How-To:Tackling Facebook Timeline

This post was originally posted by Ruth on her Blog Nice Day Designs, and was republished here to help all the team members get to grips with the few format for Facebook business pages.

Those of you who run business pages on facebook will have noticed that they are phasing in Timeline for pages. You have till the end of the month until it's mandatory, so that gives you a bit of time to figure it out and play with your page design before it goes live. At this stage I'm a bit of a business page expert, for anyone looking for tips on setting up a page I wrote this article last year on 'Facebook Pages:An Idiot Guide'. Whereas today's article is a bit more advanced for those with established pages who know the basic ins and outs already.

Firstly I cannot overestimate the amount that Facebook has helped my business, it may be time consuming but at the end of the day it's free, and it's a form of advertising that customers actively opt into and pay attention to, you just can't buy that kind of press. I've had my page for about 2 years and it has brought me lots of new customers, real and online sales, and helped me build a personal relationship with the people who buy from me. They get to put a face to my business and I get invaluable feedback, it's a win win situation.

In the past few months facebook have been making lots of little changes that at first seemed very limiting to pages, but now that they have unveiled Timeline most of it gels together very well. The most obvious difference with Timeline is the appearance, it's a much wider 'wall' with two columns instead of one. Older stories are now accessible by date from the panel on the right hand side, giving the lifespan of the page. They have added a new tool which means that you can bump up old posts by 'Pinning' them, this is done by clicking the pencil icon on the right of any post and choosing the option 'pin to top'. This brings this post to the top of your timeline on the left hand column. It's a good idea to regularly pin popular posts that reflect your page so that prospective 'likers' can gauge quickly what your page is about. Once an item is pinned it remains at the top for 7 days.

Another way to make a post more noticeable is to 'Star' it(do this by clicking the star icon on the right of any post) this makes the item double width, and much more noticeable when scrolling through older posts. It's good to punctuate the timeline with a few of the favourited posts to break up the double column layout.

When I first went onto timeline I was disgusted that landing pages were made defunct as there is no longer control over what tab a new viewer arrives on. Previously I had designed a landing page that reflected my business and brought me lots of new 'likes'. Facebook have replaced this with a cover photo, a large image that sits behind your profile picture. It is fine to use an image of one of your products in this window but to get the best results it would be better to have a text and image graphic(similar in a way to the banners on Etsy). Although be careful facebook have some rules about what text can go here, you are not allowed to point towards the like button, include sales promotions or other info that should be in the about section. The dimensions for the cover photo are 851 px wide and 315 px tall, and make your document 72 dpi.

They have also added 'Milestones' to the timeline, which act like starred posts(double width), but are designed to highlight key events in your business like awards, press etc. Your chosen event date will then be marked in your timeline. You can create these in your status bar, next to ask a question, and you can upload a photo with your description, the picture dimensions are 843 px wide and 403 px tall. This new feature can be used to great effect to give the history of a business in a dynamic way, especially for older businesses as they can mark events and trivia through the past decades. There is a lovely example here at Leo Burnett Worldwide.

Facebook have added a handy admin panel at the top so all traffic and notifications are easily available. Thank goodness the days of no notifications on business pages are over, that was a nightmare! You can monitor traffic, reach, and who is talking about your page. They have also added a private message section which is really handy rather than people having to discuss sales on your wall. During my research for this article I found out that pages can directly message their 'likers', although be careful not to abuse this and alienate your readers by spamming them. But you can only message people who have already sent a direct message to your business page, you can not start a new conversation with one of your fans. It would be a good idea to post an update letting your fans know that they can now send you a direct message, as most people don't know the mechanics behind a business page.

You should also note that the amount that your updates appear in peoples news feed has changed over the past few months, someone who interacts with your page is more likely to see your updates that people who don't. This means that you need to post more regularly, and at different points in the day. It is also advised that you post different types of things, not just talking about your business all the time. Use pictures, ask advice, questions, share finds from Pinterest etc (For more info on this large topic head over to this great article).

