Facebook's rollout of the new "Timeline" look and feel isn't even complete among users yet. But rumor has it in just over a week the rollout will begin the rollout to business pages.
It’s possible that small businesses won't be forced to update until April or even later, but it can never be too early to start familiarizing yourself with the new features.
If you haven't updated your own personal page to the new timeline, doing this creates a great opportunity for you to review all your account and privacy settings and get comfortable with the new layout. Getting accustomed to the changes with your personal page will certainly make it easier when they impact your business page.
Take a peek at what business timelines might look like: http://mashable.com/2011/12/15/facebook-timeline-pages-for-brands/#view_as_one_page-gallery_box2501.
These samples bring to light one notable change you should be prepared for: the cover photo - the large photo that will appear as the header of your page. First and foremost it should be high res and eye catching. I'm personally not a big fan of sign pictures, practice logos, or even staff photos. But a nice panoramic of the entire outside of your practice or a portrait of your spokes-pet (clinic cat, owners dog, etc) can be great. But save that logo for your timeline profile picture!
With timeline there are also featured "milestones" - so decide now what those are for your practice. The first will likely be the opening of the practice and from there you can choose things like "grooming service added", "new boarding facility", "new associate veterinarian", and things of that nature.
If you have landing tabs or welcome pages - stay tuned, the impact to these features isn't detailed yet but it looks like businesses will have the ability to use applications to create a more interactive experience with their fans.
One concern is that these changes might make it more difficult overall for a page to be seen in their fans' news feed, but it’s my belief that Facebook wants to create a positive experience for people and businesses and will offer various options and solutions to this issue.
Confused? Questions? Feel free to reply below.
