5 Ways to Use Facebook Timeline to Promote your Business

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Whilst Facebook timeline has not yet affected business pages as such, the new layout was made available to users back in December of 2011. However it is also apparent that Facebook plans to announce Timeline for Brands at their first-ever fMC event held specifically for marketers, on February 29th in New York City… (Source: WebProNews)

What is Facebook Timeline?

Most of you guys and dolls will be familiar with the Facebook timeline, for those still in the dark about it all… here’s the brief lowdown… Facebook released a new profile page layout back in December 2011…

‘Timeline’ displays content in user profiles in chronological order. With the latest activities showing first in timeline, it makes engaging a lot easier and more fun on Facebook.

Facebook made the announcement that they would be pushing the timeline layout, to all it’s 850 million plus users on the 24th January. If you’re yet to see what Facebook timeline actually looks like you can check it out here:

http://www.facebook.com/about/timeline

Ok, today I want to share with you 5 cool ways to use Facebook timeline to promote your business or your brand via your profile page…

Cover Photo

Many business individuals are already making full use of the cover photo feature in timeline, simply by uploading an image associated with their business, i.e. photos of products, or business premises, business banner type ad etc… and you should consider doing the same.

Think of it as an opportunity to advertise your business a little bit like a billboard does.

Facebook Timeline

Many people searching for you or your products or business services via the search engines could well end clicking on your Facebook profile, and therefore see your banner ad displayed, so cease the opportunity to use the cover photo to advertise and promote your business effectively.

note, that you should try and upload an image exactly of 840 x 310 pixels to fit into this space without much distortion.

Use your Company Logo or Business Owner Photo as Profile Photo

In the profile photo section you should definitely consider either uploading an image of yourself as the head of your business, or if you’re feeling up to it, why not your company logo.

Tag Photos

Whilst photo tagging is nothing new to Facebook, you should continue to tag your photos of business premises, staff photos, photos of your products or services etc. Ensure that you also add a relevant link to the product or service page on your business website in the description of each photo.

Add Photos to Facebook Maps

Don’t forget to add your business related photo’s to Facebook map…

Photo Tagging

Resize your Posts

One of my favourite features in Facebook timeline is the ability to resize posts… Whether it’s a photo or update on your wall, or a blog post feed update via RSS Graffiti, you can increase its size and its visibility by hitting the ‘star’ icon located above the photo or post. This is a great way to get extra exposure to your content on Facebook.

Are you making the most of Facebook timeline? Do you prefer the old Facebook page layout? Let me know your thoughts and reactions in the comment section below, don’t forget you can also engage with us on our Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/Magnet4Marketing/posts/329265250458008

  • http://adriennesmith.net Adrienne

    Hi Fabrizio,

    Okay, so Facebook will be announcing Timeline for Brands at their first FMC event! Does this mean that the Timeline will eventually also be for all business pages as well? I’m not quite sure what you mean by the branding since Facebook has made it perfectly clear that their site is about being social.

    I know you said in your post how to brand you on your profile page but that’s exactly what you should be doing on your business page and I know how much Facebook frowns upon mixing business with pleasure.

    I know more and more people are doing that and I was one of them but I didn’t promote my business on my profile page. I shared content but I’m finding it really hard to keep up with them both. Any suggestion for that? :-)

    • http://www.magnet4marketing.net Fabrizio Van Marciano

      Hi Adrienne, thanks for stopping by. I’m not entirely too sure you know, it will be interesting to see what happens on the 29th… As far as I know the Facebook timeline pages will be made available for brands in the US only for now I guess, there is no mention about applying timeline to business pages as of yet, but we’ll see…

      More and more people are however promoting their business and maybe to a degree their brands as well via their profile pages, simply because business pages are somewhat limited in terms of reaching out and connecting with people.

      I know it’s against FB’s terms but I have used a Facebook profile page up until now to indirectly promote my entire brand of artwork as an artist, since I was the brand itself I thought it wouldn’t matter, and now with timeline available only on profile, it makes more sense to. But I will probably look towards steering more towards creating a business page later on for this.

  • Samantha Wright

    Facebook don’t really encourage it’s users to use profile pages for business purposes, but I know a lot of my friends that do us it for just that. I do think that profile pages are more effective than business pages for promoting yourself as a business person however, nice tips Fabz, and great work :)

    • http://www.magnet4marketing.net Fabrizio Van Marciano

      Thanks Sammy :) you’re right there are more and more people utilizing profile pages for business purposes. I myself have done so a little too.

  • http://www.buysellwp.com/ BuySellWordpress

    I also think that it’s quite important to place your own photos or your logo, because it makes people consider your organization more seriously and believe in it

  • http://mymediamagnet.com/feed/ Troy Jaggard

    I really like Facebook’s new timeline feature. I do hope that they move it over to business pages…as an option.

  • http://projectwunderbaar.wordpress.com/ Earl Dickerson

    I think timeline and old Facebook have same thing to do with in promoting business. I do believed that facebook profile pages can do effectively on promoting your own business.

  • http://getfreetemplates.com/ Get Free Templates

    I’m sure that this new feature of Facebook has a great number of fans and excited users

  • http://www.shoppingbags.com/ Shopping Bags

    Using your company logo as cover photo in your timeline is a great way of showing off your brand in the online community.

  • http://www.loans4tenants.com Jason Scott

    From a personal profile point of view the Facebook Timeline hasn’t gone down well. From a business perspective its been a success story, the cover photo has been especially successful at showing off your brand.

  • http://jasondavis688.multiply.com/ Jason Davis

    It is becoming a more visual platform and they continue to promote the idea that photos and videos create stronger connections with customers, prospects, fans and likers.

  • http://www.guldkit.se Sälj Guld

    I was under the impression that Facebook didn’t allow you to use your timeline picture for advertisement purposes? I guess there’s a fine line between branding and advertising and you have to make sure to stay one side of it!

  • http://linkattach.com send large attachments

    I love the way Facebook continues to grow, update and expand its uses. Using it as marketing for businesses is GENIUS!!

  • http://www.passion4dancing.com Leon@Learn to dance

    I am still confused with the new facebook time line….you mentioned the new cover photo…I was very excited about it until I tried to insert a photo, and it was stretched out and looked horrible…It seems as though the only option is to have a huge cover photo….I wanted a small one since I don’t want it to take up all the space! Is this possible?

    • http://www.magnet4marketing.net Fabrizio Van Marciano

      Hey Leon thanks for stopping by. You don’t have to have a cover photo should you not want one, just leave that bit blank. You can just have a small profile photo.