So today is the day that timeline for Pages becomes permanent and social media management platform provider, Wildfire, have released some very interesting research about how timeline has impacted the launch partner’s pages as well as a large number of other diverse pages. We've spent a bit of time distilling the main points down here for you to give you a taster as to how pages have been affected by the changes. The pages were assessed BEFORE timeline was adopted on the 29th Feb and a month after. Engagement comparisons were then made between the two periods. It's worth bearing in mind that the real acid test will be a month from today - once all pages have had the chance to adopt and adapt to timeline.

1. HOW FACEBOOK TIMELINE IS
STARTING TO IMPACT BRANDS
PAUL FABRETTI
DIGITAL DIRECTOR
BRAZEN PR
@paulfabretti

2. TIMELINE IS A GOOD THING
• In all but the top volume pages, engagement has had a
marked increase in engagement
• Pages with 10m+ fans have seen a general decline in all
engagement areas

3. TIMELINE IS A GOOD THING
The BIG takeaway:
Pure fan volume should no longer be your primary
focus when evaluating Facebook’s effectiveness
Engagement is where it’s at

4. WHAT CONTENT IS WORKING BEST?
Pre-timeline
• Status updates were the best ways to generate likes and comments, outperforming the next best post
type by 21.8% and 17% respectively
• Video posts were the best way to generate shares, outperforming the next best type of post by 69.5%
Post-timeline
• Status updates continue to generate the most likes, outperforming the next best post type by 21.1%
• Photos are marginally better than status updates at generating comments, generating more comments
by 8.3%
• Videos are now comfortably the very best way of generating shares, beating the next best post type,
photos by 90%

5. WHAT CONTENT IS WORKING BEST?
The BIG takeaway:
Timeline is clearly working best for visual media. Dig out as
much visual content as you can.
Consider also, in your new posts, how you can tie in a visual
to support the status

6. FEATURED POSTS VS PINNED POSTS
It’s pretty clear that whilst featured (full width) posts have little
impact on likes and comments, they are significantly the most
shared type of format
Photos as pinned posts are achieving significant value across likes and
shares types – but use them wisely. In many cases at the moment,
pinned posts are replacing the like gate to point people to apps so
don’t be alarmed if they generate fewer comments than the average

7. FEATURED POSTS VS PINNED POSTS
The BIG takeaway: Use featured video posts to generate the most
engagement across the board. At this stage, full-width, quality video is
a honey trap for fans – but choose your content wisely. Photos appear
to have the most significant impact as pinned posts
Consider how you might use this pinning to feature fans or new
products, and even replace status updates with a photo to maximize
engagement and shares

8. KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Fans numbers - Pure fan volume should no longer be your primary focus when evaluating
Facebook’s effectiveness. Engagement is where it’s at
2.Visual media works best - Timeline is clearly working best for visual media. Dig out as much
visual content as you can. Consider also, in your new posts, how you can tie in a visual to
support the status
3. “Feature” your videos - Use featured video posts to generate the most engagement across
the board. At this stage, full-width, quality video is a honey trap for fans – but choose your
content wisely. Photos appear to have the most significant impact as pinned posts
4. “Pin” photos - Consider how you might use this pinning to feature fans or new products,
and even replace status updates with a photo to maximize engagement and shares
nb. I would like to acknowledge the research as carried out by Wildfire on this. All data is theirs.