Everything you need to know
about the new Facebook layout for Business Pages.
Another brand new look for Facebook pages is ready to be rolled out this month.
You may already have clicked on an option to update your own view of the page so that you can tinker with the content before letting it loose on the wider world.
You may even have gone ahead and ‘published’ the new look for all your followers to see.
But whatever the case, your Facebook business page will be automatically updated from June 20th 2014, after which date everyone is stuck with it.
I know, I know.
You finally begin to get comfortable with the last re-designed layout, and then they come along and throw another one in your face when you least suspect it.
Before we all start to panic, I should quickly point out that the new-look doesn’t involve any huge sweeping changes.
It’s more of a tweak and a polish than a major revamp, and only minimal effort is required at your end to optimise your updated Facebook Business Page.
But it’s still a good idea to keep one step ahead of the game and ensure that your own Business Page isn’t left lumbered with any strange quirks and outdated oddities from the transition.
Here’s a brief rundown of all the essential information you need to know on Cover Photos, Tabs and Apps, and where to find all the important bits that moved when you weren’t looking.
When will the Business Pages change?
If you’re reading this Blog post before 20th June 2014, you still have time to tune-up your Business Page in private before the new-look is automatically rolled-out for everyone to see.
An option should appear on your current Admin panel to ‘Update’ the page for your own viewing and experimentation.
This acts as a preview which gives you a chance to tinker with your content and get a feel for the final look.
After you have done this, another option will appear on the top right-hand side of your new preview page to ‘Update ’which will officially publish your new timeline to the rest of the world.
On June 20th, Facebook will automatically roll-out the redesigned pages, ready or not.
About Turn!
The ‘About’ section of your Business Page has moved down to a left column on your new-look timeline.
The important thing to bear in mind here is that some of the ‘types’ of information on display may have changed.
When I first previewed the new-look Martin Print Facebook page, I saw that our About section contained nothing more than our website URL…which was helpfully listed three times!
The exact content displayed in your new About section will differ according to the nature of your business and the type of Facebook Page you have set up.
My advice is to select Settings, click on Page Info, and make sure that you input something into each and every field.
Now take a look at exactly which fields are showing up in the About section on your page, and concentrate on optimising the content of those fields until you’re completely happy with the results.
A little time-consuming, but worth the hassle if you’re keen on optimising your page.
Cover and Profile Photos
A big redesign often results in completely new dimensions for your Cover Photo and Profile Picture.
The good news here is that the dimensions have stayed the same as before.
But it’s possible that you may still need to make slight adjustments to your images.
Your page name, category, and a few buttons have now moved into the Cover Photo itself for the first time, so it’s worth checking that your image hasn’t lost any crucial impact from this.
(Here’s a quick preview of the new Martin Print page to show you what I mean.)
It’s also worth noting that the positions of the Cover Photo and Profile Picture have changed very slightly, so if you had a Profile Picture that cleverly blended into the Cover Photo, the impact of this will have been ruined!
Tools and Content on the Move
Your Admin Tools have now been moved to a navigation bar right at the very top of your Timeline.
You may also notice that all your posts are now displayed in one single column, rather than getting scattered messily around over two columns. This results in a much cleaner and simpler look to the whole page.
Some people have been expressing confusion over the locations of the ‘New Likes’ and ‘See All Likes’ lists which have always been very useful for checking up on your latest followers or banning followers who are causing trouble.
Don’t panic, they’re still there.
A new This Week column on the right-hand side displays details of your newest ‘likes’.
Hovering your mouse over those details opens up more options to view the full list of followers.
As before, this list gives you the power to remove followers (leading to another option to permanently ‘ban’ them) or even give them Admin rights, depending on your mood.
Tabs and Apps
Finally, one of the biggest changes to the new-look Facebook Business Pages relates to custom Tabs and Apps.
The image-based Tabs that used to appear directly underneath your Cover Photo have been converted into simpler ‘Text Tabs’.
The Timeline Tab and About Tab are fixed firmly in place, but you have the option to choose the next two Text Tabs that will pop up on display here, including one or two of your own custom Tabs if you have any.
Your custom Tabs also appear in their old image-based forms in an Apps list further down the left-hand side of your page.
These will follow the order laid out for your Text Tabs, but there seems to be room to display an extra third custom tab here.
So you have the option to permanently display a Tab not visible in the text versions at the top – in all its graphical glory.
However, it’s worth bearing in mind that you perhaps shouldn’t be putting too much focus on custom tabs in general, as they sadly don’t work at all on the mobile screen.
Third-party Apps used to be essential for running popular contests, but they are no longer required since Facebook relaxed the contest guidelines.
For further insight on how easy it has become to run a contest – without the need for a pesky App – take a look at this previous Blog article which examined the juiciest business developments of the year.
So, are you ready for change?
What do you think so far of the new-look layout for Facebook business pages?
A positive improvement or another confusing step in the wrong direction?
Let me know your own thoughts below, along with any other useful optimising tips you’ve discovered which may help business owners take advantage of the new tweaked format!
Send to Kindle