There was a collective groan from the masses when Facebook announced its changes to the look and usability of their pages. As of March 30th, TIMELINE will be the standard across the board. For the individual user, the changes are aesthetic. For brands however, the change is a game changer on how they used Facebook to connect with their customers and consumers.
The biggest perk to a brand on Facebook was the ability to control and customize landing pages. Third party app developers have appeared out of the woodwork just to take advantage of this. For a brand, the landing page and the ability to build big splashy pages was the equivalent to a magazine ad online. For old school business and old school marketers this was the draw to Facebook. It was something they understood. Much more than ROI or link backs and all the other countless social media jargon.
For Facebook the changes are geared toward making money, more for them and less for you. The Timeline format allows Facebook to run premium ads throughout a page instead of just the right hand column, and predominantly on mobile feeds. The new format allows for anything posted on an advertiser’s own page – status updates, photos and videos – to be made into an ad that can pushed out to users’ newsfeeds and mobile feeds. This kills the need for landing pages and the focus will be to turn content into advertising.