Facebook Timeline For Pages Rumored to Launch February 29th

 

When Google launched Google+ Pages late last year, the message from the search giant was clear. Google felt that the business potential to leverage social media to help facilitate all types of brand engagement had remained untapped for far too long, and to push this frontier they intended match Facebook’s own “Pages” offering (meant for use by businesses and brands).

Facebook’s activity over the past several months has been no less productive, with the launch of Timeline radically re-imagining individual user’s profiles. For those who haven’t seen the profile switch yet (this functionality recently became non-optional), Timeline is a reverse-chronological display of your history on Facebook and other important life events. Facebook profiles are now like digital scrapbooks, documenting your life in a logical, sequential manner.

Since Timeline began rolling out for individual user’s profiles, much debate has centered on whether Timelines would eventually be applied to Pages. Some felt that this only made sense, given the inherent desire to have a consistent user experience across the entire Facebook platform. Others felt that the Timeline concept wouldn’t translate as well to the very different needs and goals of businesses using social media. This debate now seems to be over , as mass speculation points towards February 29^th as the launch date for Timeline for Pages. This would coincide with the invitation only Facebook Marketing Conference, the keynote of which will be streamed live here.

The likely possibility that Pages will soon be reconceptualized as Timelines has some implications for businesses. While the precise nature and complete scope of Timelines for Pages is still unknown, operating under the assumption that they will be very similar to individual timelines, below are some pertinent issues which arise when this functionality is eventually released.

Timelines Pack a Visual Punch

Timelines use cover photos, giving brands a relatively massive new area to play with. Being conscious of this opportunity, as well as the risk of visually overwhelming your audience should be accounted for. Using cover photos for focused advertising and promotions, similar to a conventional banner advertisement is just one way brands will be able to create increased visual resonance with its audience.

Timeline Promotes Clarity, But Demands Control

If Timeline for Pages rolls out in a similar fashion as it did for individuals, increased vigilance in moderating your brand page’s privacy settings and user generated content will be necessary. Timelines gives the Facebook platform some much needed visual context and aesthetic clarity, allowing brands to present a much more complete and focused images to your audience. However, the increased ability for users to interact with brands (such as direct messaging to pages) indicates that while social engagement is becoming easier to manage, it is also becoming more involved and increasingly relevant to all functional areas in a business (even the finance departments of Fortune 500 companies are excising the benefits of social networks!). Therefore, increased investment will be necessary when managing your Facebook if the full benefits of Timeline for Pages is to be fully realized.

Timeline for Pages is a major and exciting development. Much of the information currently floating around the internet on this issue is just speculation, and the full nature of Timeline for Pages will be reported on when the functionality is (hopefully) launched at the end of the month.