Monday, May 21, 2012

3 Benefits of The New Facebook Timeline To Your Business

As with anything launched for the first time, initially, there were unfavorable reactions to the new Facebook Timeline pages. Your attention is focused on 2 columns instead of one, photos are humongous -showing every fine line and eye bag, and every time any friend comments on your photo or shout out, your private photo or post appears on the newsfeed of anybody who is "a friend of a friend." It sure looks like timeline does need some sprucing up, especially where privacy issues are concerned.

But for business owners, Timeline may be heaven-sent. It offers some features which push a business' products more, and enables owners to get immediate feedback.

Below are some of the new features of Timeline which will be really beneficial to your business.

It offers popularity insights and tools. The new timeline now enables page administrators to gauge how successful a post is - within minutes of posting! Gone are the days when you need to wait several days to see how well you have been performing, and how many people you have reached. There is now real-time feedback, showing you which posts are working, and which ones are not. Facebook has also introduced new metrics that further help you determine how effective your facebook marketing strategies are:

"People Are Talking About Engagement" - This is the total number of fans/visitors who have engaged within your age.

"Friends of Fans" - The number of people who have come across your postings, but are not yet fans of your page. This is your potential market. Through this, you are also able to keep track of your growing or shrinking fan base - and be able to do something about it before it is too late.

"Reach" - The total number of people who have seen the content you posted. Of course this does not indicate whether they truly read your content, but it is nevertheless useful because you now know how potentially successful you can be.

"Virally" - The percentage based on the number of people who saw a post from your page, and have decided to "talk about it." It may mean re-posts of a part of your content or sharing of your entire content in a variety of other pages.

Better advertisement potential for business pages. The new lay-out allows fans to see the business' details at the top part of the page. No more searching for the "contact us" tab. Because of the new lay-out focusing on photos, companies/businesses are also more able to display pictures to tickle viewers' curiosity. Here are some more advertising avenues on the new timeline:

Cover photos - Timeline allows page owners to use their company logos, brands, image models or management team as cover photo - something similar to a website banner photo. This gives visitors a clear grasp of your branding, and who the people behind the company are.

Profile photo - Aside from the huge cover photo, you have a secondary 2inches x 2inches profile photo where you can put your company logo. By putting your logo as profile picture, all the comments you make on other pages will be "stamped" with your company/brand name, thus increasing top-of-mind recognition.

Highlighting of certain posts. The more important posts as determined by the page owner can now be emphasized via "pinning" - or preferred posting - showing it in bigger fonts, occupying both columns of the fb page. This saves readers the effort of backtracking through your entire page to look for a good post they once came across. This also means that photo size of pictures posted can be significantly increased - thus opening the post for a highlighted appreciation by all of the senses. This is especially important if you need to display pictures of products, or want to induce the "need" for your items by posting, for example, really mouth-watering pictures of a new dish your restaurant is introducing.

So, do the pros of Timeline far outweigh its cons? It sure does! Eventually, the cons will all be ironed out with the even-newer addition of privacy features, thus eliminating the main problem with Timeline.


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Connecting Women In Business helps women business owners generate more leads, clients and increase profits with more networking, business insights, tips and tricks on marketing, growth, business and accountability strategies. We invite you to get your free social media tactics ebook when you visit http://www.connectingwomeninbusiness.com.au


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