Facebook Timeline executive briefing

Executive Briefing: Facebook timeline for brandsSean McDonald & David J. Neff

@antseyeview #aevbriefing

2©2012 Ant’s Eye View | Proprietary + Confidential | antseyeview.com | Austin + Seattle + Mountain View

Session purposeUnderstand forthcoming changes to Facebook timeline and illustrate the impact to brands.

Outcomes

• How the role of the Facebook community manager will change.

• How imagery will be as important as words.

• 3 new strategic objectives to consider.

• How changes may affect skillset needs.

• 2 key tips on visual display requirements.

• 4 key tips on new content attributes.

• 3 key tips on measurement changes.

Agenda for this briefing


Sean MacDonaldSenior Vice PresidentBrand Engagement

David J. NeffSenior ConsultantTraining and Readiness Content Expert

Ben McConnellVice PresidentLeader of Readiness and Training

Presenters for this briefing

Collective practitioner experience:

• Global brand building• Global reputation management• Community management• Data visualization• Information architecture• Dell.com• The Dallas Morning News• The American Cancer Society• Creating Customer Evangelists

(2003) • Citizen Marketers (2007)

Facebook timeline for brands

Impact on strategy


What most brands do on FacebookVie for attention.

Rise of the experimenter brandsAT&T’s customer service strategy on Facebook.

Facebook timeline is a crossroads for brands

• All brands required to adopt timeline on March 30

• Facebook holds all the cards

• Brands are simply a tenant in the Facebook kingdom

Facebook and brands: Impact on strategy


Timeline prompts new Facebook objectives

• Share brand heritage

• Serve customers where they surf

New objectives impact resource planning

• Design

• Content creation

• Customer service and support

Resource planning changes include

• Community manager becomes de-facto brand historian

• Administrator has more data to inform business decisions

• Digital agencies enhance image libraries and align storyboards with timeline functionality

Facebook and brands: The impact on strategy


Facebook wants brands to become storytellers

• Stories are memorable, repeated

• Posts have short shelf life

The heightened role of imagery

• Vital for content

• Vital for navigation

Participation at the forefront

• No longer about wall posts

• A new frontier to master



Share highly specific information

• Company heritage

• Company values and culture

• The people of your company

Embrace the power of imagery

• Humans have been reading for 2,000 years

• Humans have been observing for 100,000 years

New tools to learn and use

• Content management

• Brand engagement


Facebook timeline for brands

Impact on execution

Visual identityContent creationMeasurement


Visual tip: Make an impact with the cover

• Always a photo, not a billboard.

• No calls to action.

• No contact info.

• Work in conjunction with the profile image.

Facebook and brands: The impact on execution


Visual tip: Highlight apps with photos

• iframes, pages, landing pages are gone.

• Keep app thumbnails in mind when designing.

• Unlike the cover photo and profile photo, keep app thumbnails consistent.



Content tip: Update visual content frequently

• Rotate cover image often.

• Update photos from events.

• Tell stories visually.

• Notice new visual attention levels in heat map.


Visual attention levelNew Old


Content tip: Identify a story of the week

• Important updates can be pinned to top of page.

• Similar to pinning FAQ in forums.

• Remains pinned for seven days.

• User posts are not eligible for pinning.



Content tip: Get to know apps

• Pages, iframes and tabs are gone.

• Unable to link to apps from ads.

• Highlights four apps at a time.

• Photos always the first app.



Content tip: Start sharing brand history

• Identify several key milestones in brand history.

• Perfect opportunity to tell history of brand.

• Pictures and content are splashed across width of timeline.

• Use video and images as much as possible.

• Friend activity section highlights users friends who liked the page.



Measurement tip: Set expectations for the new inbox

• Displayed above Like button.

• Allows brands to get direct messages from their fans.

• Behind the scenes customer service opportunity/set expectations/office hours.

• Optional feature.



Measurement tip: Use activity log to determine timeline priorities

• Timeline is hard to scroll.

• Ability to update key info.

• View past content in an easy format.



Measurement tip: Update / create new Facebook measurement goals

• Improved UI and dashboard look.

• With new content types numbers will change/OGST needs to be revisited.

• Track all posts/reach.

• Real time data rumor.

• Self guided tour.



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Key points on strategy

• Facebook wants brands to become storytellers.

• Increased importance placed on imagery.

• Time to revisit strategy plan for new, updated objectives.

• New requirements may require additional skillsets.

Key points on execution

• Brand cover pages should be designed for visual impact.

• Tabs are dead; replaced with apps.

• Apps are best when photo-driven.

• Brand history is key component to successful timeline.

• Customers/users can send email directly to a brand.

• Activity log can help determine timeline priorities.

• Create new or update previous Facebook KPIs or goals.

A summary of this executive briefing

Business

Facebook Timeline executive briefing