Is Facebook Timeline for Brand Pages Launching Soon?
Editor’s note 2/29/2012– Facebook Timeline For Brand Pages has launched. Click here for details: https://blackboxsocialmedia.comwhat-are-the-top-features-of-the-new-facebook-timeline-for-brands/
In last summer’s F8 Conference, Facebook announced that it was going to launch Facebook Timeline to the world. Last month, everyone was able to convert from the old Facebook format to the new Timeline. By this spring, Facebook Timeline will be mandatory for all personal Facebook accounts.
But the big question for marketers and fans of social media marketing has been this… when will there be a Facebook Timeline version for Brand Pages, the business brand portion of Facebook?
Now it appears we finally have an answer.
According to BusinessInsider.com, Facebook is set to launch Timeline for Brand Pages imminently with a possible official announcement on Feb. 29, when the social network holds its invitation only Facebook Marketing Conference.
Another article details that a Facebook spokesperson said the following:
..we believe that consistency in both functionality and appearance increase use of Facebook. We hope to make Pages more consistent with the Timeline in the future, but we have nothing further to share at this time
The article quotes 2 un-named sources from Facebook saying that an announcement will be made letting the world know that Timeline will be coming to pages. Another source told them:
At Facebook they pushed back the launch of Timeline for brands to the end of February,” a source who has been briefed by Facebook ad sales executives told us.
Why Facebook Timeline for Brand Pages is Exciting
While we don’t have all the details, the quotes above do suggest that they want to keep the business format as similar to the current Facebook Timeline format as possible. With that being said, the biggest reason why I’m excited to see the Facebook Timeline for Brand Pages is for the cover page. Imagine all the great possibilities for branding and advertising for a business cover page on Timeline! The current 180 x 540 ribbon capabilities on Facebook Pages now give you some decent advertising potential, but to brand your own cover page would be very exciting.
Also, most posts on current Facebook Pages only last for a couple of days. With the new Facebook Timeline format, these posts should be able to last for months. This means the need for fewer quantities of posting and higher quality posting, which should also lead to more fan engagements.
10 Questions About Facebook Timeline for Brand Pages
The following are 10 very good questions that need to be answered about Facebook Timeline for Brand Pages, as brought up by hubze.com:
- What happens to our tabs/apps? Do they go away? Surely not. Too many major brands use them. But where will they be placed? Will it be image boxes like on personal Timelines? Time will tell.
- Can pages still have a landing tab? With a Like Gate?
- Will the About section be as prominent as it is now?
- What happens to the “Featured Pages” option?
- What about the “Featured Admin” option?
- How will we access insights?
- Will the photos on the page just be a block like they are on the Timeline for profiles?
- What about Like count? Where is it shown?
- Will thee be a separate “Activity feed” section like there are with personal Timelines? (iemusic you listen to, articles you read and etc with the new Open Graph apps)
- Will pages be able to Feature a post? If so this will be awesome! http://hubze.com/2012/01/breaking-news-timeline-is-coming-to-facebook-pages/
While there isn’t much information about Facebook Timeline for Brand Pages, what do you think of the concept? Is it exciting or just another Facebook update? Leave your comments below.
I am helping a horse rescue group with their new web site and their Facebook page. They have been using a Facebook personal page as their home base for many years. Even though I know converting their personal page to a fan page is absolutely necessary for a proper social media presence, it will be catastrophic because they will lose every post, comment and picture during the conversion. I have read that ALL personal pages will be converted to Timeline format on February 24th (in two days) and that Timeline for fan pages will be launched at the end of February. I really need some insider info before I proceed, and I have two questions:
My first question is, should they wait a few days to convert from a personal page to a fan page, on the off chance that the new Timeline format will retain their content?
My second question is, if they choose to let Facebook automatically convert their personal page to Timeline in a few days (without converting it to a fan page first), will the new Timeline format prevent them from converting their new personal page to a fan page in the future?
As usual, the infants that run Facebook have no technical support to call and their help pages are a complete waste of time. Can anyone help? Thanks so much!
Cloudninegirl- thank you for your question and for visiting our blog. I’m not familiar with your Facebook site, so when I answer the questions, understand that I am giving you a general rule of thumb.
First, I want to make sure that you understand that converting your personal page to Timeline is different and much less catastrophic than converting a personal page to a Facebook Fan Page. I’m not aware of anyone losing photos or posts while converting their personal page to Timeline. It’s actually quite the opposite; people get upset at seeing some of the old photos and posts reappear.
Now, I have heard nightmarish stories of people converting their personal page to a Fan Page (the business page). In fact, I don’t recommend converting personal FB to a Fan Page because of all the disaster stories from people who’ve tried doing it.
What I would recommend is keeping your personal page and creating a new, separate Fan Page, then advertising to the personal page to join the Fan Page.
You will have to start at square one with the posts, but you can always upload photos from the personal page. Again, I’m not sure how this would affect your specific site, but people will only go back so far on a Facebook Page anyways (which is a good reason for the Timeline format).
Hope this helps!
Tom
Hi Tom! Thanks so much for your suggestions. Essentially, I am looking for a way to convert their page to a fan page without losing information, but I don’t think that’s possible. For now, I’ve decided to download the current page’s data using Facebook’s backup, and then let the page automatically convert to the Timeline format tomorrow. Then, over the next couple of weeks, we can go through all the photos and documents and comments, and save everything that needs to be saved. Once it’s saved, then we can convert to the fan page and re-upload the pictures, etc. That’s the only way I think Facebook is set up to do it.