A look at the new Facebook Timeline
Almost all users now have the new Facebook's Timeline on their profiles, and soon business pages may have it as well.
I did a quick video overview of what is in the new Facebook profile and a few thoughts on how we might use it (or not). Overall it's very attractive and once we get used to the new look I think people are going to like it. As usual though there is going to be an adoption period and that can be tough, especially for people who were perfectly happy with the old look!
Gone are the tabs we are used to and your information is distributed on the page instead. Oddly enough the same information is accessible in several places, especially photos friends and your info section.
For example if you update your profile or cover image then it shows in the header section as well as lower in your timeline and again in the photos section.
Now that everything is on the home page it gets pretty noisy. Seems a little redundant to me but who knows, I guess we're gonna get used to it? Or maybe it's so you can pick your favorite view and hide the rest? Still, the photo and friends browsers are much easier to navigate and visually engaging.
It's possible to hide photos from others by just clicking an X to hide the image. I think business people will quickly see that the new "cover" graphic can be a whole lot more than a picture of the family trip to the Rockies, it's ready to tell the world all about your business like a big ol' billboard. Please resist this temptation lest all your friends shun you.
Business will also see the value of running social ads based on the piles and piles of demographic and personal information they'll be collecting and the filtering they'll be able to do to target social ads to you, your friends and the friends of your friends' friends. This will be great for businesses wanting to leverage the social graph, but could soon become annoying for users.
The most important thing about the timeline for all users, business or personal, is to look at it from a visitor's standpoint and check your security preferences. If something you don't want the world to see is showing up in your timeline, set your preferences to hide it from public view or delete it altogether.
On the other hand, this could be leveraged to your benefit. Wbat are your most proud moments you want the world to know about? Shout 'em out and make your timeline yours.
Want to get more specific training on how to use social media for your buisiness? Check out the Social media training for business page.