How to Use Facebooks Timeline to Market Your...

How to Use Facebook's Timeline to Market Your Business

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Table of Contents Understanding Facebook’s Goals .............................................................. 4 “Tell Me More about Sponsored Stories and Ads” ..................................... 5 What Your Timeline Says ........................................................................... 7 Using Polls, HTML and Survey Apps ....................................................... 12 Analytics for Facebook Timeline ............................................................... 14 Facebook Fan Pages and Timeline Changes .......................................... 16 Facebook Engagement Marketing Mistakes ............................................ 16 Fascinating Facebook Facts ..................................................................... 21



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By now you’re probably familiar with Facebook’s new chronological “Timeline” format. Facebook itself provides a comprehensive overview in its help section:

You’ve added a “cover photo” (custom background) behind your Profile photo, highlighted and shared stories or photos that are important to you and edited your basic information to make better use of the changes. But how can you use Facebook’s new Timeline format to your business advantage? How can it help you market your business? Understanding Facebook’s Goals Before you rush ahead on this quest, it will help to take a step back, as well as a good, hard look at Facebook’s own goals. They want to sell advertising. It’s as simple as that. And to do so, they need to pack in as many ads as possible. One of the main ways the new Timeline format fits in with these goals occurs thanks to Facebook’s new Edge Rank algorithm. Edge Rank gives a new priority to photos, closely followed by illustrated links and videos. The reason?



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Graphics provide an easy way for Facebook to plant ads and “sponsored stories”1 in the lower right corner of any graphic its users provide – whether these are personal photos, shared photos or any other sort.

Understanding this basic Facebook Timeline fact should help you instantly recognize two important facts:

• Facebook will distribute photos you share as widely as possible, so it can display ads to more people

• You too can pay for your own “sponsored story” or in-photo ad

The example above is a simple Facebook Ad. A sponsored story is one of your own posts – but you are paying for Facebook to drive people directly to your link via the “Sponsored” section within photos.

“Tell Me More about Sponsored Stories and Ads” How do you create a sponsored story or ad? Simply visit www.facebook.com/ads/create and get started with a simple, three-step

1 Paid stories



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process, first using your existing Facebook account as your login. (No one will be able to see your personal details.) You can define your target audience based on existing profile categories:

• Location • Age • Gender • Generic categories • Workplace • Education • Relationship status • Likes • Interests

If you have a Facebook Page (and that should already be a basic part of your Facebook strategy), you can choose to target your ads or sponsored stories to your page’s followers, too. One of the most effective and powerful types of sponsored stories are positive posts others have written about you. If a post on your wall has you wishing “all my customers could read this”, it’s probably one you should consider changing to a sponsored story. Doing so will ensure that significantly more people will see your link – and it’s especially effective in helping you spread the word about (and brand) your Facebook Page. To create a sponsored story, you must be the admin of a Page, app or domain, and you can create them when people:

• Share a website or use the “Like” icon on it • Use your app • RSVP to an event • Vote in a Poll • Check in

TIP: If you want to create a whole batch of ads or sponsored posts, consider using Facebook’s free Power Editor.



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• Comment or “Like” a post • “Like” a Page

When you’re ready to create a sponsored story, simply visit Facebook Ads Creator:

If you are already familiar with ad creation and sponsored story creation, be aware there have been a few Facebook ad and sponsored story changes recently. (Be sure to check them out.) What Your Timeline Says There are many other tactics you can use to put Facebook’s Timeline algorithms and features to work in marketing your business.

1. Using a Cover Photo is a great way to start marketing your business. You cannot put offers, prices or heavy promotional text in your cover photo – in fact, you shouldn’t put any text into your cover photo – but if your text is representational of the spirit and heart of your business rather than promotional, you will most likely not suffer any repercussions.

In other words…

• A tagline such as “Your lifesaver in a sea of paper!” will most likely be accepted

• A special offer button stating: “BUY NOW! ONLY $29.99!” is absolutely forbidden.



