Facebook Timeline is going to become mandatory as of March 30th, 2012. If you have a Facebook page as a business or a brand, it’s really time to have a plan in place for the transition.
Let’s get this out of the way – I know there are people who feel violently opposed to the Timeline. In all honesty, I have not heard or read anything so far that makes me see it as anything more than a layout difference. You can still control who sees your past posts, and still opt to share minimally. What you did in 1983 doesn’t become public knowledge unless you choose to put it on FB. Well, or if a ‘friend’ does and tags you – but you can untag or unfriend anyway! I am not a fan of all things Facebook and have enough issues with the company. But this Timeline switch is not one of them!
This post is really about how brands can use timeline effectively. At the Facebook f8 conference, when introducing the new feature, Zuckerberg said, “Timeline is the story of your life.” And this is the crux of the idea for brands and their Facebook pages also. Use the Timeline to share your story with your fans and followers. Here’s a chance to help them engage with your organization, to learn more about how you got to be where you are today.
So, I have been researching to share 5 great Facebook Timeline users who have got this story-telling down pat and here they are:
The New York Times http://www.facebook.com/nytimes
NYT has the history to make the most of the new format, and they have used it well! What an interesting perspective of history and journalism.
FC Barcelona https://www.facebook.com/fcbarcelona
FC Barcelona has shown that history does not have to mean political moments alone – it is a pleasure to get these glimpses of the history of this football institution.
Coca-Cola https://www.facebook.com/cocacola
Coca-Cola has used these snippets of customer memories in much of their historical moments; it works well to make the whole story seem like personal reminiscences.
Survival International http://www.facebook.com/survival
Non-profits are taking to the Timeline slowly but there are some great examples and I like Survival International for going beyond the point they joined Facebook. An organization with a longer history has no reason to make their starting point 2009! Heather Mansfield of Non Profit Tech 2.0: A Social Media Guide for Non-Profits has a great post on 11 Non-Profits who have embraced the Timeline with great cover photos.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show https://www.facebook.com/ellentv
I added The Ellen DeGeneres Show for a couple of different reasons. I wanted to see how someone without a very long history was handling the Timeline and I wanted to also find how a celebrity was working with this change. (It was surprising to see that many of the big name celebrity brands have not yet made the switch to the Timeline.) I think the fact that this show has always been good about using photos as part of their updates is working well right now. It is fun to scroll down and find a lot of colorful images.
My takeaways from these brands:
- When you have a history, flaunt it!
- Try and incorporate photos or images where possible when updating your Timeline.
- If your story involves other people, consumers or clients, find creative ways to integrate that into the narrative.
- The Timeline history does not have to be momentous; it’s a place to celebrate the small milestones as well.
- Have fun with it!
Now to see how much of all this I can incorporate in my much-neglected Facebook page!
Related articles
- 3 Reasons Brands Should Embrace the New Facebook Timeline (dreamgrow.com)
- Facebook Timeline for Brands: It’s Crunch Time (hodgesblog.com)
Stringing Words Together 
Timeline is a lot more visual, which I like. I love the cover photo. As for documenting your life history? I’m still unsure. However, it’s a great way for consumers to learn more about a product. Companies should be using the timeline feature to their advantage!
Summer in the City, yeah, I too love the impact of the cover photo. And the visual possibilities of the Timeline. I am thinking more of brands telling their stories than personal stories because I do have HUGE concerns about privacy and Facebook.
Thanks for stopping by.:-)
I absolutely hate the timeline.. If I want a magazine I’ll buy one !! Luddite or what!
Hellen, :-)! It all depends on how we use FB really – but given your spectacular photos I’d have thought you’d like the new emphasis on the visuals.
As a personal profile page, I have a luke warm feeling about the change. For businesses, brands or non-profits, I believe it can be an interesting format.
but facebook for me is a way to keep contact with friends I have all over the place. I have blogs for the visual stuff. I find the timeline rather confusing when I’m looking for information.. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.. well I have no choice!!
I think this feeling of having no choice is the worst thing about the switch. But, as you said, we’ll get used to it. FB has made us get used to a lot of changes!
yes indeed.. that is so true!
However, if you are a person, then don’t put your life story on facebook!
Every time you ad something into your timeline, e.g. a photo, it shows up in everybody’s* news feed! So unless you want to spam all your friends’ newsfeed with your baby photos and primary school group class photos, don’t add them in there!
