Did you get a message telling you that Facebook is going to change your page design again? I'm sure you did. Many people are finding this new layout to be annoying and restricting, especially with the removal of customized landing tabs. However, I can tell you that the new look has several advantages, especially for serious individuals/companies. Let me explain.
I believe that the good thing about social media is that it's not yet abused as much as other marketing mediums. If you look at search engine marketing, you'll see that spam teams are trying their best to limit spammers from falsifying the search results, yet this is obviously not enough because of the search engine's nature (too much variables involved).
If we look at social media marketing, then we will realize that spammers don't really have a lot of room there. Some of them will spend few dollars on getting cheap fans and followers, but they eventually realize that they have been only wasting time and money.
So to summarize, social platforms have a slight different nature. If you can't be as honest and authentic as possible, then you'll never be able to get honest people who are interesting in what you're offering, and that's I think one of the reasons of Facebook changing their pages layout.
Screenshot: Facebook pages
Before we go to the benefits of this new timeline design, I need to outline some restrictions first.
- Your new Facebook page's cover image (header) can not contain any call to action or contact information. It's only meant for branding reasons. This header image should be 851*315 pixels maximum.
- The application box is now shown underneath the cover image. You're only allowed to put 3 tabs maximum, so you better choose wisely.
- The fan gate (default landing tab) that was the best converting technique the old layout had, doesn't exist anymore.
Now that we know the new restrictions the new layout has put, let us discover how to make these restrictions work best for us:
Link to specific apps
The great thing about the new Facebook pages timeline is that you can send people directly to one of your custom tabs/apps. When you link to your fanpage, don't put your page's direct URL. You should instead put the link of the fan gate/default landing page that you used to have before on your old design. Doing this will make the default landing page restriction obsolete. When you do this, try to put another call to action on your design to direct people to your page wall (that's eventually where you want them to go).
Rename your apps
The customization that Facebook allows now to our tabs is probably one of their best new features. When you have your important tabs bellow your header image, you could customize them to look like anything you want. You can use this to your advantage by putting a call to action as the name of the tab "Like This!". Another good way is to change your default landing page's image that appear in your tabs to something more clickable and eye catching like "FREE video" or "FREE webinar"...etc.
The new private messages
The other great feature that I consider one of the best is allowing your fans to send you private messages. You can leverage this by encouraging non fans to like your page in order for them to be able to send you questions so you could answer them. This might be a lot for big brands, but it won't be for those who have humble following. Another great usability of this feature is that you can use it as a customer service inbox to handle all your customer's issues without having to go through it in your wall (this is what Facebook old design was lacking).
You can pin your posts
Another feature that Facebook has introduced in their pages is that you can pin your own posts at the top of your page for an entire week. The posts that should be pinned are the ones that have shown maximum shares and likes. If you put them on the top, then you'll ensure that other new people visiting your page will see those engaging posts and interact with them as well.
Key Takeaway
Social media is really changing every second, and I know that it's very hard that we keep ourselves on its train. However, I can tell you that big corporations like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube know what they're doing. They want you to look as authentic as possible and get the most targeted audience that your brand can reach. So the next time a change comes, make sure you embrace it and not ignore it. Good luck