Hey guys,

OK, unless you have buried in work for the last month or two (like me :-)), you will have heard about the new Facebook timeline changes for all fan pages.
Basically, on March 30th 2012 all pages will be automatically changed over to the new timeline format on Facebook

So I would recommend you go and familiarize yourself with the new layout before Facebook makes the change.

I personally think it’s a great update, I know it’s a bit of a pain to update your pages, but there are loads of new features that are pretty cool:

Cool New Features:

Massive Cover Photo Size

The cover photo, or main image at the top of your page can now be upto 851 pixels wide, giving you a LOT more exposure to highlight your page.

Cover photos are 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall. If you upload an image that’s smaller than these dimensions, it will get stretched to this larger size. The image you upload must be at least 399 pixels wide.

Facebook has set a few rules with this though, check them out:

Cover images must be at least 399 pixels wide and may not contain:

• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
• Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section
• References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
• Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

All cover images are public, which means anyone visiting your Page will be able to see the image you choose. Covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading, and must not infringe on third parties’ intellectual property. You may not encourage or incentivize people to upload your cover image to their personal timelines.

Oh, and they’ll probably keep updating them, so make sure you keep checking!

Much Wider Page Tabs

This is great in my opinion, the old page tabs used to be 520px wide, allowing you to use around 500px before scrolling, but the new ones are a massive 810px wide which you can place a decent 790px page into.

That’s pretty much a full size website, giving you a LOT more scope for making your page look cool with loads of content.

Better Tab Icons

The tab icons that link to your ‘Photos’, ‘Likes’ and custom tabs etc. are placed very prominently just below your cover photo, they are much larger than the previous ones (109x72px)

Fan Page Messaging

This is also a pretty cool feature, pages now have the option to show a ‘Message’ button just below the cover photo, so fans can message the page privately. As I said it’s optional, but by default it shows the message button.

It’s a good way for your fans to interact with you I think, as long as it does not get abused. Guess we’ll have to see how that goes eh! 🙂

Highlighting and Pinning Posts

This is definitely a cool feature, by simply clicking the little star at the top of a post you can ‘highlight’ it, making it full page width, and by clicking the little pencil icon you can pin that post to the top of your page.

Awesome idea for those ‘need to be seen’ posts!

New  Page Admin Panel

This is also a pretty cool feature, you can now view your admin panel in great detail above your page, giving you information on notifications, messages, likes, insights and page tips right at your fingertips

Not So Cool New Features:

Default Landing Tab Removal

Booooooo, the default landing tab is going to be removed, so you can’t set which page a fan will land on by default, it’s not a big drawback, especially with the new tab icon size being more readable, but nevertheless it’s not so cool!

Please let me know your thoughts on the new Facebook timeline changes, and feel free to share one link to your new fan page once you have it set up.

Also, don’t forget to ‘like’ and share this post using the options below too please!

Talk soon,

Dave.