Timeline Pages for Brands – Cover Photo, Profile Photo, Apps Icon & Landing Page - Sizes, Tips and Tricks

Well it here! Timeline for brands, also known as fan pages, business pages and Facebook pages can be activated right now and will be rolled out to every fan page as of March 30, 2012.

With that said…it’s time to prepare for the new Timeline by getting your visual WOW branding set up now. As you will see, good branding really makes Timeline pop and bad branding just plain looks unprofessional.

Before I go into the sizing ...I found a couple of very interesting stats on how people view Timeline compared to the old Facebook, Check this out!

Here is what this tells me...the new Timeline is much more visual and you need to capitalize on the spaces people are looking at. These graphics speak for themselves!

So here are some tips to help you prepare for the new visual aspect of Timeline…

• Cover Photo 851 X 315px – the cover photo is at the very top of your fan page and is the first area people are looking (chck out the hot sheet images at the bottom of the page for info on where people are looking compared to old Facebook...very interesting). Use this to showcase your business, for instance…

1. Picture of your business
2. Picture of you (if you are the brand)
3. Picture of your product or service
4. Picture of customers using your product or service
5. Logo

DO NOT use this space to market in any way. That is the reason Facebook did away with default landing tabs because people were marketing to heavily there. No contact info or calls to action are allowed here. This is very important!

Here are pop ups directly from Facebook on this issue:

• Profile Photo 180 X 180px – This is the photo that will show in the small box at the top of your page within your cover photo. It’s important to know that this photo will be the one that shows in people’s timeline with your posts. It will also be the image that shows when people visit your fan page via a Facebook app on mobile phones

• Application Tabs 111 X 74px – Every application comes standard with an icon that will show in your tabs area. The problem is they don’t fit correctly. With the new Timeline you have the option of adding a custom image here that grabs your visitors attention.

To upload a new image for a tab:

1. Click “dropdown button” to the right of the 4 tabs showing
2. Now hover over the tab you want to add a custom image to and click the “pencil” in the top right corner
3. Choose “edit settings”
4. Right next to custom tab image click “change”

And now you have a custom visual for your tab…congrats!

• Application Pages (tabs) 810px X infinity – Custom tabs are not new. You have seen them many times most likely in a welcome tab or landing page. They are much wider now and look more like a website.

This is an area where you can do a bit of marketing. Here are a few examples of how to use tabs...

1. Welcome page
2. Coupons
3. Map to business
4. Email opt-in page
5. Resource page
6. Events calendar
7. Etc, etc, etc…

So there you have it! Now take some time to get ready for your new Timeline so you won’t be the brand that looks like they got caught behind the eight ball.

Enjoy and please link me to your new Facebook Timeline when you get it all up and looking good.

Michelle Corteggiano