Today, Facebook is holding their Facebook Marketing Conference. They will be discussing some big updates to their Pages. WCG will be providing another post at the end of the conference to recap the news, but here’s what we know so far. Facebook is making some major design and layout changes to their brand Pages, which companies employ. In short, they’re instituting the Timeline feature that you may already be familiar with in your own Facebook Profile.
- Timeline: Pages will now look like Timelines
- Cover Photo: A new large banner image will occupy the top of the Page. It will be a 851×315 pixel photo to convey a brand message. See Ben & Jerry’s Page as an example. The only restrictions are that this image can NOT be promotional (include calls-to-action, coupons, deals, etc.). It can only be for branding purposes.
- Admin Panel: Page admins will now see an Admin Panel that gives them a snapshot of the Page Insights (reporting). From there, you can also request a name change for your Page.
- Activity Log: You can now more easily navigate to older posts to edit/delete them.
- Applications: These are the custom tabs that have been lined down the left side in small fashion. They will now be larger and be lined across the top. You’ll also see fewer of them at a time (only 4) with a link to see the others. This is seen as a move by Facebook to phase out the custom app tabs, since they’re looking to bring the Facebook experience onto other websites instead of bringing those websites into custom tabs.
- Pinning: Taking a cue from Pinterest, you can now pin any given post to the top of your Page to feature it, for up to 7 days.
- Direct Message: This is an important one for companies (especially pharma). Users will now be able to send a private message to the Page admins. This could be a means by which a patient could notify a pharma of an adverse event, or a customer could notify a company of a customer service issue or sensitive question.
Any companies can take advantage of these changes starting today if they choose to publish their Timeline. You can see we did this with WCG’s Testaquel Page. Please note that you have only until March 31, when the timeline will automatically be turned on, so:
- Let your internal stakeholders and agencies know of this change.
- Prepare a 851×315 pixel image to use as the Cover Photo that meets the restrictions above.
- Upload that image and Preview your new Page’s look.
- For Pharma clients, get regulatory sign-off, since it is a major change in the look.
- Publish the update by March 31, 2011, or it will be done automatically.
If you have questions, please contact WCG for counsel.
