The basics of Facebook Timeline for Brand Pages

I recently put together some basic information Facebook’s Timeline feature which is now the default interface for all personal and brand pages on Facebook.

1. Personal vs. Business
Facebook accounts are for people. Facebook pages are for businesses and brands.

2. What is Timeline?
Timeline is the new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story.

3. You need a cover photo
Facebook Pages now looks different. For one thing, Pages now sport a “cover photo. One of the most noticeable new features of Facebook Timeline is the highly visual appearance of the page. Custom landing pages have been replaced with a cover photo, which measures 851 x 351 pixels. This is a premium piece of visual real estate that you can maximize in order to help your page make an engaging first impression with current and prospective fans.

This article provides some guidance on creating cover photos:
How to Create a Facebook Timeline Cover Photo: Examples and Best Practices

4. Timeline is not optional
Facebook changed personal profiles to Timeline last fall and changed all brand pages to Timeline as of March 30, 2012. If you have any Facebook Timeline, if you haven’t customized your page for it, it doesn’t matter.

5. The Rules
There are rules about what can and cannot be included: Per Facebook’s guidelines, cover photos may not include price or discount information, such contact details as a website address (that should be in the “about” section), references to Facebook features or such calls to action as “likes,” or such things as “tell your friends” or “get it now.”


Posted by Shawn Roberts

On this blog, I write about and try to answer practical Oklahoma legal questions. My focus and most experience is in estate planning and business issues including Oklahoma non-compete law. I make a living as an attorney in the law firm I founded, Shawn J. Roberts, P.C. in Oklahoma City. I live in Edmond with my wife Amy and my two children, Sam (19) and David (11). We live precisely in the path of where the "wind comes sweeping down the plains."

1 comment

Lee Roberts

Thank you for the new information. Very helpful.