Facebook Brand Pages – Does my brand look big in this?
At the end of March Facebook will change all current Brand pages to their new format, in keeping with their changes made to personal accounts a few months ago. The changes will be fairly large, sometimes simple to implement but not so simple to understand their impact. Will your brand page come out better for your changes or worse? Lets look at the them, starting with the current look.
Below is the current layout of our website showing where the basic parts of the current system are located.
The main feature of the old system, that we have used often with clients, is the ability to select a landing page for all visitors to see on their first visit. Unfortunately this is not possible in the new system.
I have outlined some other restrictions to the use of the new look below
- the 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 but you only have room to display 3 at a time. The apps are easily moved around so you can update the order often.
Even though there are some restrictions, there are plenty of new opportunities within the framework . We suggest that you cover the following in any new designs:-
- New Branding style
The new picture size is 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall (at maximum) and really allows you to link together current marketing messages by using relevant campaign imagery. You would have to bear in mind the restrictions on usage, details to be found here https://www.facebook.com/help?faq=+276329115767498
An example of a new facebook image in action from Tiffany
- Link to an App
When externally linking to your Facebook, you shouldn’t use the page’s direct URL (https://www.facebook.com/brandname). We suggest instead you put the link of the fan gate/default landing page. 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). your Apps will need re-styling to use the new full width, Red Bull make good use of the new space. https://www.facebook.com/redbull/app_147501331977683
- Rename and style your apps
Facebook allows you to customise the tabs. Important tabs that appear below the new header image can have any image 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 the default landing page’s image that appear in your tabs to something more clickable and eye catching like “FREE video” or “FREE guide”…etc.
- Re-organise posts
Another feature that Facebook has introduced in the pages is an ability to 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. You can also re-order the posts in your timeline and highlight others to really spell out the brand story.
- Private messages
Fans can now 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. You could use it as a customer service inbox to handle all your customer’s issues without having to go through issues live in the wall.
- Direct link to website
Available through the summary info. Feature www.devstars.co.uk in the summary and it will be displayed. I found an article linking a a large gaming company here as an example https://www.facebook.com/assassinscreed?ref=ts
Please see below for a quick snapshot of new timeline features (using our new look Facebook page)
