Facebook Timelines for Business Pages?
It looks like now we're all comfy with Facebook's timeline on our profiles they'll begin rolling it out for business pages on or around Feb 29, 2012, according to a report today in Ad Age Digital.
Don't panic, you've got a little time to work out what your new page is going to look like; they're starting with some big brand pages initially and then it will likely roll out slowly just as the Facebook Timeline for our profiles did.
According to the report, this will change the layout of your page, and I hope it will make it more useful. For example; you know how nobody really clicks on the tiny little tabs on your Facebook page? Now they'll be more useful boxes, sort of what you see on the Washington Posts' Social Reader. (below)
The new rollout may also change slightly how we "like" things on Facebook. You know how sometimes clicking "Like" feels like too strong an endorsement? We'll now have "gestures" so we can "Cheer" on somebody who's done something awesome, or maybe "Dare" somebody to play a game. Nobody seems to know exactly what this feature will entail, or how many gazillion plugins will be changed on our websites, but it's really too early to worry about it right?
You know all the great covers that people have been coming up with for their timelines on Facebook? Think of all the lovely ad space you'll have at the top of your page! Plus you'll be able to visually define the bright spots in the growth of your company and give visitors a great resource of information.
I imagine that if you create impactful moments in your timeline and link them to posts on your blog or web pages related to that event it's possible it could be great for SEO too.
We've got a little time to think about it, but you can be sure that by the time business pages get the new timelines there will be plenty of advice out there. As John Haydon said on his blog, it's not time to panic.
This could be a good thing with the result being a much more useable Facebook page for your business. For now chillax a little and start thinking about how you can use that timeline to tell the story of your business. Check out some of the mock-ups over on Mashable and let your creative site think on it a little. You've got time, and we're here to help!