I consider myself a very visual person. And I believe a lot of people would agree that images can grab our attention more than text. As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words” as a single image can deliver a message without the need for actual words or text. This is exactly why I LOVE Facebook Timeline.

By the end of March 2012, all Facebook pages were automatically switched over to Timeline. Like it or not, you have to deal with it and be creative. And in my honest opinion, businesses can reap the most benefits from this switch because visuals or images can grab people’s attention better than writing a whole block of sales pitch. It forces everyone to be more visual on their presentations, and I think it is most effective.

Things that I LOVE About Facebook Timeline

I LOVE the cover photo and I know my fellow bloggers would agree with me on this. Our Facebook page can now look like an extension of our blog since we can use our blog’s header as the cover photo.

The Timeline or page’s wall also gives us a way to present photos better. What I do now is upload photos and then add the link to my blog post on the caption. So far, I’m seeing better responses from people who are following my pages. I now prepare a different photo for posting on my page to ensure it fits the 404 x 404 dimension required so the whole image is seen from the wall.

I also love that I can highlight posts to make them stand out among all the rest of the other posts. The image below isn’t a good example because I didn’t follow the 843 x 404 recommended dimensions for highlighted images. So, make sure you follow it if you want to maximize this. 🙂

I love that I can pin or sticky any post that I want so anyone who goes to my Facebook page will see that right away. Very useful when I have giveaways or important announcements. Any business, whether online or you’re selling tangible products like motorcycle parts and accessories, computers, gadgets, etc., you can benefit from this feature, for sure.

I love that I can customize and rearrange the tabs or buttons you can see on the top of the page. You can feature your favorite apps, or the most important sections of your page that you want your followers to see first. You can be all sorts of creative with it. I hope this week, I’d have more time to work on the designs of the tabs (dimension is 111×74) for all my pages since they all look so fricking simple now.

Again, my tabs aren’t the best examples, but I will update this when I get more time to work on them 🙂

And I’m glad they added the feature for followers to send a message to the admins of the Facebook page. This is very useful since most people I know prefer to send messages through Facebook now than email, though I still prefer to receive emails for formality.

Other things I love are the tab page and the ability to add Milestones (share your business or website’s history, when it was launched/established, you hit a certain # of fans, etc).

Check the bottom of this post for links to different resources like dimensions you need to know, new guidelines on Facebook Timeline for pages, etc.

My Love / Hate Relationship with Facebook Timeline

Just like in any relationship, my love for Facebook Timeline is not perfect. There are things I hate about it that I wish they can work on in the coming days or weeks. See if you agree with me:

#1: I hate the Friends feed on the right side.

This is my view as an admin of the page. I don’t like seeing the box showing my friends activity related to my FB page. I hope I can turn this off next time. I only prefer to see MY own contents there or at least give me an option to disable these boxes.

FYI: The screenshot was taken from my brother’s account that’s why you’re seeing my name there.

The said friends feed box also appears on followers of the page. The main reason why I hate it is because it shows even the oldest post. If they’d have this available forever, at least only show the latest updates.

#2: The quality of the cover photo images sucks.

I tried uploading images in different formats and it looks the same. And I made sure to follow the required dimensions (851×315). Using text on there makes the whole image worse. I’m still working on making them look nicer. Again, I need more time! 😀

So far, those are the only 2 I hate about Facebook Timeline. I’ll keep this updated as I encounter any more issues with it.

Resources:

If you’d like to read more about what others are saying about Facebook Timeline or very helpful articles I’ve found all over the web, here they are:

• Infographic: Facebook Timeline Dimensions
• Facebook Timeline for Visual Artists: 7 Essential Features for Marketing Your Art
• Facebook Timeline for Fan Pages: 21 Key Points for Marketers

In case you don’t want to design your own Facebook cover photos, here are sites that can help:

• Pic Scatter – Design a photo collage for your timeline cover. Free version has a watermark though.
• Paint the Moon Photography – You have to share though so it’ll be free.
• 50+ Love FacebooK Cover Photo Free Download – I LOVE the cover photos here. If you’re feeling romantic, check the images.
• Mashable’s list of 5 sites where you can customize your cover photo
• Free Facebook Cover Photos from Digital Blasphemy – I especially love their designs. 🙂

Enjoy everyone! 🙂