2. A creative guide to Facebook Pages: Timeline for brands Guide
A creative guide to Facebook Pages:
Timeline for brands
Facebook Pages for brands are a prime social marketing tool for building connections between your business
and the people you want to reach. Use these pages to express your brand visually with engaging features such
as a cover image, profile pictures, views, and apps.
The Timeline format for the new Facebook Pages, introduced in early 2012, offers exciting opportunities for
reaching audiences with your brand story. Early marketing research indicates that the Timeline format can help
enhance engagement and interest in your brand. A study by Simply Measured showed an average increase of
46% in engagement per post and a 14% increase in overall fan engagement for pages that have moved to the
Timeline format.*
When using the Timeline format, it’s important to have a clear understanding of how to best leverage its
components and features to optimize the brand experience on your pages. The following are some practical
insights and considerations that can help you best take advantage of this new format.
Visual content is key—especially the cover image
How people engage with Facebook content is changing. The larger images available in the Timeline format
are resulting in greater engagement with content that is visual. To drive increased engagement for your page,
you need to post more videos and photos than ever before. You might even think of the Timeline as your
brand’s “scrapbook.”
An eye-tracking study commissioned by Mashable with EyeTrackShop†
found that in the Timeline format, cover
images are by far the star attraction. Viewers always look at them first, and the majority spend the most time
there. The study also found that among cover images, those that have faces attract more attention than those
that don’t.
“The new Facebook Timeline limits the effective branding space, and the top portion of the page must be
effectively utilized,” suggest the study’s authors. Understanding this shift can help you best optimize how your
information is presented on the page.
* Mashable Business. Facebook Timeline Provides 46% Lift in Brand Page Engagement. March 27, 2012 |
http://mashable.com/2012/03/27/facebook-timeline-brands-engagement.
† Mashable Business. . Facebook Timeline Changed the Way We See Brand Pages; Here’s How. Mashable Business, April 30, 2012 |
http://mashable.com/2012/04/30/facebook-timeline-eyetrack-study.
Contents
1: Visual content is
key—especially the
cover image
2: Primary elements of
the Timeline
3: Different approaches
for different goals and
needs
12: Types of posts for
your Timeline
12: The tools you need
3. 2
A creative guide to Facebook Pages: Timeline for brands Guide
Primary elements of the Timeline
Cover image
This is the first thing people see when
they visit your page. In the Mashable
study, 100% of viewers looked at the
cover image—and they looked at it first.
Obviously, this is your prime real estate.
Choose a unique photo or illustration
(851 x 315 pixels) that supports your
brand message and don’t hesitate to
change it frequently. Fans have reported
that they check back to a page more
often when they know it is regularly
updated. Examples of content you
might use for this space include a
popular menu item, album artwork, or a
picture of people using your product.
Profile picture
The profile picture represents your page
on other parts of Facebook: in ads,
sponsored stories, and the news feed.
Choose a picture that clearly represents
your business, such as a logo. Use a
high-quality image that scales well from
180 x 180 pixels to 32 x 32 pixels.
Views and apps
These photos and custom apps appear at
the top of your Page. You can easily
change the images representing your
apps by going to the Manage drop-down
menu in the Facebook Admin panel.
Pinned posts
You can anchor the most important
story of the week to the top of your
Page for up to seven days. Refresh the
pinned post regularly to align with
timely events, marketing campaigns,
and key messages.
Larger stories
The Simply Measured research
showed that larger imagery helps
drive increased engagement in the
Timeline format. Use visuals as a way
to draw readers to key photos, videos,
and linked stories.
Highlighted posts
To make an images or video really
stand out, highlight it by clicking the star
in the upper right corner of the post. This
causes it to display at full page width.
See page 14 for example.
4. 3
A creative guide to Facebook Pages: Timeline for brands Guide
Different approaches for different goals and needs
When planning your Timeline content, be clear about your business and marketing objectives for the page.
Then determine the most effective approach for meeting those goals. And remember, because you can change
your cover image and other Timeline elements easily, you have the flexibility to support different marketing
goals at different times as well as to make adjustments whenever you like.
Based on best practices and preliminary user feedback, Adobe has identified nine distinct approaches that
align across various goals for successful Timeline pages. The following examples from company Facebook
Pages that span a variety of industries illustrate these different approaches.
Core Brand Goal: Brand
You can create an emotional connection with your customers through imagery that powerfully represents your
brand. For example, Red Bull’s cover image conveys energy, speed, and power, while Coke’s cover image
showcases brand colors and shapes to evoke the feeling of the brand.
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A creative guide to Facebook Pages: Timeline for brands Guide
Innovative Goal: Brand or Campaign
The cover image is a great opportunity to become playful with other visual elements on the page. This Fanta
page uses a profile picture that cleverly integrates with the cover image. This Smirnoff page creates a visual
canvas in which the profile picture interacts with the cover photo. When these key visual components are
aligned, viewers’ eyes are more likely to broadly scan the entire page.
