Top 10 To-Dos For Brands On Facebook

On Wednesday, February 29th, Facebook announced several exciting changes to the Pages platform and the rollout of Timeline for Pages that will dramatically impact how users interact with brand/business pages on both desktops and mobile devices. I tuned into the Livestream of the event in New York City to get all the details for my own clients and thought others – clients or not – could benefit from the low down.  

So, here’s my take on the Top 10 things every brand needs to do with the latest iteration of Facebook:

1. Timing: Brands/Businesses can opt to change to the Timeline view now OR wait until March 30th when all Pages will automatically be transitioned. We recommend updating to the new layout soon to begin to take advantage of the new features.  

2. Cover Photo: Similar to Timeline for profiles, brands/businesses can now upload a large image (850pixels by 315pixels) to be used as your cover photo. See Coke's Facebook Page for a great example. These photos can not include price, purchase (40% or $10 off) information, contact information (phone, email, website url, etc), "like"or "share" calls-to-action. AT&T is taking advantage of this new real estate by featuring customer photos.            

3. Default Tabs: Default tabs no longer exist, meaning you can't gate fans and drop them on specific tabs if they haven't "liked" your page yet. All users will land on your wall. From a marketers standpoint, this change could be seen as a negative one, as we no longer have the ability to default non-fans to promotional tabs. You can however still drive users to specific tabs via Facebook ads.  

4. Photos, Likes, and Apps: These are now featured in a new location, below the cover photo. The new width for tabs is 810 pixels wide. All new tabs should be designed with the new width. This is another big change to the Page layout and one users will need sometime to adapt to. Starbucks is doing a nice job using this real estate to showcase their number of "Likes," Starbucks card and location finder.  

5. Pinning Posts: Brands/businesses can now pin your favorite post to the top of your posts. This allows brands/businesses to keep their most important information at the top of their page and puts more control in their hands. Macy's has pinned a post encouraging users to upload content and previously pinned a post related to a store offer.  

6. Fan Page Messages: Users can now contact pages via messages. Messages will appear in the admin panel. Note it will be important for customer service teams to monitor and respond to these messages and a process for this communication should be defined and included in the overall customer service management.  

7. Backdating: With the launch of Timeline, brands/businesses can now backdate events/milestones that occurred in the past. This is a great feature for brand/businesses to showcase their history. The New York Times has highlighted moments from more than 160 years of history.   

8. New Admin Panel: Pages now include an admin panel at the top of the Page, providing admin features and Insights directly within the Page view. The panel can be hidden. In addition to this feature, in March new admin roles will be rolled out, providing the ability to grant users different levels of access. For example, access can be granted to only Insights data.   

9. Facebook Offers and Sponsored Stories: In addition to the Page changes, Facebook also announced changes to their ad offerings which will now allow brands/businesses to provide offers and sponsored stories directly within users' newsfeeds. This is a very powerful tool for advertisers as the newsfeed real estate is where most all Facebook activity occurs.   

10.  Reach Generator: With the launch of Reach Generator, Facebook is enabling advertisers to pay a fixed fee to guarantee that their content is seen by 75% of their fans. Typically a Page post only reaches 16% of a Page's fans, so this creates a simple way to pay for additional distribution. It does come with a hefty cost and most likely only suited for big brands and is only available through Facebook's premium managed spend account teams. Facebook says the product has delivered up to 3x ROI and reach as high as 98% of fans for clients like Ben & Jerry's.   

For even more information, Facebook itself offers a wealth of information on all the updates and you can ask us here at McMurry questions via the comment interface below. Now you've got your excuse to be on Facebook so get out there!

Director of Interactive Marketing Tina Kelly manages McMurry’s online marketing team and ensures best practice execution of online marketing tactics throughout the company. She’s developed successful strategic online marketing programs that align with client goals to achieve ROI across diverse industries and a myriad of clients.