Social Media has been all abuzz lately with talk of Facebook’s new timeline for business and the date to switch over is quickly approaching. March 30, 2012 is the day when all business pages on Facebook will be switched over to the new timeline profile. Don’t panic because we at Prime Advertising and Design have been researching and found this great article that will help any business transition into using the new timeline and hopefully answer all of your questions.

The article written by Pam Moore provides helpful insight for adapting to the new timeline profile.

Here is what to focus on:

• A cover photo, the cover photo is the first thing people will see and it makes a dynamic change to the page.  Cover photos give you the opportunity to brand your page and yourself. In the article she covers what Facebook will not allow in the cover photo – you need to make sure it is about your brand and not about selling or downloading your product or services.
• The next biggest change is also that the fan gating (having fans see a welcome/landing page if they have not liked your page) landing pages are gone . Businesses are able to use a unique URL that can link to your website and the article provides a good example. In this way you can still direct users to your landing page but will now be an app and will show up in the new app section of your page.
• The app section of the page is improved some; you have ability to edit the order of your apps and can create custom thumbnails for each app (not including photos and likes).
• The milestones feature is also a nice addition because it will allow any business to tell the history of their business. This allows each business to put in important dates, like grand openings, founding, big deals or anything else that has greatly affected the company.

Facebook timeline for business is really trying to help businesses tell their story and connect with consumers. You have the ability to customize your page to your business’s brand.

Sizes to keep in mind when updating your timeline:

• Cover photo: 851 x 315
• Profile picture: 180 x 180
• Thumbnail image for apps: 111 x 74
• Highlighted & milestone images: 843 x 403
• Images within wall posts display as 404 x 404