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You can choose not to have a cover photo – but why waste the opportunity? Let’s take a look at two strong Timeline headers…

1. Instead of a profile photo, the individual running this Facebook account for Toyota USA has chosen to use the highly-recognizable and well-branded Toyota logo emblem. The cover photo behind that embodies summer and the carefree feeling of the open road (embodied by the dog, who doesn’t have a care in the world, totally lost in the moment).

2. In this example, the designer has chosen to get playful with the Profile picture and the cover photo, integrating both.



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Do put some thought into your cover photo and Profile photo – and get feedback from qualified customers, Friends or staff. What you think is a brilliant idea may give the average Facebook user a completely different idea of you or your company! You can also get innovative in other ways, replacing the cover photo with a video. How is that possible? That’s where timeline apps come in! Facebook Timeline Apps Facebook has created specific Timeline apps to help people – and its own algorithms – get the most out of Timeline’s capabilities and features...



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Apps add functionality and interactivity to Facebook Timeline – something your followers, clients and customers are most likely addicted to, if they are at all representative of mobile and social media users today. An example: You can “nudge” them into boosting your local business presence by using Facebook apps like FourSquare yourself (when they click on the app link, they quickly find out how to install FourSquare for themselves). You can boost your Timeline results by adding commands such as “Like us with FourSquare” on your website or blog. There are literally hundreds of Timeline apps available for you to install and post about to your readers and followers (with more being added daily). Suit the app to your target customer demographic – for example, if you are targeting the eighteen to thirty-four-year-old age group, you might want to share favorite songs through Spotify. If your target demographic is mostly female and seems to enjoy sharing images, you really do need to install the Pinterest app. Sign up on Pinterest and start creating Pinboard yourself! (And be sure to install the “Pinit” sharing icon on all your website photos).

TIP: Don’t just sign up at the Pinterest site – ask one of your Pinterest-crazy friends to send you a personal invite: Otherwise, it might take up to two or three weeks before Pinterest gets around to admitting you to its ranks!



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Here is just a sampling of top Timeline apps considered most generally useful to marketers and small business owners…

• Pinterest (Photo and Pinboard sharing)

• FourSquare, TripAdvisor, Where I’ve Been (location-based Checkins)

• Mashable, BuzzFeed (authority news, particularly for internet and social media)

• RunKeeper, Endomondo (workout tracking and sharing)

• Yummly, Foodily (recipes)

• Causes, FundRazr (giving, non-profits)

• Oodle, Payvment (shopping, items for sale)

• Ustream (viewing, creating and sharing streaming video)

• Digg (Yes. This is where it’s hiding nowadays.)

• YouTube (need we say more?)

• ArtFinder (art and paintings)



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Using Polls, HTML and Survey Apps You also need to be aware of certain key apps – not necessarily Facebook apps but Facebook compatible – to use in your Facebook Timeline marketing. These are not interest or topic-based, nor but work to enhance Timeline functionality. The first one of these is AppAddictive…

AppAddictive’s site is well worth checking out, since they have a dizzying array of apps, for everything from their Static HTML app – which allows you to quickly make a custom Facebook Timeline page – to their Signup app, which offers a big, graphic-friendly signup box when people click on your Facebook Page. Take note that AppAddictive’s mission statement lies in “growing your business through the power of Social Media”. Some apps, such as Static HTML, are free, but for others you may need to pay. (Check out their pricing page for more information.) And everyone needs a Poll app! Simply type “Poll” into your Facebook Search Textarea box and you’ll be presented with a selection:



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Polldaddy is one of the most popular – but if you want a little more functionality, including the ability to add photographs to your polls, try “Poll”. It’s not free – but you do get a fourteen-day Free Trial. Check them all out for yourself, and decide which format would best suit your followers. Finally, if you want to run promotions, Q and A’s, sweepstakes with signups, graphics and extra sharing capacity, as well as polls, it might be more effective to consider Pinpoint Social. Their apps are not free, but you can pay either by the month ($29.00) or by individual, thirty-day campaign ($49.00).



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Analytics for Facebook Timeline You can use all your normal analytics, as well as specific analytics tools provided through your apps. And you definitely should not neglect Facebook Insights. But one factor you do need to be aware of is that there’s been a fifty-three percent drop in Facebook Page brand engagement since Timeline was released, according to authority source Mashable.com.



