Change Doesn’t Wait For You It Comes Whether You Like It Or Not, Just Ask Facebookby Tiffany Johnson
by Tiffany Johnson
There have been many changes since the last email that went out to our list.
I was headed home from church a couple of Sundays ago and as I was driving along a driver pulled right out in front of me.
It took just a split second to go from being happy as a lark on a Sunday afternoon to being completely stunned and shocked and later minus a car.
Yep, the quick accident totaled my car. I haven’t had a car payment in years and was not even thinking about another car. However, there was no time to prepare for change, I just had to act fast.
Once your car is totaled they give you just a few days to make some major decisions. You have no time to ask a million questions before making tough decisions. In other words, you must trust yourself and go with it.
When Facebook announced on February 29th that the new Timeline design for pages was coming on March 30th for all pages, there was little choice but to spring into action and find out what this would mean for pages on Facebook.
I sent the following email to our list:
Hey,
Normally I don’t pop my head in on you on Wednesdays, but hey wanted to see if you’re aware that timelines are changing for Facebook pages on March 30th. It was just announced today. This means you have from now to then to make the switch, no choices after that.
The biggest change if you’re using a reveal page or welcome page, well it’s not going to show like you think with the Timeline. New visitors will be sent directly to your page content instead.
Additionally if you’re using the five static images at the top of your page, that’s going away too. You’ll now have a cover photo and there are some restrictions like no url, no selling, no encouraging folks to like the page. This has always been the case for personal profiles.
Also, people will be able to send you direct messages from your page. You know the message button you have on your personal profile, that will be on your business page with the new Timeline. Are you ready for that? If things pick up it may be a good time to outsource your social media client care.
Anywho wanted to give you a heads up so you’d have time to re-group and re-strategize, if need be, for what’s coming, better yet what’s here.
I’m here if you need any assistance in managing all of this. We’re opening a Social Media Content Management and Client Care Division. Our Facebook page is a work in progress and you’ll find various articles of interest regarding social media and most recently the Facebook timeline.
I’d love to connect and meet you there! Here’s the link, head on over www.facebook.com/tiffanyparsonbiz
Make it SUPER FABULOUS day!
Tiffany
At the time, my plan was to continue with two Facebook pages, however that has changed as well. It’s time for us to do and act, do and act, and in between ask questions. This isn’t the time to stand on the sidelines and watch everyone else and then jump in. We have to jump in right now while we still have some choices.
Some of you asked, well what about my ‘Welcome Page’ and what about my ‘Landing Page?’
The answer: The days of forcing visitors to go to a certain page and requiring them to like your page before going to your Facebook wall is over. Everyone whether they’ve been to your page before, liked your page or not will go straight to your wall and there’s nothing we can do about it. This is the part where change doesn’t wait for us to agree, it just happens and we’re forced to adjust.
Let me show you through pictures what this change will look like for your Facebook page:
See where the tabs are now:
When you switch to the Timeline design, this is where those tabs will go:
As you can see only four will be featured at the top without someone clicking on the arrow to see the rest. This means we’ve got to make some really good decisions as to what those major four will be. Fortunately we are able to change the name and the image that shows. Previously we were able to change the names, however some applications did not allow the icon to be changed.
With the elimination of the forced landing page for new visitors, we now must change the way we’ve been engaging on our Facebook page. This means our content must be interesting enough to make folks want to return again and again, just like with our websites.
How will you make your Facebook page something of interest that people will want to come to again and again?
This question is part of the reason we decided to consolidate the old and the new Facebook page. With the new Timeline, it’s going to take more intentional engagement than ever before and to do that on two different business pages on Facebook was making me a little crazy.
I found myself trying to decide should what I’m about to say go on the Virtual Hired Hand page or the Tiffany Johnson page for the social media division. I was really clear on the content I wanted for one page, but not so clear on the other. As a result of being clear on the purpose of the new page, I was having more fun with it.
Not only that, by having two business pages it would be difficult choosing which I would link to from my personal profile. If your business page is not linked from your personal profile, you’re missing a big opportunity to get traffic to your business page. People are curious about what you do, and will click the link to see.
Also, it’s not really clear as to whether Facebook is going to continue to allow multiple business pages, the best decision in order to stay sane was to go with the new business page. I also like that it has my name as opposed to the business name. More than likely people will be looking for me as opposed to my business name. So, we’ve started fresh with the new page.
I did find it interesting that some people asked why I was changing my page and if my business name was changing.
Have you ever tried to manage more than one business page on Facebook that belonged to you? It’s a challenge and more than likely one is more focused than the other and more successful as a result.
If you have not changed your business page to the new Timeline design, I challenge you today to start exploring the preview version of your page. This will give you an idea of where everything will go. You’ll need is a Timeline cover image and then start working on the four major applications that will show at the top of your page. We’ll be tweaking our page as we go along and will be sharing the results. If this is something you do not care to take on yourself we’re here to assist.
As more information transpires, we’ll be posting the information over on our new business page at www.facebook.com/tiffanyparsonbiz
If you’re all set and ready, please share this post with your friends. See below, ‘I made it SUPER easy!’