The magazine format of timeline has meant that facebook is becoming a much more visually based forum, so as crafters we should utilize this. Post pictures from your mobile while you are making something. While shopping for wool/materials snap a picture and ask what colour people prefer. Share helpful craft articles that you are reading online. There are lots of ways to vary your updates, just start thinking outside the box.  You'll soon start to notice your 'talking about' numbers increasing, and afterwards your likers. Try to post information that people will want to share, George Takai (Ensign Sulu from Star Trek) has a great business page where he posts loads of funny geek pictures, he gets hundreds of 'shares'  every day because his content is great.

All in all I'm pretty happy with Timeline now that I've learned all the new features. At first I hated it because it meant that I had to relearn lots of things. One frustrating thing is that they don't have an attach link function anymore in status updates which leaves an ugly pasted link at the end of the update, it seems like a pointless change. But the overall benefits outweigh any clunky problems. Knowing facebook they will come up with a whole host of new changes in another 6 months just to annoy everyone!

Helpful Articles:
Involver
The Drum: 5 ways timeline will impact business pages
CMVLive: Timeline, what's it all about?
How to get more interaction on your business page

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Idiot Guide to Facebook Business Pages

For a long time team members have been asking for an idiot guide to facebook pages. Since I manage a few of them I thought I would wave my hand in the air and volunteer. Firstly....

Why bother setting up a page?

They are a fantastic social networking tool, since I set mine up about a year ago my online and real life sales have increased exponetially . People are on facebook anyway and business pages are like an ad that they have agreed to sign up to. You can let you 'followers' know about new products, events or even how many cups of coffee you already drank today. It's a way of getting the word out there to new people about your business but also putting a personal face to it too. But you only get out of it what you put in, if you only update once a week and are not creative with your output then you are not going to see much return from it.

The difference between Business Pages and a personal account?

All businesses should set up a Page rather than a personal account for their business. I know a lot of people don't do this, but it's against facebook rules and also it annoys people who are any way facebook savvy. It's harder to build up followers with a business page, but there are reasons for doing it the right way. Being a 'friend' allows people to see the personal information of all those who are friends with you, ie access to photos, status updates, etc etc. I know I don't want any business having access to that, especially if I have things like my email address in my personal info. Whereas with a business page a person just 'likes' the pages, meaning they can see the pages updates, pics etc, but not visa versa, the business does not have access to the 'likers' info. As people are getting more and more clued into personal security online they will be less likely to be 'friends' with a business.

Do I need a personal account to set up a business page?

Yes you do. I would recommend joining facebook with your own personal name, and spend at least a week getting familiar with the site. Become friends with everyone you know as this will help you down the line when you are setting up your business page. I know lots of people who set up their personal account and their business page in the same day and they are totally confused by the whole thing. It's a bit alien at first but figure out how to use the status updates, uploading photos, and sharing links. If you get stuck go to the help section, most things are answered there.

Getting Started.....

When you feel comfortable with the site and you want to set up a page go to any existing business page, here is one, and look to the bottom left hand side and you will see 'Create a Page', click this and it will bring you to a list of choices that would best suit your business, browse through them and choose. Underneath is a text box where you type the name you want for your business page, ie. Nice Day Designs. You will then be brought through the steps of uploading a picture, sharing with friends, etc etc, all of this is fairly self explanatory. But the end of this process you will have a bare page with a profile picture. Now it's time to get crackin'!

