On February 11th (NZ) Facebook launched quite a significant redesign, which changes not just the look and layout of Facebook pages, but also adds a long list of exciting new functionality (plus a few things that have some people worried). Remember the changes to your personal page that rolled out in December? Pages now match that layout, but there’s way more to be aware of as well.
Let’s take a look at all the changes and what it means for you if you run a Facebook Page for your business.
Firstly, you should see the preview box at the top of your page if you log in right now. It looks like this:
You don’t have to upgrade right now, however if you click ‘preview’ you can take the quick tour of the changes now and you can always go back to the previous version if you want after the tour.
The upgrade is voluntary until March 10th (US).
Where have the tabs gone?
Just like on your personal profile, the page tabs are now down the left hand side instead of across the top. I know, I know, yes there is a fair bit of grumbling about this appearing on forums already and in Twitter; with companies complaining they’ll get reduced visits to the various pages other than their wall due to the side nav instead of top nav. There is one plus that longer page names for custom tabs are now possible.
If you have more than 6 tabs only the first 6 will be listed in the sidebar. Pictured left is how your tab navigation now looks underneath your profile image.
Hello Photostrip
Again, the same as your personal profile, you’ll now have a photostrip across the top of your page featuring selected photos from your albums.
If you don’t want to show a particular photo in the photostrip just hover over it and and an ‘x’ will appear. By clicking the x you aren’t deleting the photo, you’re just removing it from the photostrip in place of another photo.
Goodbye about box
Poof! There goes that text box that was under your profile image in the left sidebar. It’s now moved to the info tab.
Tab applications
If you have a custom tab or tab application on your page you don’t need to panic, the upgrade won’t make it break, but there’s been talk for some time that Facebook’s moving to iFrame tab applications which you can now do (this is a feature to know for the coders out there). As a nice bonus, developers can now use longer app titles with the move from top navigation to left sidebar navigation.
Email notifications
You can turn on email notifications so you’re alerted when there’s new activity on your page (this is in the ‘your settings’ tab in the ‘edit page’ section).
Obviously those of you with a lot happening on your page should be prepared to be swamped with emails, hence Facebook thankfully making this an option you can turn on and off, but this is a great new feature for those with less active pages so you can quickly respond to questions, comments and content placed by others on your page.
Filtered wall posts
In the same way your personal news feed works, the wall can be set by page admins to show ‘everyone’ or ‘page posts only’ as the default view for the wall. It used to show a stream of posts with the most recent at the top. If you set this to ‘everyone’ then Facebook will decide what will show based on what it thinks is most relevant. As you’d expect, popularity counts, so post with a lot of comments or likes will be given ranking preference.
‘Be’ your page on Facebook
Previously you could not act as your page outside your page on Facebook, only as yourself (using your personal profile). You now have the option of your page liking other pages, as well as posting and commenting around Facebook as your page.
To use this, click the ‘account’ drop down in the top navigation in the blue bar and select ‘use Facebook as page’ (shown left).
While in that mode, your news feed will show updates from other pages you like. Your notifications will show what your members are posting and commenting on your page and your friend requests will show likes on your page since the last time you used the Facebook as page mode.
Smaller profile picture
The profile picture is slightly smaller (down to 180 x 540).
Admins at a glance
The right sidebar now shows you who you have set to admin.
Your friends who like your page
Also in the right sidebar are mutual friends, which shows you which of your personal profile connections also like your business page. Your page members will see this too, but of course they’ll see a list of their friends who also like your page.
‘Featured’ now in settings
If you click ‘edit page’ (at the top of the right sidebar in the upgrade), you’ll find a new ‘featured’ setting as one of the options on the left hand side.
Here is where you can reorder what’s featured. You can also choose to activate the ‘Feature page owners’ box in the right sidebar and select which people to feature.
If you’re contemplating whether you should have a Facebook Page or Facebook Group, this upgrade gives yet more reasons why a page is the right choice for most organisations; however to find out which is best for your company and what the differences are, read Should your business have a Facebook Page or a Facebook Group.
