Facebook Timeline: what it means for you brand’s Fan Page and reputation
Posted by Adriana Tayraco on Fri, Sep 23, 2011
Yesterday’s announcement at the F8 conference unveiled Facebook’s latest attempt to reinvent itself. They introduced something called the Timeline – “it is how you can tell the whole story of your life on a single page”. With this introduction, we are presented with a vertical summary of your entire (Facebook) life. All of your posts, comments, tags, photos, check-ins and Likes are displayed on this Timeline and events are organized monthly and eventually yearly.
The old Facebook profile would show a list of your “Likes” under your Info tab. This will be no longer the case as these actions will be showcased on your Timeline. It will also show on the ticker – a fast-moving live set of updates of everything your friends do. After every month; however, Facebook ads a recap of your monthly activity and your “likes” are shown all under one box - as an example, the picture below shows my “likes” for the month of August.
How do these changes affect your brand exposure?
If you already have a Fan page, you know that most brands rely on friend’s recommendations to increase fan base. Before, a “like” could get buried under more recent updates and be ignored by friends and even by the user. Not anymore. Scrolling through Timeline immediately showcases ALL activity; if the user commented on your Fan Page, it will be forever displayed on their timeline – giving brands a perfect opportunity to cash in on brand awareness. Under the same light, what a customer says about – good or bad - you will also be saved forever.
We are moving towards a more “transparent” form of online advertising. Companies now have little to no chance of hiding their wrongdoings in order to protect their online reputation. It is not farfetched to think that Facebook will eventually extend their Timeline to Fan Pages; this will “expose” brands even further and make transparency the norm. Social Media monitoring and Reputation Management are once again at the frontlines of Brand Protection.
Do not get caught unprepared, the best way to protect you company is to be proactive and preventive.
October 4, 2011 | UPDATE
Facebook has announced a new set of metrics for Fan Pages. They are to be called "People Talking About" and will measure customers' interaction with your brand. You can read all about it here.
We want to hear from you!
Did you watch the F8 conference? Do you think these changes will affect how you present your brand on Facebook?