Happy Valentine’s Day!
I have a secret. Nothing I write today is going to outdo Shonali Burke’s Valentine’s Day blog post.
So please go over there, get it out of the way, and come back.
It’s OK. I’ll wait.
Now, wasn’t it worth it? I, for one, am pleased to finally see the movie star’s talents coming through. Enough of this PR stuff. Let her do what she was born to do!
And on to our regularly scheduled program.
I have good news!
Rumor has it Facebook is rolling out its timeline feature to business pages this month.
I know, I know. Some of you hate timeline (I personally love it).
But, if you run a business or branded page, this is good news. It means soon you will be able to share updates with everyone, not just those who like your page.
According to BusinessInsider, the launch will happen on February 29, at the very exclusive Facebook Marketing Conference (oh la la).
Functionality of the Timeline
The personal timelines provide a history of your activity, allow you to create stories from your updates, and provide more functionality with visuals, mainly photos. It also allows people to subscribe to your updates without being your friend.
This is important for those of you (me included) who don’t like to open your Facebook page to people you don’t know.
I’ve begun testing different types of updates – the smart aleck ones go only to my friends, while informative or educational ones go public.
You could subscribe to my Facebook page and get a little bit more of my warped sense of humor than you do in other places. But you still won’t get the full out crazy Gini stuff, like my real feelings on cyclists doping (morons).
But that’s still on the personal page. Think about what that means for your business page.
What Does This Mean to You?
If you run a business or branded page, be ready for this change. Strategically you can begin to think about how to share different types of updates and information.
Say, for instance, you want to give something away to your fans (a product, service, coupon, or ebook). You now will be able to share that information only with your fans. But then share your latest blog post or job opening or event with anyone and everyone.
What I can’t seem to find out about is whether or not people will have to subscribe, rather than like your page, and what the difference will be betweens fans and subscribers. I also don’t know if there will be a search function so you can go through your archives (which would be fantastic for me when looking for the Facebook questions of the week), but rumor has it it’s coming.
All in all, there isn’t much you can do right now except think about how you’ll use your updates differently. And be ready for it. February 29.