A FB friend of mine had good reasons to add all his impressive achievements & creative projects into his time line as a sort of informal chronological resume/ life story. That clogged up his friends’ news feed with HIM all over the place for several days… He stuck it out but was a bit embarrassed and had to cop lots of jokes in comments on his images, news stories e.t.c.
*everybody in your facebook network, that is…
It is typical for facebook to prioritise sharing / unintentional spamming over privacy …
Apart from that I like Timeline. I just don’t dare to add new things into old years after I saw what happened to my friend.
Interesting point, Mados. I wonder how it works when an existing entity adds information to the Timeline – I wasn’t affected by the New York Times’ enhancements, but I’d like to know exactly how this works. More stuff to research.:-)
Interesting points about the timeline, and well thought out. (Excuse the horrible grammar.) My challenge is less with the personal and more with the business side of the new timeline. It’s the opposite of your concerns. My feeling on a personal level is that if I don’t want people to know anymore than they already can by an internet search, I don’t post it. And I CHOOSE to spend time enhancing my page and communicating with others. I have plenty of beautiful pictures, ideas to add, etc. to the personal.
The trouble is that my business has far fewer images that we could use that are more personal. Our business is very much about us and our people, and I just don’t walk around with a camera. As far as our clients, I have NDAs signed that would ever preclude my putting a picture up. Of course I can put a pretty scenery, but how’s that necessarily about my company and brand? And the images that I’ve chosen, for example, for my website, I have already paid for handsomely, thank you. Pinterest may be an option, but who wants to drop everything for a company FB page redesign this week? Most of us have real work to do:)
It is what it is, but I strongly dislike having to do what constitutes a mini web re-design right now because FB feels like being cute and changing something else. Since they are not paying my consulting fee, I find it intrusive to be told to change because they say so. It’s typical of them and their lack of awareness of the real business world. Or maybe they don’t care. Perhaps a staff that’s more than a bit ADHD?-:)
The good/bad news is that findings are that FB is not nearly as valuable as a business tool as many like to promote. It seems fine from a marketing perspective, particularly for B2C, at least in terms of SEO, but real business–sales–that can be tied to FB pages or presence is just not there, esp. from a B2B angle.
I’ll need to talk to you for some ideas, since clearly you are much more charitable in your assessment than I am. Do I sound a bit stressed???-:)
Virginia, the lack of choice is the real kicker I think, and that is making all of us feel manipulated. So I do understand the stress. And it is time away from paying work, but we have got this tiger by the tail now….:-).
I do know what you mean about not all businesses having a need for a more more visual FB page, being myself in the business of words and all! But I think we have spent enough time on Web 2.0 to know that images are a big part of what makes people pause and take things in – this may well be more pertinent to B2C than B2B, but it is there nevertheless.
FB page for small businesses seem hard to populate anyway unless you are running promotional deals every week! The effective way to engage seems to post related curated content – it maybe possible to bring in some visuals that way. Just a thought. We’ll talk soon and brainstorm!
Thanks for taking the time to elaborate your concerns!
I like your choice of the word manipulated. I’m wondering if FB may be the long-time loser by forcing these changes, while others take insights gained by having to do this to other sites? Just thinking aloud. I agree that visual is important. It’s more about the timing. It may be that our company page has a transition period so I can think this through more thoughtfully. Yes, we definitely need to brainstorm!
I’m giving myself a transition period too! I have switched to the Timeline but there’ll be a phase when I’ll think of it as “under construction!”
the comments here are interesting because they seem to show the conflict between FB as a marketing/media platform for businesses, v FB as a meeting place for people. As a meeting place, i find the timeline very confusing because the focus in on the individual’s page and the individual rather than “what’s up, my friend”. It’s very very confusing. As a business page, it seems ideal. Is FB mixing things up to the detriment of its various constituencies?
sorry, just another thought. Maybe it’s FB’s answer to Pinteret, by making the pages more pictoral….hmmmm.
“Detriment of various constituencies” – the darn thing is I’m not even sure that I fit into any of their constituencies.:-)
A while ago I wrote a post about how FB seems to be prompting teenagers to make choices depending on how it’ll look as a status update; maybe some adults too! The whole idea of starring in your own drama, and now they want us to let people know the back story – how I got to be who I am.
As an answer to Pinterest but why? Possibly some such misguided idea.
But I am not dismissing the Timeline because time and again I’ve been surprised by how easily, we as users, have been willing to go with the FB flow. They have re-written the nature of public discourse and the public-private separation significantly, whether we like it or not
Chitra, thanks for stopping to share your thoughts!