead showed that 70% of users didn’t like it, while only 20% did. Another poll, this one conducted by CNET, revealed that just 21% of its users like the feature, while 37% only use it because they have no other choice. The big problem most people appear to have with the Facebook timeline is how it literally goes back in time to showcase past updates and activities some people may not want to be so easily discoverable. However, what makes this feature unsettling to the user is also what makes it valuable to the marketer.
For a business, the Pages version of the Facebook timeline offers a fresher way to engage audience members by simply making more information about the company conveniently accessible. For example, you can provide fans with a look at your brand’s Facebook journey from the day it arrived on the site to now. You could also get more creative and use the timeline to share the complete history of your company. This is something brands like The New York Times are already doing. The timeline offers an interactive way for companies to connect with their fans like never before.
Facebook | Customization Personalizes Your Page
Another plus that comes with the Facebook pages timeline lies in the new customization options that accompany the feature. First, there is the real estate at the top of the page, which can be used to showcase a large photo, logo, and description of what you do. The new format also gives you the ability to showcase one of your most popular posts near the top of the timeline, similar to what is possible with Twitter’s brand pages. This update can be changed to reflect whatever is going on with your brand at the time. These customization features and others allow brands to create user-friendly experiences their fans appreciate.
Conclusion
As more brands enable the Pages timeline on Facebook, we will surely start to learn more about how pages are performing before and after. In turn, this will give us more examples of how to optimize and properly use the new feature. Change is bound to come, and this is one change Facebook users are going to have to get used to because the timeline isn’t going anywhere.
=====
Author Bio
Francis Santos is a writer for Benchmark Email, an email marketing software company.
Related articles
It’s pretty simple. Facebook users don’t like the new layout and ability to look back over everything you’ve ever written, but companies looking to advertise love it. Therefore, it will continue. Everything exists as an avenue to advertise. TV, sports, magazines, the Internet… it’s all there to get us to buy certain things. We might all hate it, but we’re not the ones paying Facebook, so companies will continue to get their way on this.
Yeah, as soon as I heard about this feature I thought that it would work a lot better for businesses than for individual users. I updated my Page to Timeline and so far it’s worked out great! My personal page though… I really don’t like having to go back and delete or hide all those old things.
I haaaate Timeline. I think it is the least user-friendly update that Facebook has introduced (and let’s be honest, there have been several). It’s difficult to navigate the page, users have to hide all of their old information all over again, and indecisive people (like me) now have to choose not only their profile picture, but also their cover page! Haha, the last one is not really a big deal, but I hope Facebook never updates my private individual page.
I could see how it could work well for businesses though. Like you say, the history of the company could be relevant for some users and with the cover page the layout could look nicer.
Facebook’s data shows that approximately 8 million brands switched over to the new timelines a week after they had been introduced – that’s an estimated one-fourth of all pages.
I think whatever the result from timeline pages, one thing is quite sure that users didn’t like it and are forced by Facebook to use it. I think Facebook shouldn’t force users to use Timeline feature instead it should be the choice of any user.
Hey, Francis! Interesting article. I’m not so excited about Facebook Timeline. I liked the old version better. I guess I’m old fashioned 😀 However, I try to understand what advantages does it bring.
When timeline was released, a lot of my friends gave negative feedback. But something about it made me enjoy it, perhaps the ability to backread? But if given the chance to revert to the old profile, would you?
Thanks for sharing!
-Harold
I am not satisfied with timeline features..Recently, I uploaded a picture of my family and
it did not fit in the box..I mean the whole pic did not fit in there. I need to go to photoshop, and crop the pics then upload it again and again..If you have a portrait picture, it is not good for timeline…
Yes I think there are a number of frustrating little things with the new layouts, but something like this will be tweaked and fixed I believe. Facebook actually does a good job of adjusting their layout changes once released to at least give us some semblance of what we want.
I like the update made by Facebook with its pages. The good thing with this update is it’s more organized than before. However, I have one problem with the picture. I don’t think all pics could be seen clear by others. It seems like the pic I uploaded was stretched out.
Why does everybody hate this timeline thing? I love facebook timeline. It’s awesome and it manages everyshit tagger and manage everything i personally like it.
At first, I used to like the timeline, but as time pass by, I’m starting to hate it. Yes, for newcomers, it is not user-friendly. I have my page updated to timeline by following a link to the timeline page, then suddenly my page transformed into the timeline version. It’s like I was forced to update my facebook by simply following the link. This is a huge advantage to take over for big companies. Facebook has turned into a free worldwide advertising site.
I like the facebook timeline feature a lot. It makes it so easy for me to track the events and everyday I do, and makes the interface cooler.
I haven’t change to timeline yet. I really don’t like it, as I have observed to other timeline page because of the too many objects in the page which made me confuse. I’m looking for something I need to look at and it’s really hard to search for it even though there are date there to click. I like the old one than the new one because it’s simple and easy to navigate. The only advantage of timeline is that it can easy track the events and activity with that calendar-like navigation tool but overall it’s unsatisfying.
It’s been a long time since timeline arrived in our profiles yet, there are many people that are not willing to adapt it. Since, facebook also evolves and there are many years passed by developers are innovating. They are developing the accessibility of a profile to easily use it. Which is an advantage, there are also things they need to consider like the characteristics of being user-friendly pages because audience is the main factor of their application.
The early result that i have noticed after the new update about timeline on Facebook. The real great result on this is that all users must follow and get use to all of the updates that’s happening on Facebook.