Facebook’s Timeline for Pages – What You Should Know About Cover Photos

At the end of March, 2012 Facebook will be rolling out a new design and layout for all Business Pages called Timeline.  However, you don’t have to wait, the option is now open to preview and publish the new design on your Page. Note, Facebook has a handy and helpful “tour” available to walk you through the new key changes.  The tour option should automatically pop up for you upon initiation of previewing or implementation of your new Facebook Page. So not to worry, the sky is not falling on your Page:) and Facebook will have you well advised in no time.

To become personally informed about all these new changes, I spent a day watching a live web stream of the Facebook Marketing Conference in New York where the new changes were announced last week.

One of the most powerful themes of discussion about the new Timeline design is to let your cover photo tell a story about your practice…  The cover photo will be the landscape at the top of your Facebook Page. It will be one of the first and most powerful messages you can share about your practice.  You can see what Facebook chose for their cover photo, as well as several other excellent examples on Mashable.

Note when I say let your cover photo tell your story, that means tell it mainly in pictures.  To clarify, below are updated terms Facebook has laid out regarding cover photos.

Section B of Facebook Pages Terms:   Cover

All covers are public. This means that anyone who visits your page will be able to see your cover. Covers can’t be deceptive, misleading, or infringe on anyone else’s copyright. You may not encourage people to upload your cover to their personal timelines.

Covers may not include:

i.    price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “download it on socialmusic.com”;

ii.    contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your page’s “about” section;

iii.    references to Facebook features or actions, such as “like” or “share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features; or

iv.    calls to action, such as “get it now” or “tell your friends.”

In other words, Facebook would like your cover photo to illustrate your story in pictures/photographs vs. excessive text.  

You can read all of Facebook’s updated Pages Terms here: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-ads-page-timeline-2012-03 

My recommendation is to follow Facebook’s cover photo advice.  Choose a photo that you know in your gut represents your practice well. It might be a photo of your entire team, the doctors, your beautiful practice interior, or a montage of several photos … Brainstorm with your team and choose your photo as a group.  Know that it is as easy as the click of a button to change out your cover photo.  I’m looking forward to seeing how practices express themselves and what their stories represent.  Keep me posted on your progress!