More From AnnaGervai
- 17 worst mistakes companies make on Facebook and how to fix them | MarketingGum.com
- Facebook Timeline Upgrade FAQs How To & Sizes | MarketingGum.com
- Quick guide to the new Facebook timeline upgrade changes | MarketingGum.com
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Optymise and Erwin, Anna Gervai. Anna Gervai said: Big changes today to Facebook Pages – Find out all you need to know … http://bit.ly/g3piSu [...]
What I am really annoyed about is this new feature allowing other business pages to comment on mine. there are irrelevant business advertising to my customers who I have worked hard to develop a relationship with. There is no sense at all in advertising irrelevant products on my site. I can’t find anywhere in the Help section how to limit or prevent this access – does anyone know how to prevent other pages from posting while still allowing fans to post on my wall?
Unlike the photostrip on a personal page, the fan/business page photostrip displays the selected images in a random order that changes each time the page is refreshed. On the personal page, the display is static and you can manipulate the images to create a cool banner effect. The cool banner effect doesn’t appear possible on the fan/business page due to random refresh issue. Do you know if this just a temporary glitch that will be fixed, or is it an intentional “feature” that we have to live with?
Hi Chris, Turning your personal profile photostrip into a banner works because it shows them in order of photos you’ve most recently been tagged in. That would suggest that the answer is no, you won’t be able to create a banner using the Facebook Page photostrip since tagging doesn’t play a part. I have noticed it tends to favour pulling photos from 1 album however, so there could be a way to manipulate it by adding your banner images to a new photo album then delete photos till you get the order you want. No doubt someone will have a play soon enough so I’ll keep an eye out on the forums and let you know. Anna :)
Hi Liz, this was a worry I had also so I’m looking into the settings and options, however the solution in the mean time would be to remove the offending posts. Not ideal I know. Will keep an eye on the forums for you and update here if I find out more. Anna :)
We’ve been asking for notifications on Pages forever. But not to be swamped by emails. To get that little red flag in the status bar like we do on the private profile should be a no brainer for FB. To take away the info box is business suicide. That is the most important piece of information on the entire page. Does FB care about us at all?
Hi Eva, I’m mourning the loss of the info box as well – Anna :(
Hi there
Thanks for the quick review of the changes, nice job.
I’ll refrain from moaning about Facebook too much, at the end of the day it’s a free service to promote your business, and you get what you pay for as they say :)
One big change that nobody seems to have mentioned is that people that aren’t logged in can no longer see our Page’s Wall, it loads the header and the “downloading” symbol where the photo strip should be, but never downloads. In fact, it may only be people that have “liked” our Page that can see it. I’ve noticed the same problem on some other client’s own Pages too.
I can’t see anywhere in the settings to change this permission, but we would like ANYONE to be able to see our Wall without even logging in (or even necessarily having a Facebook account).
Does anyone else have this problem since the “upgrade”?
Our Page is http://www.facebook.com/thisiscozumel – if anyone can see our Wall without logging in or “liking” it first please let us know!
Thanks
Ian
Hi Ian, thanks for the feedback. I just viewed a few pages I haven’t liked yet and could see them fine. Has anyone else noticed the same problem Ian’s mentioned?
I’ve just run a quick test, and you can see our Wall if you haven’t “liked” it, but not if you’re not logged in.
Try logging out and then looking, you won’t be able to see the Page Wall, before you could…
Ian
Hmmm…. however, without logging in, you can see all the other “Tabs”, including Apps. So I can set my default landing page to be an App page instead of the Wall and it loads fine, but that’s not really what I want.
Also, when I try to look at any photos I get the message “Sorry, something went wrong. We’re working on getting this fixed as soon as we can.”
Think I’ll give them 48 hours to iron out the bugs they should have fixed before going live… I guess it’s the usual policy of letting their customers beta test the new product for them…
Thanks for the help!
Ian
Ian, I can see your Wall without logging, it loads normally, so do the photos, thus I guess it was just a temporary problem. Just a little correction – not all Admins are shown, but those you choose to.
