Our blog, D Brief, shares succint expert advice, trends, tips, and ideas for marketing communications tactics—focusing on print, Web, social media, and promotional products—from a corporate visual identity perspective. We welcome your thoughts so we can learn from each other.

New Facebook Timeline for Pages: Features and tips

The NEW Facebook Timeline for Pages, installed March 31, 2012, provides a medium to communicate with your clients and prospects that “LIKE” your page or become a “FAN.”

New Features

Branding – Add a unique cover photo and showcase your most important news to the top of your Page.
Larger Stories, Milestones, and Timeline – Posts display larger photos and milestones that can include a date and other content.
Highlights – Pin a new post to the top of your Page each week so fans notice what’s important. This allows you to keep a story at the top of a Page for up to seven days.
Friend Activity – People who visit your Page have a more personalized experience because they see how their friends have interacted with you.
Admin Panel – As an administrator, see and respond to your recent activity and private messages from the top of your Page.
Tracking – Access a log of your Page activity to track performance, including tools to highlight, hide, or delete posts and change the date of a post.

Recent FAQs

Q: How do I invite friends to my Page?

A: Before Timeline, there was an obvious way to invite friends to ‘like’ your company page. For those with existing pages, you may notice that the invitation feature has been moved or changed. You can still invite friends to “like” your business page. Go to the page, but do not select “Use Facebook as Page.” Make sure the admin panel is open and click “Build Audience” next to the word “Manage.” A menu drop down will appear with the option to “Invite Friends.”

Q: How do I get a custom link for my Page?

A: Here’s another new change: At one time if a company page had over 25 “LIKES,” you could select a new name for the page and a direct link (custom URL) such as http://www.Facebook.com/DMediaWeb. Now Facebook has the requirement at 100 LIKES. However, recently we created a new page for a client and there was an option to set the direct link in the creation process. Sorry, existing Facebook accounts: you’ll have to work to get at least 100 LIKES before you can do this. But that’s OK, because you should want to get as many LIKES as you can anyway!

Q: What’s the best way to get people involved with my Page?

A: Share updates, photos, links, questions and other content on your Page regularly. Post a few times each week so your LIKES will see your stories.