6 Great Ways To Utilize Facebook Timeline For Business Marketing

Facebook has recently made some changes to its Edgerank algorithm that controls how many of your Facebook business pages updates appear in your fans timelines.

This Edgrerank uses several calculations to determine the marketing effectiveness of the Facebook page and who will receive the updates such as:

Affinity – which measures the relationship between the viewing user and the creator of the story. The closer the relationship the higher the score.
Weight – Different types of posts carry different weights. The higher the weight, the higher the score.
Time Decay – As a post ages it continually loses value.

The effect of these changes are that even less of them are now showing up. Most research is saying that it can be less than 15%.

Despite this Facebook remains the popular choice in terms of social media marketing platforms. While this platform continues to make innovative updates, the majority of the changes are meant to benefit regular users rather than business pages. Still, the latest update to the timeline look has some businesses excited and at the same time confused about how to put this to use for them.

If you are still unsure of how the Facebook timeline look and feel can benefit your brand, here are a few easy ways to help.

1. Add Milestones Your Users Will Want to Know About

How long have you been in business? How has your product evolved in looks and features? And when was it that your top selling product reached new sales records? Believe it or not, your customers love to see this stuff.

Posting milestones on your wall brings your customers behind the scenes of your company and shows them just how far your business has come. This approach to showing milestones gives customers a unique way to bond with your brand helping encourage loyalty to you instead of companies they know nothing about.

2. Make Your Profile Photo Work With Your Cover Photo

The look of the new Facebook timeline is perhaps the biggest change seen – and one of the biggest opportunities for brands to use images to give their page a stunning look. One way to do this is to make your profile photo work with the cover photo.

A good example of a brand that has done this well is Ford with their Mustang fan page. On their cover photo, an image of a Ford Mustang appears. Their profile picture is then just the front emblem that distinguishes them so well of the mustang itself. When you put your profile picture as a part of your cover picture, your page takes on a new look and you are better able to brand your product.

3. Use Images More Aggressively

The internet is quickly becoming a place to share and consume images and photos. So it makes sense that consumers are more drawn to company pages that are filled with a variety of pictures.

Perhaps the most obvious type of image to place on your Facebook page is pictures of the product itself. This is important to have as it gives people new to your Facebook page a quick glimpse into what you provide. But go deeper than that and you can maximize your image properties. For example, put pictures of your team at work in the office. Or, encourage people to tag themselves using your product. These images will appear on your page and help tell more of a story than just simple product pictures can.

4. Use Apps for Branding

Apps have also become more visible. Whenever your company uses an app to promote a certain contest, photos or anything else, the apps are displayed with images on the top of your page.

The way you use apps can help you brand your product and distinguish your page from others. Now that these apps are more visible, going out and finding some to give your page more interaction and visual appeal will help you engage users on a new level and create more excitement around your brand on Facebook.

5. Put Your Contact Info in the About Us Section

The About Us section is located just underneath your cover photo and profile picture. In this prime real estate, you can place your call to action and encourage people to call your store or office directly and go to your website.

By making your contact information and specific actions of what you want your users to perform clearer, you can increase your return on investment from social media. This is an easy way for businesses to drive traffic and generate leads simply by making it easier for customers to get in touch.

6. Talk Directly to Your Customers

Facebook pages are notorious for people posting public complaints about a brand and difficulties. When these complaints appear, page administrators can now contact people directly and engage with them on a one on one basis. Before the timeline feature, this was left to require personal accounts to interact with fans.

When you use your Facebook timeline in the way Facebook intended it for business use, you can maximize your reach and get more personal with your fans.

Guest Author: Patrick Del Rosario is a Filipino business and finance blogger. He works as a business ninja at Open Colleges, one of the pioneers of Online education in Australia and one of the leading providers of Business courses and Management courses. Aside from blogging and being a business ninja, Patrick is an aspiring photographer. You can connect with him at Google+

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