Hi, Anna! Thanks for the reply. I’ve found that I can, in fact, tag the photos for the fan/business page photostrip. If 5 photos are tagged, only those 5 will appear in the photostrip. Unfortunately, those 5 shuffle order each time the page is refreshed. If fewer than 5 photos are tagged, the remaining spaces are either blank, or other photos from the page are pulled into the mix. I’m told this is a “feature” to make the page look fresh with each visit. Since this is not what I want, I simply blocked all the photos associated with the page and the photostrip is no longer visible (except as 5 blanks visible only to the admin). A regular view of the photos is still possible, however, by selecting “Photos” from the vertical menu on the left side below the profile image. I hope they add the option of a static display (already the standard for personal pages) in addition to the random shuffle default display for the fan/business pages.
Hi Chris, awesome, thanks for updating us. Shame about it being shuffled with each page reload / refresh though. Anna :)
I am really hoping that the inability to view posts in chronological order is a concern that will be dealt with & resolved very soon… before we are forced into this ‘upgrade’. I can understand having the option of allowing facebook to choose the order in which posts are placed, but for many reasons, I see the lack of chronological posts as a MAJOR negative. Apparently, this aspect is concern of many business owners. If we are permanently stripped of this ability, it may impact my business page existence, as I see the random arrangement as completely useless, confusing & hindering.
Only two days and thousands of FB Pages admins are already in an uproar …. and I’m one of them.
My posts are no longer in chronological order which means there are now outdated posts that appear near the top of the page. Also, we do an ongaing series of storytelling photo shows that “must” be in chronological order to tell the story. Now they are out of order. Imagine reading a book with the chapters in random order.
Also, because of the random order, I have to spend way too much time searching for previous posts and comments … even to the point of giving up in frustration.
As to “the most interesting stories will appear first.” How would FB know what’s interesting or not to the people who visit my page??? An outdated event post is now “interesting”??? It is totally impossible for FB staff to review millions of posts every day, determine what is interesting, and then re-arrange the order of posts accordingly. This is obviously being done digitally. What a mess!
What totally amazes me is how FB could get this so wrong. Duuuuh!!
Hopefully the uproar over this will convince FB to nix this change and go back to the previous chronological ordering of posts. If not then Pages no longer works for me and I will be forced to find an alternative.
Cozumel – sam problem here. I sent a not to FB, but I am not sure if I will get a response.
Our page is here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sidewalk-Bistro/173318582709322
I’m having the same problem as Cozumel and Sidewalk. When I log off, my Wall does not load for me; it just gets stuck on the downloading bars. http://www.facebook.com/innonmillcreek I’ve tried it on two different computers with two different browsers (IE and Firefox) and get the same problem. It’s only when I am logged off. Hopefully, it’s just temporary.
This is Cozumel,
I see the wall on your fanpage is now visible even when you are logged out. Did you do something to fix or did Facebook fix your page?
I also think the random rather than chronological order on the wall is really stupid. People want to view the newest posts, not what is deemed more revelent by FB!
Hi Sidewalk, I can see you page when logged in or out. As a few people mentioned this I think there was a temporary glitch with Facebook yesterday that seems to have now been fixed – Anna
Hi Brigette, good news, your page is showing now for me (logged in and logged out) – Anna
Great article here from Mashable about how to make the most of the changes and what brand should be thinking about … http://mashable.com/2011/02/11/new-facebook-pages-brands/
Anna, great article! Good to hear about the profile image down to 180 from 200 but what about the 520 content area, is it going down to 493 as speculation on the fb forums seems to indicate?
Hi Nathaniel, thanks for the lovely feedback, glad it was of value. Latest news is the change in width was temporary and is back to 520 pixels (I read that yesterday on 2 forums but worth checking around to ensure it’s now the case).
Anna – so how can we report our discontent with the wall posts not showing chronologically? I think that’s such a problem! How do we voice that to FB?
Hi Amy, you can make a ‘suggestion’ to Facebook via their submit feedback area in the Facebook Help Center, here: http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=suggestions – Anna
On my pages that already exist, my “landing” page works fine. People who are not logged in or don’t like me come to the Welcome tab, which has a custom image on it.
On a new page that I just set up today, I cannot find anywhere that allows me to designate a different landing tab for new visitors. I’d like to have a “read this’ before people like the page.
Any thoughts on where this option is, if it still exists
Hi Rick, I haven’t added a new tab to test this, but I did check the settings area, and it’s still under the permissions settings for me. Has anyone else experienced this?
