Ever since brands migrated to the Timeline, there have been several studies and ‘How To’ guides that define how businesses can make the most of the new Facebook. Thismoment’s research on what a typical Facebook marketing checklist includes shows that:
- Most brands religiously follow the “From the Cover Image to Milestones” guide.
- While the checklists highlight the importance of content, a select few touch upon managing this content and presenting it as a unified whole.
These are, undoubtedly, great guidelines for brands looking to leverage the Timeline. However, there are also other, highly crucial tasks that brands need to include in their Facebook marketing checklist:
#1:Content Arrangement
According to an ExactTarget study, too many marketing posts and too much boring/repetitive content were among the top reasons why brands were being ‘unliked’ on Facebook. Although the study dates back to 2011 and the ‘Wall’ has long since been ‘broken’, the challenge of including the right amount of content and arranging it in a way that doesn’t confuse visitors still remains.
- Featuring Offers & Discounts: Unlike the old layout where fans had to ‘like’ a page to checkout the discounts or scan through the ‘Wall’ for offers, the Timeline has several designated places for the offers.
- The custom tabs allow the inclusions of CTAs. The placement of the tabs ensures that the crucial offers are not missed out.
- Alternatively, brands can take advantage of Facebook Offers, a superior version of Facebook Deals (available only to certain local brands).
- Presentation is the Key: The Timeline is all about presentation; no matter how compelling the content is, it has to be presented in a manner that’s easy to digest… at a single glance. Check out Sprite’s Timeline to see how it’s done.
#2: Reinvent Brand Image
The Timeline is a great platform for brands looking to reinvent themselves.
- It’s Visually Rich and Organized: Make use of this. Despite being popular in the F&B space, Coca-Cola decided to polish their image further when the Timeline was introduced. Compared to the company’s old page, Coke’s Timeline is now a chronologically organized, visual canvas that showcases the brand in a better light.
- Showcase Your History: From archived photos to historic events, marketers can establish an emotional connection with users. Unlike the old Facebook, where brands’ pages were an amalgamation of ‘likes’ and ‘comments’, the Timeline allows businesses to reinvent themselves as brands with rich company history.
- The ‘About’ Section: The ‘About’ section tells a lot about your brand. For brands looking to overhaul their image, it’s important that they use this section judiciously to share essential information about their business…in less than 155 characters.
#3: Plan the ‘Post-Like’ Phase
If improving engagement and maintaining a healthy brand image are your objectives, then planning the ‘post-like’ phase is essential.
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Improving Engagement: Although engagement on Facebook begins with the ‘likes’, this is just a tip of the iceberg. According to Forrester, fans are more likely to purchase and recommend brands they engage with on Facebook than non-fans. Given the importance of engagement in conversion, brands need to define the key metrics of engagement. Are they measuring the number of ‘shares’, page views, etc.?
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Maintaining a Healthy Brand Image: The campaigns are launched, and your Timeline looks great. It can’t get better than this. But let’s face it; your brand could be lost in a sea of several other companies on Facebook. To actually understand how well your brand is doing, it’s important to tune-in to the conversations, analyze sentiment and conduct a demographic study by using social media monitoring tools like Thismoment’s Brand Monitor. This will give you a clearer picture of your brand’s Facebook health and determines if your Timeline needs some tweaking.
Conclusion
From visually rich cover images to pinning posts, brands have covered every chapter in the Timeline checklist; well…almost. In addition to these tasks, the smart marketer knows that presenting content in an organized, easy-to-digest manner, reinventing brand image and planning the ‘post-like’ phase is crucial for creating a winning Timeline. While these tasks are not typically included in marketing ‘how-to’ books, mastering the Timeline greatly depends on including them in your ‘must-have’ list.
- Shama Ahmed
Thismoment
