Running behind on the Facebook page update? A quick how-to guide for businesses
Tomorrow Facebook Pages will transition to the new layout, so a Facebook spokesperson has provided a few last minute tips and tricks to recommend to brands and businesses who have yet to make the switch.
From BA to Time Out London to O2, we’ve seen a significant percentage of businesses transition to the new Facebook Pages and successfully take advantage of the new features such as Cover Photo, Page timeline and Pinned Posts.
Below is a quick “how-to” guide, to make transitioning over to the new Pages during crunch time seamless for any brand or business:
1. Upload an Eye-Catching Cover Photo: The new Cover Photo captures the culture and essence of a brand and can showcase its products – it’s the first thing people will see when they visit a brand’s page. Time Out London’s cover photo, which is a great shot of Tower Bridge by a London photographer is great for creating a good impression of London as a city people want to explore. Brands can change it as often as they like and use it to engage fans through creative, stimulating images that will catch people’s eye.
2. Use a Clearly Branded Profile Picture: This is the best spot to use a picture that visibly identifies their business. Since the profile picture represents a brand’s Page on other parts of Facebook as a thumbnail (such as in ads or news feed), a high quality image (such as a logo) that people associate with their brand should be used.
3. Add Milestones to the Page Timeline: Businesses can now take advantage of larger photo, video and link stories to visually engage fans. To ensure fans see the best posts, posts can be featured on the timeline so fans can engage with a post past the time it’s in the news feed. Milestones can also be used to define key moments in their company’s history, allowing fans to interact with a business beyond the present. BA has created a timeline that goes back to 1919, meaning fans can learn more about BA’s history and look at how flying has evolved since the first transatlantic flight by a UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1942.
4. Pin a Post a Week: Businesses can anchor the most important story to the top of their page for up to seven days so that fans don’t miss the best content.
5. Arrange Views and Apps: A brand’s photos and custom apps will appear at the top of its Page and can be reordered at any time. Brands can also create custom thumbnails to highlight what matters most to it – whether it’s events or custom-built apps for specific products or promotions. O2 is a great example of a business that displays its custom photos and offers at the top of its Page – the O2 Just Ask and Gurus panel for example are easily accessible so people can quickly find what they need.
6. Manage Your Page: Administrators can now easily manage their Page through the Admin Panel, which gives them a high-level dashboard where they can edit content, track new activity and respond, and view Page Insights.