Anyone else who cannot see an upgrade option at all? This doesn’t show for me yet, and I am just able to “switch” to using FB as page, which seems to be a temporary thing – when I log out, the page still shows in the current format.
With the intent of making the best of the fact that the new Page layout randomizes the images on the Photostrip, I’ve created a cute little contest: http://bit.ly/hfupEa
Hi Matt, At first glance I wasn’t going to approve your comment but then curiousity got the better of me and I took a look at what you’d done and I think it’s a very clever way to make the best out of one of the aspects of the Facebook Page Upgrade that’s annoying quite a few people out here, so here you go, approved. Anna :)
Hi Apu, A couple of my clients said they haven’t got the option of upgrading their page yet either, very odd, anyone else?
Inspired by Matt, here’s one way to make the best out of the photostrip problem and promote yourself and get more page likes at the same time … http://www.marketinggum.com/win-a-custom-wordpress-blog-worth-1000-for-your-business/ – Anna :)
I’m not seeing the upgrade option either. Although I’m in New Zealand, so it can easily be a regional thing.
Hi, can anyone tell me why a page cannot be as exclusive as a group? and why the info, discussion topics and photo album possibility in a fb group have disappeared??
Thanks!
Hi again,
How can i include a discussion forum / topic with the current fb group format?
Thanks!
and another question.. how do I ensure that I have the photo strip on top on the page in my group? (I added almost 15 photos hoping that the more the number of photos, the more likely fb is to pica few randomly and create the strip.
Thanks for your help!!
cheers,
Sahana
Hi Sahana, In answer to your 3 questions: The upgrade was for Facebook Pages not Facebook Groups so there isn’t a photostrip on Groups, therefore adding photos won’t make it appear unfortunately. A Facebook Page does not have the options for restricted access like a Group does. Pages are open access. The info, discussion topics and photo album on the Page have not gone, they are now in the left hand sidebar as a list of pages (side nav) not across the top as tabs (top nav). To add discussions to a Group just click the ‘+’ icon to the right of your current tabs at the top and then select ‘discussions’ from the drop-down list that appears. Hope that helps. Anna :)
Hi Anna, Thanks for the info. Regarding the last one though (adding discussions to a group), i dont see any + sign and no “tabs” .. there are words that i can click on top to post on the wall, share a link, photo or vedio, there’s evet and doc.. but no + sign and no discussions..
Looking forward to more help!! :) Cheers..
Hi Sahana, are you set up as admin for the group?
Hi Anna. Great post!
I have a weird issue with the ability/permission to post comments on photos and/or Wall updates (I guess that hundreds of community managers have that issue also):
It seems that commenting can not be turned off, at least for now. That is a community managing nightmare, for it is now impossible to prevent comments, so you must have a manager/moderator at all times looking and cleaning. What if a business does not want its contents to be commented? It one of the most basic basic basic online communities tool.
Do you (or any reader) knows how to completely turn of the commenting capability?
Perhaps it is a temporary glitch?
The moderation monetary costs of not having that option is absurd.
Cheers!
Hi Ramiro, Thanks for the feedback :)
Firstly, I think it’s a bit misleading that the admin option say by unticking the box that fans will no longer be able to place status updates, videos, photos etc on your Facebook business page – yet still allows fans to comment on photos, videos and status updates YOU place on your page! Surely that at least needs Facebook to add something to say ‘even if unticked, fans can still comment on content you add to your page’.
Secondly – and this might not get me many fans – this is social media after all! Comments should be welcomed. That’s the point of social media.
Not wanting comments from your fans / customers / prospects is a little like refusing to answer your phone when it rings or not replying to emails just because it takes too much time, or because you don’t care about what they have to say, or maybe you only want to hear from happy people not unhappy people (not saying these are your reasons Ramiro, just going off on a tangent). So why not unplug the phone and just never check your email? …
Whether we like it or not, Facebook gives us another avenue for our customers and prospects to contact us. We need to reply in the way THEY want to communicate with us and be WHERE they are. Methods of communication are changing and we need to change with them.
