Well, Facebook finally released the new Timeline as an option for Pages. Currently it is just a option, but according to Facebook, everyone’s business pages will convert to the Timeline format on March 30th.

I know when Facebook usually makes these types of changes everyone goes a little nuts, but I’m going to show you why Timeline is going to make Facebook an even greater promotional tool than ever before.

Now let’s take a look at the new fantastic features.

Branding Your Page

Brand has become a new favorite buzz word among advertisers and business owners. Just what is a brand? The American Marketing Association defines a brand as,

“Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.”

Branding your business is all about standing out from the crowd, but also to stand out in peoples thoughts — you want your brand to be memorable. When people in your area think flowers, they should instantly think of your flower shop!

Consistency is the key to branding your business. By using the same colors, logos, designs or other interesting feature on everything you can, you constantly remind your customers about your brand.

How To Use Facebook To Promote Your Brand

There are many new features of the Facebook Business Timeline that allows you to customize your page like never before.

1. Your Cover Photo

The cover photo is the very large banner that now spans the entire top portion of your Page. This is a great new feature to visually engage your visitors right from the start! Do you update your store front monthly? Now you can show it off on your Facebook Page! There are a few rules, however, Facebook says:

• This space is not meant for promotions, coupons, or advertisements.
• Your cover photo should not be primarily text-based
• You cannot infringe on anyone else’s copyright.
• Cannot contain price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
• You cannot add any sort of contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section.
• Do not use references to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
• Cover photos cannot contain calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”
• Covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading.
• You may not encourage or incentivize people to upload your cover image to their personal timelines.
• Cover images must be at least 399 pixels wide. (Tip: the bigger the better though, for clarity.)

Now, that’s a whole lot of rules, but the gist of it is, they want you to use photos or artwork only. Be creative and experiment with images your audience responds well to, such as holiday products, store fronts, delivery van photos. [Read more…]