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As you can see, it’s only since April – as more and more small business owners adapt and learn to make the most of Timeline – that there’s a small rise again. How can you stop your Facebook page losing momentum since Timeline did away with the custom tabs? If you can afford it – and especially if analytics leave you staring in bemusement at graphs and figures that you don’t understand – you might want to consider investing $99.00 per month in Page Lever analytics tools, specifically designed for measuring Facebook business engagement. It’s well worth the investment, since in addition to your stats, Page Lever goes beyond Facebook Insights and also provides you with:

• Page Alerts – Drawing your attention instantly to anything that needs fixing or changing

• Post Tagging – To help you figure out which types of posts are bringing in the most true interaction and engagement

• A Page Groups Dashboard – Giving you an easy-to-understand overview, all in one place



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• Custom .PDF reports – Priceless, if you ever have to provide results or metrics for clients

Best of all, it comes with a free trial, so you can see for yourself if it’s going to increase engagement and noticeably help your business. For those who prefer a more hands-on approach, joining Facebook developers and using Facebook Insights is not only free, but available directly through Facebook itself. Facebook Fan Pages and Timeline Changes But What About Those Tabs? – While we’re looking at Timeline negatives, let’s tackle the subject of Tabs. One of the worst “mistakes” Timeline seems to have made lies in doing away with the option to select a specific landing tab for your business – that’s what is single-handedly responsible for that fifty-three percent decline in use we talked about earlier, according to many recognized SEO and social media authorities. One strategy that seems to be working, however: Featuring your custom tab or app in the Views and Apps toolbar instead. Replacing FBML – One used to be able to create beautifully-designed Facebook Pages using FBML (Facebook Mark-up Language), but when Timeline came in, Facebook switched to iFrames. You too can take advantage of iFrames’ capabilities by installing the Wildfire App, which allows you to customize your Facebook Page by installing graphic-based “fan gates”.

Facebook Engagement Marketing Mistakes Just as it’s important to institute “best practices”, it’s also important to avoid common mistakes. Here’s how to find out just how many mistakes there are – and avoid them:

1. Visit every business networking friend you have listed on your Facebook page under the “Friends” tab. I can virtually guarantee that out of all of them, none to one will have made best use of the Views and Apps toolbar, iFrames, or even truly relevant Cover



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Photos. In addition, many will display posts at war with the business image they wish to project. Go do that right now. Analyze your business friends’ Pages and Walls, and make note of all the mistakes they make – as well as what really works for you. There’s nothing like seeing what others are doing (wrong and right) – as well as noting all the opportunities they’re missing – to help you gain a clear vision of what you need to do for your own Facebook Timeline marketing.

2. Check your Timeline stories and posts that apps make on your behalf. You will most likely be appalled at some of the unsolicited stuff that appears on your Timeline. For example, does your serious financier client really need to know you read an article this morning on “Eliminating Bubble Butt” or that you watched “Nerd HQ” while checking out Ustream?

You can hide any Activity (or post) by either hovering over the top, right-hand corner of the slug…

…Or by selecting the downward-slanting wand button, above the slug…



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Similarly, you may also need to delete a spammy or offensive comment occasionally (especially if you do not have tight privacy settings). For example, if your market is mostly evangelical Christians, you wouldn’t want them to read your heathen fifteen-year-old nephew’s cheery comment peppered with gross humor and what would almost certainly be viewed by your target group as unacceptable profanity. Simply hover over the top-right corner of the comment, and you’ll have an opportunity to delete or “Hide” it. To find all your posts, select the “Activity Log” button under your cover photo.

3. Revisit your Account Settings and Privacy Settings. Several options have changed, with Facebook Timeline. You need to go into your Account Settings and Privacy settings and make sure they are still relevant. (You will probably be surprised at all the little corrections and tweaks you can make.) Remember, you can test your new settings out by visiting the icon to the right of your Activity Log and selecting “View As…”, to see how specific Friends or followers are going to see your Timeline:



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4. Install Facebook Badges and sharing icons on your sites. As you can see from the previous illustration, there’s an easy option to create these right on that self-same drop-down menu, beside your Activity Log button.