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A creative guide to Facebook Pages: Timeline for brands Guide
Customer Relationship Goal: Brand
Facebook is a great medium for paying tribute to your customers and expressing appreciation for them. Doing
so helps humanize your brand. Dove uses their cover image to showcase real customers using Dove products,
and Nike created an aspirational pinboard of athletes who use Nike’s products.
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A creative guide to Facebook Pages: Timeline for brands Guide
Humanize Goal: Brand
Showcasing employees in your cover image can help create an authentic connection between viewers and
your brand, showing the humans behind the product. Ford brings this to life by actually having their employees
embody the company logo. Starbucks features employees with product images to tie the human factor to
every beverage that they serve.
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A creative guide to Facebook Pages: Timeline for brands Guide
Historical Goal: Brand
You can use the Timeline to showcase historic photos that provide context and history for your brand. These
images can help create an emotional connection and portray a personal and local touch. This Burberry page
features their first retail store, and the Ford Motor Company page shows their historic headquarters building.
This approach is especially appropriate company anniversaries and milestone celebrations.
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A creative guide to Facebook Pages: Timeline for brands Guide
Product Goal: Brand or Campaign
The cover image is a terrific place to showcase a product up close and personal. For example, Starbucks
created a page dedicated to a specific product and it very clearly conveys the feeling of getting a frappuccino.
The Lexus page features a cover image of the futuristic Lexus 2+2 coupe LF-LC concept vehicle, while the
Timeline exemplifies the brand’s evolution and pursuit of perfection over the years.
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A creative guide to Facebook Pages: Timeline for brands Guide
Specific Campaign Goal: Campaign
Because you can easily change a cover photo at any time, it’s a great vehicle for promoting specific campaigns.
Safeway’s ‘Get out & Grill” campaign is the focus of this summertime cover image. You can also use the cover
photo to provide a visual tie-in with other social media campaign material, mirroring or visually referencing
imagery in the application thumbnails beneath it. This Old Spice example illustrates a strong visual correlation
between the thumbnails and the cover image which highlights “The Scent of Image” campaign.
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A creative guide to Facebook Pages: Timeline for brands Guide
Seasonal/Timely Goal: Brand or Campaign
The versatile nature of the cover image lends itself to conveying a sense of relevance and seasonality. Fresh and
timely images can help establish an immediate connection with your brand. This Toyota cover image conveys
happiness, speed, and springtime, while the Sears page evokes a feeling of the season.
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A creative guide to Facebook Pages: Timeline for brands Guide
Call to action Goal: Campaign
Although Facebook guidelines don’t allow explicit marketing messages or direct calls to action, you can
achieve the same result with subtle visuals while adhering to the usage guidelines. In this Livestrong page, a
viewer’s eye is guided to the Like button and their blog by a yellow ribbon and its visual alignment. Spotify
encourages listening to music by including an image of the mobile user interface for playing songs and aligns
it with the “Go to App” button.
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A creative guide to Facebook Pages: Timeline for brands Guide
Types of posts for your Timeline
The new format for Facebook Pages provides a great opportunity to tell your brand’s story through a highly
visual and organized Timeline, while still allowing brand enthusiasts to discuss and interact with your brand.
You can support these activities through a variety of elements, including milestones, pinned posts, views and
apps, highlighted posts, publishing, and direct messages. While the cover image garners initial attention, these
additional features can help flesh out your complete brand story.
Milestones
Milestones are a strong tool for highlighting important events on the Timeline in a visually compelling way. They
can give context and history to your larger brand story or create a personal and local touch. Effective milestones
include employee stories, compelling historic photos, international locations, or historically significant events.
Starbucks takes advantage of milestones with quick history notes, such as the dates when the first store was
opened and when the Starbucks card was introduced. Pottery Barn has created an infographic of their early
history and posted it by decade, leveraging the popularity of infographics within the Timeline format.
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A creative guide to Facebook Pages: Timeline for brands Guide
Pinned posts
You can choose to “pin” a post to make sure that it always appears at the top left of your Timeline page. Pinned
posts are great for highlighting timely and important posts and driving traffic to key campaigns and high-
engagement experiences. Including large, visually engaging photos and other interactive elements like videos and
stream applications can raise engagement levels even higher. You must change the pinned posts at least once
every seven days. They serve the same purpose as Default Tabs in the previous Facebook Wall format.
Views and apps
The views and apps area can play into a larger visual story when coordinated with your cover and profile
images. You can also provide links to top-priority content, highlighting items such as hot features, breaking
news, current campaigns, and helpful resources.
