 Uh-oh! Facebook Changes are Happening Again!
Thomas F. Dock, CVJ
Managing Editor, Veterinary News Network
American Society of Veterinary Journalists.
You may or may not have noticed that your Facebook Business page will be changing at the end of this month. Last week, Facebook rolled out their Timeline for business pages to complement the Timeline feature for personal profiles.
So...what's the change?
First, and certainly most noticeable, will be the addition of a cover picture that will appear almost like a banner across the top of your page. This picture will be automatically sized up to 850x315, so make sure that your chosen image is robust enough to look good when it is scaled larger.
Next, there will be your thumbnail image that appears next to each of your posts. This image will be 180x180...this is a good place for your logo if it fits well as a square image.
Like the personal profiles Timeline, your business page posts will be in chronological order. The posts will generally switch back and forth between the left and right sides of the timeline. HOWEVER, if you would like to "highlight" a post, you can expand the size of the post to cross both sides of the timeline.
There is also the ability to "pin" your posts to the top of your timeline (similar to the "sticky" function in most forums) but this function will cease after one week.
Because of the chronological order, you can actually add many milestones for your business into the timeline. Simply click on the timeline that runs down the middle of your page and you can add important events, like the founding of your hospital, purchases of new equipment, open houses, etc.
The applications that used to show up along the left hand side of your page are now listed under your cover picture and only the top four are shown (although the user can expand the list). These can easily be re-ordered by clicking on the edit pencil in the upper right corner of the desired app and swapping the position with another application.
Finally, for now, there is an expandable administration section that will give you snapshots of you is interacting with your page, your new "likes", Insights and even a message center where people can reach out to you. This section actually appears ABOVE your cover picture and can be hidden from view.
I am sure that you or your social media person might have some thoughts, questions or concerns. Please feel free to connect with me and let me know how VNN can help!
Tom
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We are hearing both sad and heartwarming stories coming out of the devastation after the severe winter storms that crossed the US last week. 