The New Facebook Timeline Will Benefit Your Business

Update, 10/11/2011:   Facebook has postponed the beta version of timeline after Timeline.com filed a lawsuit. Timeline is currently only available to those who have Facebook’s Developer application installed.

I've been playing around with the Facebook changes recently announced at f8 in San Francisco and freaking most of the public out soon thereafter. The real-time ticker and subscribe button makes sharing quicker and easier. The popular stories and recent stories seem to be confusing.

The feature that's really caught my eye is the timeline. The timeline rolls out to the public around October 6. To sample it ahead of time, you can access it through the developer apps. For personal users, the attraction of the timeline is obvious: it's attractive, artistic, much like a scrapbooking page layout. The timeline is fun – with one click you can go back to any year, any month and see status updates, photos and important events. It was described by Nir Refuah, vice president of McCann Digital in Israel, as “a digital autobiography.” Refuah said, “First Facebook became the digital ID of everyone, and now it will try to gather our whole life story,”

For brands, the attraction is more subtle. I had trouble at first understanding why a brand would like the new timeline, then the content developer in me kicked in. The timeline's all about story – history -- content.  Acquiring as many 'likes” as you can is no longer a driving force.  For content-driven non-competitive people like me, that is great news. Awesome content is what will get you in the stream.  The popularity contest is no longer about star power, it's about authenticity and the human component of your business. Campaigning for the most “likes” won't do much for you.

To sum up what I've learned so far, the timeline benefits for your business include:

• The cover. The cover is a big photo across the top of your page. It is prime real estate and very easy to change. This will be great for promotions and product roll-outs.
• The Information blurb. Currently, a viewer has to dig deep to find a company's information tab. When found, it is surprisingly limited, weak and bland. The new timeline will feature the information right under the cover, above the fold, in an easy-to-read format, easy to click through to more info.
• Infographic format. The new timeline format will propel brands to focus more on engagement and back story rather than getting more likes.  Getting more comments and likes becomes less valuable than sharing authentic content.  I believe the mom and pop shops that I serve will benefit more from this than the big corporations. Mom and Pop have real stories involving real people. Mom and Pop shops have a back story and biography that is generally more personable than the giant conglomerates.  Admittedly, I'm a little biased on that.

The timeline rolls out soon for personal facebook pages.  I'm not sure when it rolls out for brands and business pages.

Just when I was starting to flirt with Google+, Facebook has gotten back in the game and lured me back.   Imagine that.