Owners of Facebook brand pages received a small gift for Leap Day this year, in the form of an announcement that the new Facebook brand page is coming soon. In fact, if you happen to be one of these page owners, you have probably noticed an option for “previewing” your new page. Given what a big role social media plays in online reputation management, these developments are pretty big news—but exactly what do they mean? Read on to discover the different features that the new brand page offers.
The New Facebook: Benefits for Branding?
The long and short of it is that the new Facebook offers brand page owners a chance to implement cover photos, pin posts, and communicate more directly with fans.
- The cover image is one of the biggest features of the new brand page. If you have seen the cover photos on individual Timeline pages, you know what this will look like; in fact, the cover photos for brand pages must be the same size, which is 850 x 315 pixels. This cover image is a terrific way to enhance your brand and lend your page some visual appeal, but remember what the image may not contain: price or purchase information, contact information or home page URLs, calls to actions, or calls to like/share the page.
- Your user profile picture will fit within this cover image, so you may want to adjust it in a way that provides a pleasing contrast. Also remember that, while you are given the option of centering your image, a square picture is probably going to look best.
- The new brand page layout will allow you to customize the apps that you showcase at the top of the page. Photos are, by default, the first app displayed, but you can also use this area to showcase your best, most compelling content.
- The new Timeline features of Facebook provide a variety of ways for you to customize the content that users see. You can now “expand” a post to reveal more content, pin a post to the top of your Timeline, or delete a post if you no longer thing it’s effective.
- A final feature that’s important to highlight is the new administrative panel. Here you can see new messages and recent activity all in one convenient display—a great way to evaluate the happenings on your brand page.
The New Facebook: How to Prepare
The new brand page is here; users can publish now or else wait until March 30, but either way, reputation management professionals will want to ensure that they have all the appropriate materials gathered. What you need to prepare are a good cover image; a square profile picture; a pinned post to showcase your top content; and a decision about which posts and apps you want to highlight. Remember that the new Facebook layout is a great opportunity for reputation management professionals—but you’ll want to be prepared in order to get the most out of it.
