Nathan Yerian
Ok, so "doomed" might be a little strong, but if you currently have a company brand page on Facebook, there are some changes that will affect your page. You need to be aware of what is changing and properly update your page.
As of March 30th, these changes will be mandatory for all brand pages. Make sure your page is updated before then.
Here's what you need to know:
1. You Need A "Cover" Image - If you have already updated your personal Facebook page you will be familiar with the concept as it works exactly the same. If you have no idea about what I am talking about, a cover is a larger banner type image that will span across the top of your brand page. Take note that unlike your past "welcome page", Facebook does prohibit using any calls to action. This includes no contact info, or encouragements to "like" the page. The image for this space needs to be about 850x315 pixels.
2. You May Want A New Profile Image - Depending on your current profile image, you may want to change it. The new space is square, and will be placed at the bottom left corner of your cover image. You may want to have this image be drastically different then the cover image to call attention to it, or you may want to get more creative with it. Here are some creative examples from personal pages that you can use for inspiration, or take a look at our Facebook page
3. Customize The Order Of Your Apps - You can now decide what order to display your photos, "likes", and apps (like your welcome page, polls, events, etc.). Photos does have to come first, but the rest is up to you. Order them by their importance in your social media marketing strategy.
4. Control Your Status Updates - Of course you can edit, or delete your status updates, but now you have some new cooler options. You can "highlight" an update by clicking on a star icon in the upper right hand corner of the post. Highlighting an update results in that update spanning twice as wide as your standard updates. You can use this to call more attention to important posts. If you have something really important (call to action, announcement, event, etc.) that you would like to keep at the top of your timeline, that is where "pinning" comes in. When you pin an update, it moves that update to the top of your timeline. Anyone looking at your timeline will see that update first.
5. Add Your URL To Your "About" Section - With the update your "about" section becomes more prominent, but hides a lot of your information. At a minimum, make sure that you add your website URL to your about text (in addition to the real spot that your URL is supposed to be). This will make it so that it will be easy to navigate to your website from your Facebook page. Be careful not to add too much text, or it will get cut off.
So by now you have realized that it is not the end of the world. Facebook is just changing...again. Will it be bad, good, or the same? Hard to tell. One thing you can be sure of is if your prepare your page for the change, it should not negatively impact your brand.
If you would like more info, here is a step by step guide to help you get everything set up.
Learn how to use social media as part of a larger marketing strategy for your business:
