There are simple but effective ways for B2B brands to leverage Facebook Timeline, says Alasdair MacGregor, social media communications director at The Conversation Group
Every brand on Facebook can now use the new Timeline design. This means they must think about new ways of creating content – and commit more time and bigger budgets to that content – or else fall so far behind the competition there will be no catching up.
There are great benefits to the new features – particularly for SMEs and trade-led B2B brands – that means a greater scope to maximise impact and minimise outlay. Facebook Timeline represents the best opportunity on the social web to engage your fans with features dedicated to telling powerful stories about your brand. Engage your fans and make them feel special. The payoff is not just conversion, but peer-to-peer endorsement.
1. The cover and profile picture
The first piece of advice is to use the ‘cover’. Several brands have already switched to Timeline and chosen not to have a cover image. But the result is their pages look anaemic. If you do not have image assets to call upon, look to image libraries, such as Corbis, or why not just get all your staff together for a company photo? Remember though, Facebook terms dictate you must not use the cover to promote or advertise, or for a call-to-action – such as ‘Like us’ with a big arrow pointing down.
The profile picture is easy; this is where you can put your company logo without worrying about changing it over time like the old version of Facebook Pages.
2. Apps and pinned posts
Timeline apps are the best way to drive engagement on your Facebook page and there are lots of apps you can integrate. Whether you use apps to host competitions, B2B games, or just link to your YouTube channel or Twitter page, you should use your content and advertising to link directly to these apps rather than your Facebook Page. This is because, while you can’t ‘like’ your own cover, you can ‘like-gate’ (i.e ask people to ‘like’) app content to drive up fan numbers. If you design your app thumbnail, make it a call-to-action.
The new Pages design leaves no opportunity for default landing tabs like the old days. However, the new ‘Pinned post’ feature is the next best thing.
A pinned post makes a post appear at the top of your wall for one week giving it greater visibility (all other posts appear beneath it in chronological order). To ‘pin’ a post, click the pencil icon located at the top right-hand corner of the post, then select ‘Pin to top’. You can also use this to highlight your app content. As pinned posts only appear for a week, try to have a great visual that you change regularly to keep the post fresh.
3. Highlighted posts
Highlighted posts are a great way of adding visual brilliance to your Timeline. A highlighted post makes a particular post double the size of a standard post. To ‘highlight’ a post, simply click on the star icon at the top right-hand corner of the post. Note, however, you can’t ‘pin’ and ‘highlight’ the same post. Also be aware that highlighted posts should not be used for just text-based posts as they look awful when stretched to double-width. If you don’t have visual content, think cleverly about how to get it – don’t just steal images from other websites.
4. Milestones
Milestones are a big part of the new Facebook Pages – Facebook itself talks about content in terms of stories, and what could be better than the story of your company?
To make these work as well as they can, take the time to give each one a great image. You may need to think laterally for this, and I recommend looking at timelines on other pages to find inspiration. Just remember, you can make any picture interesting with the right story around it.
5. Messages and open graph
Once you have these in place, depending on your resources, there are some other things to consider. The first is messages. In your settings, click ‘Edit page’ and in your admin panel, select ‘Manage permissions’ – there will be an option to turn messages on and off. Messages gives fans the opportunity to send you private messages, and is great for building relationships and dealing with customer service issues. However, if you do not think your company has the resource to answer every single message, simply don’t enable messages. The expectation around these private attempts to interact will be much higher than public posts on your page.
The final extra consideration is open graph and your website. Facebook allows you to link actions taken on your company website back to Facebook, reporting on those actions in the ticker and newsfeed. If you have this enabled and your customers place an order, it can come back to Facebook as a story, for example ‘John Smith ordered an X from Your Company’.
This is close to the holy grail of social activity for brands – having customers directly or indirectly recommend you rather than you recommending yourself.
You should be excited by Facebook Timeline. At last brands can tell their own stories in a way that drives engagement and maximises the benefits social media can bring.
