A History of You: How Your Business Benefits with the Facebook Timeline

By: Luis Borba

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

The recent changes to Facebook’s platform have brands scrambling to adapt to the new timeline view to promote their business.

With a complete overhaul of the interface and elimination of a popular feature, brands need to rethink how they talk about themselves.

This is having a positive impact on social media marketing culture. Read on, and we’ll explain why.

Put It On My Tab

One of the features changed was the landing tabs, which directed users to a call to action.

From there you were given the option to click the Like button in exchange for exclusives.

The landing tabs are still there, but they can no longer be used as landing pages. The timeline view is the default option. You can look at it as Facebook’s one-size-fits-all solution, a solution to level the playing field, which places more of a demand on the frequent sharing of content.

We consider this their ‘anti-stagnation’ protocol.  It’s a good thing.

Storytelling

The art of storytelling has always been important and remains so in the age of social media.

Media professor Henry Jenkins outlined four steps for achieving storytelling success in marketing:

- Stories should be drillable.

- Each piece of the story should be enriching

- Each story should involve fans in the creation process, and

- Stories should build a world in which they can evolve (such as Coca-Cola’s “Happiness Factory”)

The new timeline features provide a way to weave content into a chronological storyline…like a “story”.

The cover photo serves as the introductory visual. The pin and star features are used to organize and highlight content as it’s added. Private communication is now possible with private messages between users and brand pages.

Final Thoughts

Good stories engage people.

They entertain and inspire people to action and can turn them into fans and brand ambassadors. Good stories are created by people for people through a combination of curation, insight, sharing, and response.

Working with an agency that provides a social media content strategy will help with your digital marketing objectives and goals. By understanding how your goals and objectives fit with your audience, the foundation is laid for telling your great story.

See Also: "Social is the New Trayliner"