Facebook has unveiled last week in a note a new design for Facebook pages. Their look will be very similar to that of individual pages, but a few changes could be very beneficial to your business. Let’s have a look at the main changes that will take place on March 10th.
1. Photos
The 5 most recent images uploaded on your Facebook page will appear in a horizontal strip, a design that was already adopted for individual profiles. If pictures are part of your business, you could show a few snapshots of your creations. If you have a competition or a promotion running, this can be a good way to remind your customers. Or you could even use this space in a creative manner to welcome your current and prospective customers on your Facebook page by creating a customised message. Choose carefully what images you want to be shown, as this will be one of the first things your customers will see.
Another thing to note is that the size of your profile picture will also be changing: the new size is 180×540 (versus 200×600). The height cannot be more than 3 times the width, so keep that in mind before making any changes.
2. Navigation
The navigation is also changing as the tabs at the top of the page are replaced by a menu on the left hand-side below your picture. Only 6 tabs will be visible to your fans and the rest will be shown if they click on “more”. This can be a good thing for your page, as it will force you to decide which tabs are more important than others.
Facebook has also decided to get rid of FBML and will be using iFrames from now on. Because they are quick easy to upload, this will be very useful for short-term campaigns, events and promotions.
Another thing worth noting is that the size of the tabs seems to have changed, passing from 520 to 493.
3. Posts
The wall posts can now be viewed from two angles: as the page owner (in the example above as “PC World India”) or as the top posts from “Everyone”. The “top posts” is a new option that shows the most relevant posts according to Facebook’s algorithm. For example, a top post will be one that has received a lot of likes or comments. The problem with this new option is that you lose the chronological order of posts so it can be hard to detect new posts.
Moreover, if you receive a negative comment and that it receives a lot of comments or likes, it could appear as a top post and this could affect your brand image. For more control, you can set the default view as “Page posts” but this could stop your customers from engaging with your page.
4. “Use Facebook as a Page”
This is one of the major changes of the new pages. You now have the possibility to comment on other pages or profiles as a page. This is a great opportunity to increase your brand awareness as well as to grow your network. Everytime you will leave a comment on another brand’s page, it will leave a link back to your own page. Commenting on other pages or individual profiles can drive more traffic to your page, but use it wisely. If community managers think your comments are spam, you could be in trouble. Use this option as a way to build connections and start new conversations. By using Facebook as a page, you will see a newsfeed for your page, with stories about your page and the other pages and brands you like.
If you have multiple admins for your page, maybe it is worth telling everyone to be careful and to remember to switch back to their own profile after commenting as a page. You wouldn’t want your page name to be used to comment on personal matters.
5. More control
Page owners now have more control over their page. For example, there is a new function called “Moderation Blocklist”. All keywords listed in that list will not appear on your page and will be marked as spam. This is a way of pre-moderating comments and can be useful in some cases.
Another illustration of this increased control is email notifications.
Every time someone posts on your page wall, you have the possibility to get notified by email. This is a good way to be as reactive as possible and improve your brand image: customers will be pleased to see that you care about their comments.
Finally, Facebook added an option allowing fans to see who the admins are.
We can hypothesize that this new option can become a lead generation tool, as it will give a personal and more human side to Facebook pages.
Are you looking forward to the new Facebook pages? How do you think the new design will affect your business? Leave a comment below to let me know!