Facebook has announced today that it is rolling out it’s new Facebook Timeline for Brands. Since the f8 conference in September, when they announced the concept of Facebook, marketers knew that this day would come. While there are some cool features to the new Timeline, here are some reasons why you will hate the new Facebook Timeline for Brands.
Hate the New Facebook Timeline for Brands | Smaller Profile Pic
On the Facebook Fan Pages, you can create a profile pic that is 180 x 540. That’s a lot of real estate to include a logo as well as other items about your company. Well, Facebook doesn’t want you to do that. With the new Timeline update, all this company information is supposed to go in the ‘About’ section. Now, you will only have room for your logo. The reduced ability to promote your business on the smaller profile picture is one reason why you will hate the new Facebook Timeline for Brands update.
Hate the New Facebook Timeline for Brands | No Welcome Tab
Many marketers will hate the new Facebook Timeline for Brands because you can no longer direct fans who have yet to like you page to a customized ‘welcome’ tab. If you wanted to give away a special prize for new customers under the Facebook Fan Page, you could. Now, thanks to the update, you can no longer lead people to a specialized welcome tab.
Hate the New Facebook Timeline for Brands | Spacing Flaws
Another reason to hate the new Facebook Timeline for Brands is the flawed spacing and pictures structures. First, for whatever reason, the various pictures never seem to line up, and there is always a lot of gray space. This just doesn’t look right. Also, the pictures don’t seem to fit in well. Google+ has figured out; why can’t Facebook Timeline for Brands figure out how to do this?
Hate the New Facebook Timeline for Brands | Irrelevant Posts
For some reason, on the top right, there is always going to be a past post from one of your fans. The problems is that some of these posts can be months old. Why is this type of post in such a premium spot? In fact, my first reaction when seeing a fans’ post from December is that this fan page isn’t that active. Outdated, irrelevant posts is just another reason why you will hate the new Facebook Timeline for Brands.
Hate the New Facebook Timeline for Brands | No Photo Albums
If you want to post a group of photos to your Facebook Timeline for Brands, you are out of luck. While you can post individual photos, the albums go up into the ‘photo’ tab under your cover page. So if you take a lot of photos at events for your company, you have to hope that your customers will be able to find the albums instead of being able to post them on your wall. Yep, another reason you will hate the new Facebook Timeline for Brands. Ironic that a social networking site determined to lead the way in photos is doing such a poor job with photos on their site, isn’t it?
Hate the New Facebook Timeline for Brands | No Reverting
If you happen to create your new Timeline and want to revert, you cannot do it. So it’s important that you realize that your ‘welcome’ tabs goes away prior to implementing the new Timeline, because once it is implemented, you cannot revert. The inability to go back to the old format is just another reason why you will hate the new Facebook Timeline for Brands.
In conclusion, while there are some cool features to the Timeline, you will need to prepare for some of the flaws. Welcome tabs are gone, profile pictures are smaller, and you have less control of posts. For those of you who hate the new Facebook Timeline for Brands, cherish the month of March, because starting on the 30th, you will no longer have an option.
This puts a huge ding in many Facebook marketer’s strategies. Facebook is making it really difficult to do anything for businesses without spending money on their PPC ads.
Very accurate, if you cannot gain exposure from your page, then you need to use the much increased advertising space that they offer.
Nice post but key phrase density overkill.