GeekSpeak- What’s new with Business Facebook Pages?

I recently had the opportunity to teach a group of professionals about how to use Facebook for their business. I told them that the knowledge that I was instilling in them was dynamic and that it could change overnight. I said “Facebook changes a lot”.

Less than a week later, Facebook unveiled their new and improved Pages (for businesses, mind you). To upgrade or not upgrade? That isn’t a question, Facebook made the update to our Pages for us automatically.

Here are some highlights of the new Pages from FB with my insights.

Photos at the top: The most recent photos that you post to the Wall of a Page you admin, or photos you tag your Page in, will appear here. If you want to remove you can click on it and then on a little X to remove it. They aren’t removed from Facebook just from the top of your page.

Use Facebook as your Page: You are now able to receive notifications for your Page, view a News Feed for your Page, and like and post on other Pages as your Page.

Want to give it a try? (you can always switch back)

One way to switch between profile mode and Page mode. From your Page, you can click the link on the right that says “Use Facebook as [Your Page Name],” and then switch back by clicking “Use Facebook as [Your Name].”

What can you do with your Page?

Essentially, anything you do while using Facebook as your Page will appear on Facebook as coming from your Page (usually a business or organization).

Notifications: You can view notifications of Page activity and new fans on your page through the top navigation bar.

Wall filters: Pages now have two publicly visible Wall filters-”Posts by Page” and “Everyone.” When viewing a Page Wall with the “Everyone” filter, the most engaging posts will appear at the top (i.e., posts will not appear in chronological order). Page admins will be able to view additional filters-”Most Recent” and “Hidden Posts.”

eMail notifications: You can opt to receive notifications when people post or comment on your Page. This was a popular request. In the olden days you had to logon to FB to check your page, now you can receive notifications via eMail. Now that is progress! I’m not kidding, my wife (Publisher of this fantastic paper) has complained about the lack of this basic feature from the start.

Featured Pages and admins: You can feature other Pages your Page likes, or admins of your Page, in the new “Likes” and “Page Owners” sections on your Page.

Mutual connections: When people visit your Page, they will be able to view friends who also like your Page, as well as other Pages that both they and your Page like.

Navigation: Page can now be found in the column underneath your Page profile picture. The text in the box that used to appear in the box underneath your Page profile picture will now appear in the Info tab.

Profile picture size: The profile picture size for Pages has been adjusted down to 180×540. You should update your old profile picture.

The one constant for Facebook is change. Some call it progress, I call it job security. ~:-)

If you’d like to learn more about Facebook you can contact my company, omOriginals Marketing! for some consultation or to ask about upcoming classes.

www.omOriginals.com

(360)575-9839

Oscar Myre IV is the creative Director at omOriginals Marketing and co-publisher of The Valley Bugler, as well as acting Graphics coordinator for all advertising. He enjoys running the lake when he isn’t tickling or playing with his kiddos at their new house.