Partner Article

Got a Facebook Page? This is essential reading!

Facebook has just announced the biggest ever shake-up of its Pages product and will switch on this new functionality for all existing Pages on 30 March.

If you aren’t ready, your Page will look awful and you’ll be missing a major opportunity to promote your business to the millions of Facebook members.

Pages are where fans of your business or brand interact with you. It’s the place for you to share your latest deals, chat about the latest news, let people know what time you’re open, how to find you and so on.

The best way to think of it is that your Facebook Page is your business on the world’s largest website. (800 million members spending on average 23 minutes each time they visit!)

Five big changes with the New Facebook Pages

The changes are numerous, but let’s look at the key ones:

1. Look and feel. The layout is significantly different. You now have the opportunity to upload a large image, known as Your Cover Photo, which is the first thing a visitor will see when they come to your page. If you don’t upload an image, Facebook will use your existing Profile Picture which is tiny!

Be aware though that there are rules about the cover photo. You can’t put sales messages on it, web addresses, links, or requests to ‘like’ the Page. Facebook wants the cover photo to be a strong brand image, not a shop front!

2. Posts. You can now ‘pin’ a post to the top of your Page and it will stay there for seven days. Get a weekly offer on there and make sure you refresh it every week.

3. Apps and tabs. If you have photos, videos, competitions, etc, then you need to look at how Pages now shows them. They are listed just below the cover photo and they only show four of the 12 you can have. Re-order them so that your key content is on display and not hidden.

4. Welcome tabs. If you had a welcome tab before, it’s of no use now! Facebook has removed the functionality to set a default landing tab, so getting that all- important ‘like’ will be down to how good your page looks.

5. Images. You can now upload larger images with your posts and enlarge the post to twice the size. Research shows that posts with an image generate twice as many comments and ‘likes’, so make sure you use this feature.

Steal a march

So, if you have a Page, make sure it is ready for 30 March. You can see how it will look by logging into Facebook now. Go to the Page and you’ll be prompted to ‘preview’ the new look and feel. Give it a go, you can upload your Cover Photo and see what it looks like, pin a post, etc.

You can even choose to switch to the new layout before 30 March and steal a march on your competition.

You can contact Iain at iaing@mobious.net

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Iain Gibbons .