A Marketer’s Intro To Understanding Your Facebook Timeline by @chris_lou

How are you adjusting to the new Facebook Timeline? The more I learn about it the more I love it, especially for marketing.

This article includes 9 important features to know about your Facebook Timeline and 7 creative examples. I recently signed up for a 4 part webinar series with Facebook’s Head of Global SMB Marketing, Chris Lou [@chris_lou] and Hubspot’s VP of Marketing Jeanne Hopkins [@jeannehopkins]. If you’re interested here’s the link – they’re only one webinar in and you can watch the first one on demand, so it's not too late. 4 Steps To Achieving Business Success With Facebook

In the first webinar Chris went through 9 important parts to your Facebook Timeline – this is where your Facebook marketing begins.  Below this list are 7 creative examples of how businesses are using their Facebook Timeline – just in case you’re looking for some inspiration on what to do.

9 Important Features To Your Facebook Timeline by @christ_lou

1. Cover Image - some great creative examples are below.
2. Profile Image - branding opportunity, make sure the image you choose is recognizable by your audience.
3. Timeline - go back in history and update important dates and milestones for your business.
4. Pin - important stories to the top of your timeline.
5. Post daily - use your Timeline to engage and communicate with your audience daily.
6. Respond to personal messages - this is a new feature which is great for real time customer service.
7. Apps - below the cover image you have a row of apps, the first one is photos and after that you can customize your apps. Ive included some examples of what you can use these for below.
8. Star - highlight important posts – to expand posts the full width of the page.
9. Claim your vanity URL this is a personalized url for your Facebook Timeline. To do this go to Facebook.com/username 

I spent some time searching through Facebook to look for companies who are all using these new Timeline elements well, here are some good creative examples to inspire you.

CocaCola - great cover image that captures the essence of their brand and creative use of the customizable apps - check out their page and click on the apps "home" and "your stories" to see how they're using these apps to engage customers.

 

Hubspot - have used their cover image to communicate their product and the profile image for branding. And their apps for lead generation tools with the "try Hubspot", "events" and "ebook".

  

 

PR2002 - have used their cover image to show their team - I think this is a great idea, especially for smaller businesses to show the people behind the company.

 

Starbucks - even though Starbucks is a large company this cover image of their team works well - and their logo is internationally recognized so this works well for branding as their profile image.

 

This next image is to show you how to use the Timeline to set up historical milestones for your company.

 

 

This image is showing what happens when you "star" a post - it expands the post the width of the Timeline.

 

When you "pin" a post it puts an orange flag on the top right of the image to pin it to the top of your page.

 

If you're wondering how to do any of these tasks read my earlier article 5 Steps to Help Small Business Switch To Facebook's Timeline

What do you think of the new Facebook Timeline? Share any questions you have about Facebook Marketing and the new Timeline you'd like answered in the comments section below.

 

If you need help developing an effective Social Media Strategy let us know - we can help. Inbound Marketing Inquiry.