Almost as soon as Facebook had finished unveiling its new Timeline, marketers were abuzz about the death of Tab Applications.
I received a call earlier today from a member of our team. He wanted to know what I thought we should tell our clients, many of whom use Engage121 to develop and manage Tab applications. Are Tab applications dead? He heard the buzz.
Well, I’m not sure the buzz is correct. The death of Facebook Tab applications may be greatly exaggerated – if not premature.
So, what prompted the buzz?
Facebook’s redesign moved Tabs from a conspicuous position on the left-hand panel, readily viewable by anyone who arrives on a brand’s landing page, to almost hidden under a drop-down box on the right side of the new Page. Taken at “face” value – almost a pun there – Tabs are certainly less obvious to the user. But, I don’t think this is an effort by Facebook to kill Tab applications. That said, I also do not believe Facebook’s relocation of Tabs was unintentional.
The key to understanding what is going on here is to recognize that Facebook has made Tab applications very accessible to users through ads. As reported on “Inside Facebook”
“Advertisers can still run Facebook campaigns that drive to third-party tab applications . . . This type of ad can be used to drive traffic to promotions or commerce features within tab applications.”
Facebook is very deliberately, and carefully, redesigning the user experience to encourage marketers to pay for connecting a brand and its fans.
So, in response to the question above – are Tab applications dead? – I think the answer is probably “No.” But, applications have been monetized – by Facebook.
Just a few hours ago, the redesign for Facebook Business Pages was unveiled at fMC (Facebook Marketing Conference) in New York. This new version of Facebook showcases the timeline format and cover photo that many personal accounts have already adopted. This latest format will allow you to build more “brand centric” business pages with a full image across the top and a more prevalent brand icon position.
The transition period for the new Facebook Business Page will happen over the next 30 days, with a total changeover occurring on March 30th. Engage121 is committed to ensuring that your business on Facebook is unimpeded by this change — that it only enhances your Facebook efforts. We have carefully reviewed the changes and your workflow will not be affected whatsoever. We do, however, strongly recommend you review and update your profile to take advantage of the new features to present your brand properly.
As always, if you have any questions regarding this new enhancement, please feel free to call your customer experience representative.
Below is a video and screenshots highlighting the features that will be available to business pages with the new Timeline design, such as a Cover Photo, new placement of your apps, and private messaging from your Fans.
You can see all of these features by visiting your Business Page and clicking “Preview” in the box at the top of your Page. In the next screen you will see “Welcome to Your Page Preview,” here you can eitherPublish Now and instantly change your Business Page to the Timeline design, click Start Tour to see the new features outlined, or Help to learn more.
I will walk you through the Tour now using my own Business Page.
This is what you should see when you visit your Facebook Business Page today if you are the admin.
By clicking Preview you will see the next screenshot.
By clicking Start Tour you will be introduced to the new features and design in Timeline.
As with personal profiles you will now be able to add a Cover Photo to your business Page. This is a great way to catch the attention of your community. I would recommend changing your Cover Photo often to highlight promotions or offers you have available.
There is no longer a landing tab for your page so non-fans will immediately see your Cover Photo, Profile Picture and 4 apps. Your Cover Photo is now the main way to tell a viewer about your company, use a photo that best represents what you do. The optimal size for a Cover Photo is 850 pixels x 315 pixels wide.
Make sure not to include any contact info, calls to action or about information on your Cover Photo, it is against Facebook’s Terms of Service, below.
You may need to change your profile picture if the current sizing does not fit the new design. Make sure that you are using a high resolution, high quality image that represents your company well. The boxshowing your #of likes will now rotate depending on who is viewing your page. If someone visits your page and some of their friends like your Page they will see their friends show first in the like box.
“Photos, likes and apps are now at the top of your Page. Photos show in the first spot, but you can change the order of everything else so people see what matters most. You can show a maximum number of 12 apps, so make sure to put your most important ones first.”
