Adapting to the new facebook changes: with little advanced notice, the social media its old business fan pages, introducing 'facebook timeline for pages.' Here is what's different and how you can make best of the modifications.

• Author: Schelfhaudt, Carie
• Position: Chronology

THREE THINGS IN LIFE ARE CERTAIN Facebook changes.

With the recent unveiling of Facebook's latest interface in March of this year, bank marketers were challenged to devise creative ways to put the features of "Timeline for Pages" to work for their brands. The new functionality was met with mixed reviews. Some immediately recognized the benefits, while others seemed intimidated--mostly due to a lack of understanding.

For those bank marketers who want to be successful with online communities, the only real option is to embrace the new Facebook changes. To assist, this article provides an overview of the aesthetic, content, administrative and privacy changes of the new "Timeline for Pages" format.

Aesthetic changes

The most obvious and compelling aesthetic change on Timeline is the addition of the cover photo, located at the very top of the page. This space gives marketers a chance to express the unique personality of their financial institutions and set the overall tone for their Facebook presence.

At the large size of 851 x 315 pixels, the cover photo expands the full width of the page. Appropriate imagery to use here could be a photo of customer service representatives, the bank mascot, a community event, or a seasonal exterior shot of a bank branch. Just remember that the cover photo cannot include purchase or contact information, and it cannot reference Facebook features (such as "like" us) or other specific calls to action, per Facebook guidelines. In other words, the space should not be used for an advertisement.

Also, photos posted to the walls of these new Facebook pages are now restructured to fill up half of the page, giving them more prominence than before.

Timeline has additionally reworked the navigation scheme of pages, allowing for use of more graphics in custom tabs. These tabs with new tab thumbnail images are now located directly underneath the cover photo and profile picture. Tab thumbnail images should be sized at 111 x 74 pixels Also, thanks to Facebook's restructuring of the vertical scrolling view, bank marketers now have more real estate for the contents of tabs, currently 810 pixels wide versus 520 pixels in the previous version.

Another visual aspect of the new functionality is the actual timeline on the right hand side. This allows fans to jump to different years in a bank's history by dragging the computer mouse to the year of choice.

Posting/content changes

It's no secret that photos have always been the star of...