Spreading the word:

At this initial stage you will need to depend on all those friends that you built up on your personal account. Do not be shy with your friends, request your neighbours, aquaintances, old school friends, BUT NOT STRANGERS! The more people you are friends with, the more people you will probably have liking your page, and then some of their friends etc etc. You can not request that just anyone like your page, like with a personal account, you can only 'suggest' it to the people that you are already friends with 'suggest to friends' button, this is on the right hand side. After you have suggested this to your sister, neighbour, granny and cat, you will start to see the numbers go up over a few days. (please note this function might only be available after you have gotten 25 'likers') With people who know you well you could send them a message asking them to help you network your page, by posting it on their status update. Facebook are finding

new and horrible ways to make running a business page more difficult, 'suggest to friends' used to be open to everyone but now they seem to have locked that down (which I only discovered while writing this tutorial). A way around this would be to add another administrator to your page. You can find this by going to edit page, and manage admins, then you can add anyone you are friends with. They can now control your business page and also suggest to friends. This is helpful for things like a group page like the Etsy Ireland one where it's easier to run with a few people.

Updates-Be professional but personal:

Now that you have a page and some followers you have to keep them interested and engaged or there will be no point in going through all that effort. In all the research I've done on this, they say the best approach is to be business like but with a human face. For example don't just talk about the same thing all the time, giving links to your new listings or you will soon lose all your followers. People are being nice enough to subscribe to this form of advertising from you, they don't want to be spammed. So the trick is to be personal, but not in an 'over-sharing' way, it's like talking to your posh auntie about work, ie you aren't going to talk about politics, religion or sex, and you're not going to curse, you will be pleasant instead,your best food forward. You can put a personal face to your business by talking about having to rush out to post orders, or that you're car broke down, or that you are taking a break from crafting with a coffee and cake. These kind of updates mixed in with links to treasuries

, blog post, and listings will give people a picture of what you do. Post daily if you can, about 1-4 post max. but spread them out if you are online over the day as you will hit different demographics. Also linking to other crafty arty things of interest will help with the community spirit but will also make your readers interested in what you have to say. If you are on your way to an exhibition then post a link to the event if

their is one. Or link to other etsy shops, if they have an interesting blog post, most of the time this gesture of good nature will be reciprocated.

Photos:

People love photos on facebook. Take pictures of items you've just made, supplies you just bought or your favourite shops to go supplies shopping. Also upload albums of images from your etsy shop, in the photo description copy some of you etsy description and then give a link to the item in your shop. I did this last week and I got a few sales about an hour later. Also you can include pictures of sold items and custom orders so people have some idea of what can be ordered off you. Lots of people include scanne

d in images of any press they have gotten, this helps to make you look impressive and famous!

Links:

Facebook pages really come into their own when you have everything linked together. I wrote this helpful article last year about linking your blog to your page, and also to your twitter account. I don't really go onto my twitter account that often but I have regular updates and therefore lots of views on the items in my shop because I have it linked from my page. Also don't forgot to link up your etsy shop to your page, this can be done from etsy and there will be a step by step guide. It all about making things easy for people, they don't want to have to search for your stuff, if everything is linked to each other you will have much higher visibility and hopefully traffic. Also another way to help with linking pages together is link to another page in your status updates. Have you ever noticed when the text of someones name is blue and is a link to them? Well you can do this once you are friends with them or like their page. All you do is type the @ symbol with no space and then start typing their name, you will see a drop down menu appear and just click it to choose the link. This means the update will appear on their 'wall' too, letting them know you are talking about them (in a good way!).

Promotion:

When you've gotten yourself established but you feel like you've hit a wall with new followers there are things you can do to help the profile of your page. You can host a giveaway, which we all saw was very successful on the team facebook page. It's very easy, just pick a prize, a deadline, and ask people to comment on your page, and give extra entry tickets for those that share the competition. Someone can only comment on your page if they like it, which means your numbers of followers will increase. Also try to encourage interaction on your page, ask for feedback on new products, reply to comments. Comments on other peoples pages, this is even easier since facebook recently allowed pages to comment on other business pages with their own business name rather than their personal account.

In the end I feel like I could talk about this forever, it's a big area and takes a while to figure it out. You'll get there in the end, it's taken me a year but now I have a steady following and the other day I just gave my first paid lesson in setting up a page! Without fail every week I have new customers at my stall who say they found me through facebook, so I know it's really helped my business. I hope this helps some of you out and if you have any questions just leave them in the comments section.