Rethinking Facebook
March 2012
With the conversion of all Facebook brand pages to the Timeline format just a few days away, Zuckerberg & Co. have thrown down the gauntlet. While there are some nice new features, on balance, Facebook is fast becoming a “pay to play” arena and, in the process, forcing all brands to rethink their Facebook strategy.
Every brand must become a visual storyteller
The layout of Timeline puts a premium on images and videos, such as a masthead-like cover photo and more prominently featured photo albums. Brands can also “star” images, allowing them to expand across an entire page. And while all of these changes should increase engagement, brands without an arsenal of images will need to assemble one mighty quick.
Fan acquisition costs are going up
| With the arrival of Timeline comes the departure of free “fan gates” that once gave marketers the chance to gain potential fans directly from a “Like”-generating promotional page. Instead, Facebook has decided that making a fan gate the default landing page will now be a paid feature. |
Fan engagement costs are rising, too
| With the introduction of Timeline, Facebook announced that marketers will be able to reach only 16% of their fan base for free. This is already having a noticeable impact on engagement rates for many brands. But Facebook doesn’t see this as a problem, since all you have to do is pay via “reach generator” to get those numbers back up! |
You’ve got 5 days to make history
| Timeline lets brands publish “milestones” as far back as they want, which, for illustrious brands like The New York Times and Coca-Cola that have long and well-chronicled histories, is a dream come true. For new and younger brands, adding milestones to Timeline will take a bit more creativity. |
Pin your hopes on one weekly post
| With the cover photo taking up so much prime page real estate, much of a brand’s content will now fall below the typical screen viewing area. To help address this, brands will now be able to “pin” one particular post to the mid-left side for an entire week. |
Engage, or else everyone will know you're not
| Facebook is so serious about pushing brands to become engaging storytellers that they now have made those metrics available to everyone. The Likes box, located just below the cover photo, reveals the number of Likes and “People Talking About This,” as well as the most popular week, city and age group. |
The good news: managing complaints just got a lot easier
| Most brands will welcome the optional Message tab on Timeline that allows consumers to contact them directly and privately rather than post a negative comment publicly. Taking unpleasant conversations “offline” is a customer service department dream come true – and should hasten the integration of social and service-related activities. | ||
Bottom line: it's time to develop a Plan B
| Time will tell whether the new Timeline actually improves fan engagement with a brand on Facebook. What we do know is that the cost of engagement with all your fans just went up and that Facebook will not hesitate to impose its will upon your efforts. So while few brands can afford to be without a Facebook presence given how much time consumers spend there, this is as good a time as any to start thinking about how you can engage YOUR fans in other less dictatorial arenas. |