*I will recommend that you go through your apps to make sure they are all working, any apps that are no longer applicable I would remove. The prominence of your apps is now very important since there is no longer a landing tab, 4 apps will be all that is visible on the timeline so make your most important and engaging apps past of the first 4.
“Hover over a story and click on the star ( star icon ) to make it wider, or on the pencil ( pencil icon ) to pin it to the top of your Page, hide or delete it entirely.”
*Since Timeline shows all of your history, dating back to when you first created your Page, or started your company if you choose, I would suggest reviewing all of your posts and images to make sure they still represent your brand correctly. If you would like to hide them you can do so by clicking the Pencil Icon as mentioned above. You can also pin posts and they will be placed at the top of your timeline and it will stay at the top until you pin something else. This would be great if you launched a new product and your post contained a link to a video demoing how to use this new product.
“Keep track of your activity on your Page from the admin panel. Respond when people write on your Page timeline, and view your latest insights.”
*You will now see your Admin panel on your wall and you will now be able to make changes to your information and see your page insights in your timeline (wall), you no longer have to click “edit page” in the upper right and go to a new screen.
“Now people can contact you privately using messages. Notifications about new messages will appear right in your admin panel.”
*It will be interesting to see how this feature rolls out. For large brands, such as Starbucks, monitoring these private messages could become overwhelming and end up being one person’s entire job. It will make reaching out to your top fans easier, but they must message you first to open the line of communication.
That is the tour of the new Timeline for Business Pages. I am excited to see what brands decide to feature as their Cover Photo. I do think branding this design will be very helpful to market your business. Timeline will now show all of your history; Events, Promotions, Fan interaction, Tagging, Videos and Images all in ONE place. A person will be able to get a great sense of your company just by scrolling down your Timeline. On that note, make sure your page is the “Best of the Best” at all times and you are always wearing your Top Hat!
You can download a PDF from Facebook to see more highlights here. There are also many helpful articles outlining the new features and changes.
Key Changes:
*There is no longer a landing tab for Non-Fans, they will automatically be directed to your Timeline (wall). This places a HUGE importance on the Cover Photo, and the ordering of your apps in the new panel. This will now be the only way people will be introduced to your brand.
*Users will initially only see posts or interactions on the page from their friends, alongside posts from the page, unless they choose to click on “Recent posts by others.”
I watched the LIVE stream from the fMC conference today that Facebook hosted, it was exclusively for Marketers. Here are a few new, very exciting features that will soon be available to Pages.
Reach generator: Will help you make sure your fans see your stories. You will be able to take one of your posts every day and move it to the Facebook home page. The Reach Generator is meant to reach 75% of your fans on a daily basis, which will result in more engagement, more comments and your Fans telling small stories on top of your stories. Ben & Jerry’s reached 98% more of their fans using the Reach Generator for one of their campaigns.
Premium Facebok: It is the new way to distribute your content. You start with the page post, then the post goes to the right hand side of the Facebook homepage. TODAY when you tell stories and communicate the story to who you are connected to, that story with premium Facebook will be eligible for distribution in the Facebook newsfeed. This will also be available on Desktops & Mobile devices.
Facebook Offers: Publishing the offer as a story, then it will go on the right hand side of the Facebook home page, and it can be in the newsfeed. Remember this is mobile friendly. Macy’s published a Facebook Offer in their newsfeed and since it is available on a mobile device, it gained them huge rewards in sales.
Reminder: If you would like to drive traffic to your website Facebook is now offering a reminder to your community to your website when they log out of Faceboook. 1-800-FLOWERS used this feature and it drove sales on their website.
Once you had read over all of the Timeline features and you have decided what photo to use for your Cover Photo, read through all of your old posts, featured a post and highlighted a few key posts then you can hit PUBLISH at the top of your page. This is what our new Timeline page looks like:
Will you be Publishing now or waiting until March 30th?
“Photos, likes and apps are now at the top of your Page. Photos show in the first spot, but you can change the order of everything else so people see what matters most. You can show a maximum number of 12 apps, so make sure to put your most important ones first.”