5. Make sure you give highest priority to business fans, customers, clients or industry movers and shakers. Also ensure you Unsubscribe from anyone whose posts are detrimental or spammy. You can do this by hovering over the downward arrow tab within any post by a particular person. A drop-down menu will appear, allowing you to assign importance to that person (or unsubscribe altogether, if their posts are consistently annoying, spammy or offensive).

(Of course, the Catch-22 is that one is never currently quite sure which updates Facebook will decide are “Only Important”, since this is liable to change without warning…)

6. Set your Timeline and Tagging Privacy Settings. This is a relatively minor tweak – but one you may find it helpful to make. Go to “Privacy Settings/Timeline and Tagging/Edit Settings”, and select the options that will work for your business needs the most specifically:



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Note that there is no wrong or right: Simply choose what suits your business best. (And remember to check your Activity Log regularly, if you’ve enabled “Review posts” or “Review tags”.) This reminds us…

7. Check your Activity Log regularly.

8. Make sure your new Facebook username and email address – oh yes, they’ve replaced your previous contact email with a new Facebook email address – reflect your business identity clearly. (Tip: Changing the username can currently restore your old, preferred email address.) For example, if you look and find out to your surprise that your email address and username are now “[email protected]”, change your username to something more descriptive: E.G. “joan.smith.videospecialist”. Be aware, however, that once you change your username, you cannot change it back!

9. Don’t post via third-party apps such as HootSuite without including a photo: Otherwise, Edge Rank won’t even touch the auto-post.

10. The fastest way to make people hide your posts is to post too often, post “downer” personal observations or post irrelevant content.



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11. Change your cover image regularly. It’s one of the easiest ways

to boost your Edge Rank score and remind people to view your Timeline.

12. Don’t waste valuable space showing how many “Likes” you have. Instead, substitute a more relevant app icon.

13. Gather a team to help you in your social marketing, if your budget allows it – even if it’s just one assistant. Especially if you find yourself either too distracted and wasting time on Facebook… or you’re one of those who find social networking a time-and-money-wasting chore. There are many routine tasks an assistant or team can take over for you. (Just remember to create a clear policy and guidelines for them, so they can “speak with your voice” and make the best and most consistent decisions for your social media presence.)

14. If a post is wildly successful (i.e. gathers “Likes” and multiple comments) don’t post again until it has run out of steam. Many people make the mistake of trucking right along and ousting the highly active comment with one that gets no attention at all – thus hiding the active comment too soon.

Remember, the more you control what appears on your Timeline, the better you can represent your business there – but be careful, too. If you control your Timeline too rigidly, you may end up excluding or simply not engaging the very people you most wish to “meet”. Fascinating Facebook Facts

• You cannot Pin photos to Pinterest directly from Facebook

• Facebook does not provide tracking to show you who has been viewing your Facebook Timeline; or how many. (Any emails or posts you receive inviting you to find out are always viruses or from spammers!)

You can, however, get a free score from Edgerankchecker



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• Facebook’s Edge Rank algorithm also gives higher scores to comments than to simple “Like” pressing

• “Life Events” are public by default – so think carefully before adding them

• You can reposition your photos by hovering over the wand in the top right corner and selecting “Reposition Photo” and dragging it to display differently

Think back to all your networking business friends and competitors Pages and Timelines you studied earlier. Can you see how putting these strategies into practice (and avoiding common pitfalls) increases your chances of engagement in leaps and bounds?

Finally, there’s one last important strategy you need to know. It’s nothing new – but your Facebook engagement will fizzle without it…

Post consistently and often (and that both including photos and interactive content, as well as changing your Facebook Cover Photo and Profile Photo). Remember, new content adds significant “weight” to your Edge Rank rating; and that affects the amount and type of content Facebook displays to your contacts.

And above all – continue to keep it warm and keep it real. As social media expert Mari Smith recently reported overhearing: "When the marketers move in, the members move out".

Keep the focus on your fans – and you’ll never have to worry about statistics.

How to Use Facebooks Timeline to Market Your...

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