Facebook Timelines Are Here!

As we estimated in yesterday’s blog post, Facebook has formally announced the arrival of Timelines for brand pages. Mashable posted a great overview of the Timeline functionality, including photo examples, on their site this morning, as did The Next Web, but below are some of the key highlights:

• Timeline is live and can be enacted by most pages now; the switch will officially flip on March 30, when Timeline will go live for all brand pages—so we suggest taking the time now to make changes and learn the new layouts so that you are not scrambling to fix things on March 30
• One of the biggest benefits is the visual aspect of Timeline, which allows brands to showcase unique stories and identities. You can also add content to the timeline to celebrate a brand’s milestones, even those that occurred before Facebook existed.
• There are some nifty new admin capabilities on the new pages – you’ll want to take the “tour” offered on your page to see how this works
• You have the ability to customize which of your tabs is highlighted on the page, and it’s easy to move them around to customize anytime
• The timeline itself offers some new functionality in terms of prioritizing or even hiding some stories from your page

We made initial updates to GFM’s Facebook page this morning and are already working with a number of clients to talk through strategies to update their pages, as well. Some other brands that have already implemented the new Timeline include Tiffany & Co., Old Spice and Coca-Cola, to name a few.

While the impulse to move quickly is hard to resist, our Senior Director of Digital Strategy, Stu Swineford, has some smart suggestions for the long term:

Q: When updating images on the new Timeline, what is more important, logos or lifestyle images?

A: In regard to using logos vs. lifestyle images, I think that a creative approach to graphics will produce the best effect. Sometimes using a simple logo with lots of white space might make this item stand out more within a sea of full-frame imagery. Embedding brand elements in a full-frame graphic might be ideal in other situations.

Q. There are some obvious visual benefits to the Timeline, but from a content perspective, what should brands be focused on?

A. It appears that interactions on a brand page can now become part of a user’s timeline, which then makes the interaction more apt to trickle out to other areas within the Facebook interface. Brands need to really ENGAGE audiences with creative calls to action will help their brands to spill out to other areas within Facebook and extend their virtual reach.

As always, we’ll keep our eyes and ears open for any new developments – and learnings along the way – and share them here when we have them.

- Carissa McCabe

Mark Your Calendars: New Facebook Timeline for Brands to Launch Wednesday (We Think)

PR Daily is reporting that tomorrow, March 1, is the likely launch date for Facebook’s Timeline for brand pages. 

Love it or hate it, the Facebook Timeline is the new reality of our interactions on the social media behemoth. While we don’t have all the answers as to what this launch means for brands, it seems safe to assume that marketers’ number one priority will be determining how the timeline layout impacts the look and feel of a page. From there, social media teams should plan to act quickly to create an aesthetic that capitalizes on the personal emotions that are supposed to be evoked by the layout of the timeline—talk about a huge amount of branding real estate to capitalize on!

PR Daily, Mashable and other reports also indicate that new “Gestures” could be launched to take interactions one (or many) steps beyond “liking” something online. From a social media metrics standpoint, this would expand how marketers can/need to think about customer engagement strategies—similar to how we all needed to graduate beyond fan and follower numbers several years ago as the true measure of social media program value evolved.

If I were you, I’d block some time on your calendar to coordinate with your social media team or PR agency to review all of Facebook’s brand announcements later this week in order to be as proactive as you can. We’ll be eagerly awaiting official details here at GFM, and we’ll post updates as we receive them!

~Alexis Anderson

Never Do This: Ghost Comment

There are very few actions or tactics in the world of social media that fall under the categories of “always” or “never.”

Different social media platforms and audiences require different engagement efforts, different responses and different sensitivities. Across the board standards are few and far between. But the other day, one was brought up during a lunch conversation: ghost commenting.

Ghost commenting is using an alternative identity to post online comments, questions or responses that you wouldn’t post under your own name. It’s also completely discoverable, shady, disingenuous, the opposite of transparent and just plain wrong. The minuses far outweigh the pluses.

Probably the most infamous case of ghost-commenting-gone-bad was in 2007 when Whole Foods CEO John Mackey was outed for making comments and posts on Yahoo! Finance forums about the then-potential merger of Whole Foods and Wild Oats. I admire Mr. Mackey for many of the leadership qualities he has shown at the helm Whole Foods, but several self-flattering posts under the guise of “Rahodeb” later, and who knows what to really think of him?

The sad part is how often ghost comments occur. Typically, the more frequent anonymous posts are made surrounding a controversial or emotional topic, which also happens to be the worst time to get involved in a disingenuous manner. And yet, political stories tend to receive the most pseudo-name comments. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see who is behind those comments?

The fact is everything online is discoverable. If someone really wanted to find out who made what comment, they could. The next time your company/organization/party/candidate is being taken to task on a forum or an online story, think about whether or not one comment (no matter how small) is worth risking your professional credibility.

The intelligent comments and posts find a way to effectively get a point across with a real person standing behind the opinion. You will need, however, to grow a thick skin since the ghost commenters can take anyone to task because they effectively have immunity from taking ownership of their comments.

We are seeing dramatic changes in how online forums are handled, with registrations through Facebook accounts and many forums disappearing. Only in rare instances do these forums advance the conversation. At least by being you, you can post comments and feel good about doing the right thing even if everyone else is posting fiction.