Exciting new changes to Facebook Timeline

So, no sooner have we got used to timeline for pages coming in, then Facebook introduce some changes to Timeline…but some of these are pretty handy too!

A Unified Global Local Page

One of the biggest challenges when managing a global Facebook Page is deciding how you are going to divide up content by region:

Post globally in English

Post globally in English AND local language

Create individual local language pages

Most international pages opt for the one pager per language option – it’s easier for local marketing teams to post to. The problem with this is that often, smaller or less sophisticated pages in “far-flung” regions end up with off-brand content, small fan numbers and even lower engagement – in effect losing the closeness that the mother brand creates.

The latest changes will effectively make it much easier to bring currently regions and their content into the same page. Fan numbers will be shared between pages (i.e. all under the parent page) and admins and users simply need to click on the “swap region” button to see content specifically aimed at them in their mother tongue. You’ll also see PTAT scores per region, helping you to maintain local language engagement.

A cute (but important) touch too is that the Page will remember your regional preferences too – making life just that little bit easier.

Always-On Notifications

If you’re using a social media management platform like Buddymedia or Syncapse, your admins are probably getting email notifications when you receive messages and notifications, but sometimes thats not enough. The arrival of the Page Manager app (itunes store link) means you get notifications to your mobile and can post or respond to comments directly through the app rather than having to login elsewhere in response to the email notification. You also get Insights too – which even looks pretty cool!

More accurate post views

If you’re running a pretty sophisticated page management operation (as we like to think we do!) you’re already looking at Edgerank to understand how effective your content is. To help further, a new “% seen” stat will be introduced which basically tells you how many people (as a %) of your whole fan base saw this post. It’s slightly different to edegerank in that it simply counts VIEWS, but it’s helpful none the less.

Facebook have introduced this alongside an interesting stat that on average, just 16% of fans see content that pages post. They estimate that with the Promoted Posts mechanism (where you will soon be able to pay to guarantee your posts are seen) visibility rates are up to 75%. Seems like a good time to say how poor “normal” unpaid for content performs.

So, whilst this may be on its way, don’t lose sight of what your edgerank scores are telling you. We may be in for a good wait yet for Promoted Posts.

Timeline videos

When Timeline for Profiles first came out, a cool tool was also launched which made a movie out of your timeline actiivities and major timeline events. This will also soon be out for Pages too. I’d expect this to be a largely one-off activity for a lot of Pages (similar to the creation of Milestones) but still a handy creative tool!

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