I know one major concern is how public a comment is on Facebook compared to a phonecall or email, but the reality is, if people have something negative to say about your company, product or service; they’re going to say it anyway! I’d rather they said it to me on my business page, than in their own status update shared with all their friends and family on Facebook where I have no hope of addressing their concern and limiting the damage. I am a fan of not deleting any comment unless it’s spam or offensive, such as using profanities.
I doubt Facebook will turn off this essential aspect of what makes social media, social media.
In the old days we had to get ourselves in front of every customer. Door to door salespeople, having a retail store in every city, printing catalogues, mailing paper newsletters, expensive mass media TV and radio ads and so on. This is being replaced by paid search, websites, email marketing … and yes, social media.
The sad reality is if customers matter, we have to find the time. That person who used to sit there for a day stuffing newsletters into envelopes, can now take 1 minute to press ‘send’ on your latest email marketing newsletter – and then look after your social media. It’s part of new marketing.
Ok, I think I just wrote a new blog article! I better stop now.
What does everyone else think? Do you agree that fans should not be able to comment full-stop, that social media is too time consuming?
Great point you’ve raised Ramiro and I know you didn’t mean to imply everything I’ve gone off on a tangent about but I’m keen to hear others take on this.
Wow! What a detailed response! Thanks for that, Anna!
I am all about opening up to the world, and that’s what I tell every single client of mine. But, there is a “real” world out there, who may or may not be interested in the whole social media package. Many of them want options. Some of them want the social media ride to be less bumpy the first time. Some even dare to ask for a Facebook page with no comments, for the sake of simplicity, for the “no-moderation” way, or just because there are too many bad comments (and it is whithin the company’s rights to not allow bad-mouthing on their own page).
Whatever the case, I think there should be *options*. X brand do not want comments? Let’s disable comments. X brand do not want to be spammy tagged? Let’s disable tagging for that brand. X brand do not want a conversation going on as a photo comments? Let’s disable photo comments. Whatever floats you boat…
I think the real issue here is “customizability”. For example, a brand can not block commenting on its avatar image (profile picture). Is it really that closed-minded not wanting people commenting on that particular image? Of course not. On the contrary, it is more logical not to be able to comment avatars (what’s the point of that level of “commenting the hell out of anything”?) Just because anything can be done, should anything be allowed to be done? I think that’s what the developers of Internet-based social tools must discuss.
For the time being, I have to say to one client that he does not get the right to avoid having his images commented. Perhaps that single thing causes me to lose the client.
It is not what I think about being open -or not- that matters, but what the options should be for a massive society-changing tool as Facebook.
Are any other community managers or social media consultors reading? What do you think on this?
Thanks a lot for this most interesting space, Anna!
Hi Anna…
Yes, I am set as admin for the group. Its status is secret (its a secret group). So should i be seeing the discssion tabs?
Thanks,
Sak
Anna, Ramiro, my 2 cents worht about the comments issue.. I think that its essential not to get to a point where 90% (dare i say 100%) of the business pages on fb opt to turn off the fans-can-comment option. If a business is very worried about bad press it needs to monitor its wall…. or why not make businesses pay for this option and (very important the ‘and’) gather xxxx amount of fans?.. that way the serious start ups have a way out..
an after thought – in fact, i’d like to have customisation where fans/group members dont have to see on the wall each time i invite someone (or someone likes a page) or each time i change change the description of my group/page (currently, even if add a space to the text, the alert goes it.. ) its almost like we’re bombarding the readers with useless information.. !
Looking forward to your reactions.. ;-)
One thing I find bemusing on Facebook is when I’ve “liked” a fan page.
I can’t understand why there isn’t a list of my likes that I can find in… say a drop down list… I have many likes
I have to scroll down past all of my comments on my profile to find a fan page that I’ve previously liked. It can sometimes take forever to find a page.
… Unless I’m missing something?
Hi Mark, this should be an easier way for you (though I still think there’s room for improvement like making it a searchable list): Go to your profile view, then go to your info page, scroll down to ‘activities and interests’ and you’ll see some of them listed there. If you have a lot of pages you’ve liked, click ‘more’ at the end of that list and all of them will then come up. Hope that helps. Anna :)
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