Facebook’s New Brand Timeline Page

At today’s Leap Day Facebook Marketing Conference, Facebook announced its new “Timeline” for Brands. Lots of buzz around the Timeline, so let’s get to the major changes and what it means to you and your brand. Coca-Cola was a part of the beta group – so let’s look at their page as an example.

One of the most important take-aways here was an expected one: Fan-gated landing pages and redirects to custom tabs are gone (or will be gone on March 30). The timeline page will be the first experience for everyone.

“Cover Photo”: Your first brand experience, and users will certainly take notice. You can change this photo at any time and the cover photo cannot be promotional in any way. Some other thoughts to note:

1. No purchase info, contact info, or call to action.
2. No Hyperlinks to other websites,- No misleading promotional materials or promises. i.e. no lying
3. No Facebook actions. You can not use this photo to encourage visitors to like your page

Profile Picture is now layered above the cover photo and is an ideal location for a brand’s logo. No major changes here.

App Buttons: They look like photos, but they are essentially links to your custom apps/tabs from your old Facebook page.  You can reorder these in whatever order you see fit, just keep in mind that the new design will only display the first three apps. Choose wisely.

Posts Appear within the timeline section and just like the old wall, the timeline displays the most recent post first. Brands do have a new tool at their disposal however, and those are called Pins.  Pinning a post will cause it to stick to the very top on the timeline for a period of 7 days. This is an ideal way for a brand to showcase a particular photo or promotion. Good visibility.

Starring (not shown in the Coca-Cola photo) will double the width of a post across the page.  Brands should reserve this tool for some of the best posts.

Personal Interaction with Brand. Fans are now essentially able to direct a personal message to the brand/page admin instead of simply posting to the wall. This gives the brand yet another personal, more private way to engage with a fan or community member.

What Should I do Now?

1. Take some time to experiment with the Timeline layout, there is no substitute for simply learning and doing it.
2. Choose a brand appropriate, non-salesy image for your cover photo
3. Start prioritizing your most important apps (if you have them)- The Top 3 will be highlighted..
4. Create your timeline. If you have a company with a long history of events, start creating and highlighting “milestones” now. It may provide you with opportunities to highlight important historical events for your fans.

NOTE:
We’ve included a few examples below of some other newly created Timeline Pages to get you thinking…

https://www.facebook.com/allengerritsen
https://www.facebook.com/redbull
https://www.facebook.com/vitrue

What Do You Expect From The Content You Consume?

Fast Company blogger Francine Hardaway recently posted an entry entitled, “Marketing Emergency: Nobody’s Making Content Worth Reading.”

When the email notification hit my inbox, my initial reaction (before even reading it) was, “Hallelujah!” And after reading it, I still couldn’t agree more.

But here’s what’s interesting: Not everyone in my organization agrees with this POV. Here’s an excerpt from my email supporting Hardaway’s position…

I’ve long believed (and promoted) that content is king. But somewhere along the way that mantra seems to have deteriorated into, “Fodder is king.” We’re fast becoming a society of talkers rather than doers. Like all of you, I’m all for generating meaningful content – but I remain hopeful that we’ll keep an eye on the actionable. What true insight have we provided and what action do we want our readers to take? (Understanding that includes thinking about things differently – or considering things they may have otherwise ignored.)

Seems like a no-brainer. But it sent a few of our social gurus into a tizzy. Here’s an excerpt from one of the responses I received…

Writing meaningful, compelling content is an iterative process, and the harder we make the process, the harder it will be to create content. I think we need to have a bias for action – and yes, maybe create some content that doesn’t rock the world (and take 10 days to write). Translated another way… let’s not overthink voice, tone, structure, POV, etc. Let’s just DO IT.

My visceral reaction to this response was to deliver a Frank Reardon raspberry. Then I had another thought… why not ask our community? So here it is: What do you expect from the content that you consume?

Is it ok to simply regurgitate the thoughts of others in an effort to proliferate the information? Or are you more interested in a specific POV, including suggested action items?

Along these same lines, what’s your opinion of the Klout Score? I think that it relies too heavily on the quantitative indicators of impact (i.e., # of responses, # of shares) – data that supposedly reflects a person’s ability to influence. I’d be more interested in a qualitative impact index – one that reflects the quality of the content by allowing people to rate it based on specific criteria (including how actionable it is).

At any rate, this topic has fostered some lively internal conversations. And I’m very curious what our community thinks.

Thanks for your comments.   crk

The Evolution of Media- Creation, Delivery and Cost

Lately, we’ve been talking about the true cost of media. First, what is media, who creates it, how is it delivered? and how much should we pay for it? As we look towards 2012, there are some important decisions we need to make as marketers. Are you ready to invest in media?

What is Media?
A quick recap. It used to be well, media. Newspapers, magazines, radio and television dominated our lives. And it only went one way. Publisher to consumer. Now, it’s tweets and facebook updates, blogs and foursquare check-ins, comments and likes, ratings, and much much more. Now more than ever, every action you take online can be considered media, or as we marketers call it, a valuable piece of content that can be interacted with- and not just in one direction…

Who Creates it?
Thanks to the digital world we live in, anyone can create it. And now there are different types, right? There’s earned, owned and paid. This two year old blog post from Forrester is still relevant today.

How is it Delivered?
This is where it gets exciting, and what we as marketers should pay attention to. It’s not just the newspaper, website or email blast. It’s coming to us fast and furious where and when we want it. Try out these stats for size.

How much should we pay for it?
Newspapers have been thinking about this for years, and as digital marketers, since every morsel of digital content out there is media, we need to think carefully about the cost that goes into it.

• Earned Media: Your crowdsourced/user-generated/social media.  It doesn’t make itself. It needs constant nurturing, community building, empowerment and more. Your presence on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn and other online platforms needs dedicated resources. Who is going to do this, and how much are you willing to invest in this?
• Owned: This is your company’s content. Are you churning out curated, targeted social friendly content on a regular basis?
• Paid:  Your online advertising. Are you paying attention to ads optimized for mobile phones and tablets? Does it play well with social?

Media at Home
Pay very close attention to this. By 2014, Your internet bill will be more than your cable bill. Why pay for a cable package when you can buy your media “a la carte” with Netfliz, Amazon and Google? When Steve Job’s pet project, the Apple TV, comes out, we may not even need Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon. Just look at the facts here and here.

So, are you ready for 2012?

alluminate?

A word on our Blog’s name. alluminate is the blending of two words “All” and “Illuminate.” People are reasonably comfortable with word blends since at least 1895, when the word “Brunch” appeared in the British magazine, Hunter’s Weekly (which went belly up in 1896, possibly because British society was not yet ready for the term brunch).  Nearly a century later, Britain warmed to word blending as is evidenced by the pervasive use of terms such as chunnel, infomercial and croissandwich. (more…)