Facebook has announced yesterday that it is launching Verified Pages and Profiles, something you might know from Twitter already. Verified Pages and Profiles will help people find the authentic accounts of celebrities and other high-profile people and businesses on Facebook. Each such a Page or Profile has blue check mark (similar to Twitter's blue verified badge) beside their name on timelines, in search results or anywhere else on Facebook.
Timeline for pages may have obliterated the landing tab with the incentive to like, but fear not, there is a way you can feature fan-exclusive content on your timeline-d page.
With Timeline for Pages the marketers will loose the option to showcase custom apps since timeline does not give you the option to set a landing tab for a page. They will also loose the possibility to ask fans to like and gain access to fan-exclusive content such as vouchers or entry into a Facebook contest right on the landing tab.
On the top of that, the image that has the most impact on a user- the cover image- cannot feature any calls to action such as Like or Share. It also cannot feature any purchase or pricing information such as “get 40%off on our website today”.
The timeline layout does seem a little bit un-friendly to the online marketer. However, it might not be as bad as it seems. Information from various sources points to the fact that default landing tabs drive only 10% of the total Page app traffic and that 90% comes from published links and ads.
If you would like to still drive users on certain tabs that feature special content or custom apps, there is a way how to do that.
There are four App Icons (old speak: Tab thumbnails) featured under the cover image on your page. Make sure your significant tab is visible there. Take care when selecting the App Icon image and edit the App Icon name to communicate as effectively as possible on what the content (gain) is. For example a special coupon or your portfolio.
Every week, you can pin one story to the top of your timeline. Make this a story that will highlight the existence of this tab and the content that is located there
.
Fan and non-fan view options are stil possible for tabs however, the fan version will only releal itself after refresh.
These changes make Pages more user-orientated. Forcing Pages to focus more on story-telling and less on marketing will increase the need for skilled content managers. Facebook Page admins will need to learn more copy-writing and visual communications skills. This should be a good thing for pages and users in the long run.
Timeline for pages has arrived with a bang, getting everyone excited about the creative possibilities of the cover image and profile pic combo.Before you hit publish, make sure your cover image creative obeys the Facebook Guidelines.
There are a few things that are strictly forbidden to be featured in the cover image:
1. Any price or purchase information, such as “30% off” or “Download it from our website” or “Find in our e-shop” etc.
2. Contact information. Facebook states that this info belongs to the Page’s About section.
3. References to Facebook features and actions such as: “Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features. Although Facebook does not explicitly state this, we would avoid any visual representations of these actions too, such as the Like button.
4. Call to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”
5. Covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading and must not infringe on third parties’ intellectual property.
Not following these guidelines can get your page deleted from Facebook, so make sure that your cover doesn’t feature any of the above mentioned things.
