Last week Facebook rolled out a new look with new capabilities for Facebook pages. Many of the changes have been requested for quite sometime. However, change is always difficult and the reaction to the change reflects that. We’ve already seen comments from people who hate it and don’t want to change. We’ve also seen comments from people who love the change.
Love it or hate it, come March 11, 2011 your page will change. So, you may as well embrace the change and get the most out of it! Actually, there are some really great things in this revamp that are great for your business.
New Layout – Facebook has changed the page layout to look more like the profile layout. The pictures across the top give you an opportunity to show what your business is doing and can include pictures of your events, your business and more.
The tabs across the top of your page have now been moved to the left. This is very helpful if you have a custom tab that has a long name. In the past the long name would be shortened so the tabs would fit across the top. Now, with the tabs on the left you can see the entire tab name!
Post View – Facebook allows admins of pages to choose between “everyone” and “page only” posts. Instead of the reverse chronological order that used to be shown, the “everyone” tab will show the posts that Facebook thinks are the most relevant. Posts that receive the most likes or comments will bubble to the top of the post. Now your most interesting posts can be showcased.
Admins can use Facebook as a page – If you have ever become a fan of another page and wanted them to know that you are another business becoming a fan, you know that it was not possible. Facebook has changed that! Now you can click on account on the top right of your page and choose to use Facebook as a page. Now when you become a fan of post a comment on another page you are viewed as your business page. This is a great way to increase your brand awareness on Facebook.
Email notifications – In the past you had to keep an eye on your Facebook page or use a 3rd party program to alert you when someone interacted with your page. Now, Facebook has given you the option of receiving email notifications when there is interaction. This is a great feature that can help you moderate your page and engage with your fans.
A couple of other changes that are very beneficial is the ability to change your business type and category. In the past, we have always cautioned people to be very careful about choosing these options because they could not be changed. Well, guess what? Now you can change them!
You also have the option of being more transparent by letting fans and visitors know who is administering the page. In the past, Facebook did not show this information so people could only guess who owned the page. Now you can show them who the faces are behind the business.
I have heard concerns about the info box under the page picture being removed. As before, if you would like people to land on your info page or a special FBML page, you can still do that. Developers will have more options with specialized landing pages with the addition of iframe capability.
Also missing is the “suggest this page to friends” option for people other than the administrator. This is a change that will hopefully drive page owners to interact more with their fans to encourage sharing of content and with other pages as well. This is still “social” media so to be successful, you have to be social!
Key take-aways:
- The Facebook page upgrade will be in effect for all pages after March 11th.
- Embrace the change. Take advantage of all the new capability.
- Facebook is a “social” network. Be sociable and be successful!
Next steps:
Download the Facebook for Business 101 Ebook from Wharton Website Design & Marketing. This ebook will walk you though creating a strong presence on Facebook that can help you to reach your target market and convert them into customers.
