Blog Archives
13 Things To Know About the New Facebook Timeline
The new Facebook Timeline is now here for business pages and coming next week to all profiles. Many people don’t like change and are afraid to change over to the new Timeline. So since I am a very visual person, I have put together some screen shots of the new Timeline to help you maneuver through it. Once you know where everything is, the Timeline isn’t so bad. PLUS…nothing has changed on your newsfeed which is where most of us spend all out time anyways 
I hope this helps!
This area is what you will see first and spend most of your time.
#1 The drop down arrow at the top, next to “Home” is where you will log in/out, and find your privacy and security setting.
#2 The cover photo is a huge picture that you can get pretty creative with. To change your cover photo, just hover over it and you will see the option to change it anytime. The dimensions for the pic is 851×315 pixels.
#3 Your profile pic is pretty much the same as before (180×180 pixels) and if you hover over it, you will see options to edit the picture.
#4 “Update Info” is where you will edit your profile, just click on it.
#5 “About me” section is clickable and will also take you to the “edit page” feature
#6 If you have more tabs on your page than the ones you see, there will be a small drop down arrow to click on. You can actually change the position and order of the tabs here.
The great thing about the Timeline is the privacy controls and various options you have when posting.
#7 While posting, you can tag a person or page, add the year, and add the place you are at when posting.
#8 Once you click inside the posting box, you will see a drop down box that allows you to change who is viewing that particular post. You can change the post to be seen as “public”, meaning anyone can see it. You can change it to “friends” or you can change it to “custom”, meaning only your friends will see the post except for a particular person or group of people. This comes in handy if you don’t want your kids to see something, you are planning a surprise party and don’t want the friend to see your posts to other friends about it, etc.
Have you ever posted something you wish you didn’t or were spammed by someone else? You can easily edit and remove pictures and posts.
#9 When you hover over a post, you will see the edit button, click it. You will then have various options to delete the post completely, hide it from your timeline, meaning it is still there for only you to see, or report and mark as spam. In this particular picture, 2 friends saw the same picture and thought of me and decided to post it on my wall
The Timeline has the zig-zag style of posting which can be confusing for some people. If there is a particular post you would like to attract more attention to, then you can “highlight” it.
#10 Hover over the post and you will see a star appear, click it. The post/picture will then spread all the way across your timeline and will be bigger than life!
#11 As you’re scrolling down your Timeline, you will notice a toolbar pop up at the top of your page. This allows for easy navigation so you don’t have to scroll all the way up to go to a different part of your profile.
#12 While you are in the editing section of your profile, notice every section either has a drop down box next to it or an “edit” button. This allows you to control the privacy on every single area of your profile. Take advantage of that!
#13 And finally, the whole point of the new Timeline is to tell your story and then be able to go back and laugh at yourself 
Enjoy and embrace the new Timeline and have fun!
If you have any questions…you know where to find me!
Click the pic!
Find me on Facebook!
Follow me on Twitter!
Free Facebook Page Assessment – City of St. George, UT.
As a FREE promotion, I offered on my Facebook page to assess anyone elses page for them if they commented on my post. James Duckett, Technology Services Division Manager for the City of St. George, UT. responded. I have worked for a city department before and understand there are limitations and lots of red tape to do what most companies wouldn’t bat an eye to. So the fact that the city even has an active Facebook page is a huge plus! So lets gets started…
Needs improvement:
1. No welcome page/landing tab
This is your first impression. A welcome page is your opportunity to get their attention, convey a message, and wow them. No welcome page means new fans land on your wall which, depending on what your last post was, could be boring. Welcome pages are easy to create especially if you are a computer guy who knows HTML or iFrames. But if your not that savvy there are plenty of free applications like wix.com or you can always outsource it to your favorite web guy.
2. Business listing
I wasn’t quite sure how you got the City to be listed as a sports club and actually thought that was cute since St. George is known for its outdoorsy venue of rock climbing, hiking, marathons and triathalons. But hopefully you set up the catagory as a local business/place and then sub category as community or government OR under organization/government organization. Good news is that if you set it up wrong you can always change your category under the “edit page” feature. The name is good and says the city and state in the category line since of course there may be more than one St. George (What? Never!). ;) however it would be even better to have the state listed in the title name.
3. Profile picture
I would suggest using a larger logo for the profile picture. It’s too small to read the super cursive script that says St. George and it just gets lost.
4. About me
List the city’s website first on the “about me” section which will help funnel people over to the city website. Making that link easily accessible is a plus.
5. Wall posts
Fans are unable to post on the wall, limiting the engagement. Many cities do this for a number of reasons such as they, don’t want spam, they don’t have anyone full time to monitor the postings, or they don’t want negative feedback or irrelevant posts. The problem is, the city is alienating it’s fans and citizens by doing so. Social media is about people and talking to those people, not at them. Allow them to talk to you and then listen and respond. If there are negative comments, use it as a PR moment and solve the problem.
6. Use applications
The page is a little boring and could be spruced up with other applications. The city has a ton of information like events, department listings, and other city links. Use iFrame pages to create custom tabs to show a list of common referenced numbers or the events tab for upcoming community events. Connect the city’s Twitter and YouTube pages and create tabs for those as well. Make your Facebook page a secondary site to your website. Maybe even include a monthly Mayor’s address on video to post to YouTube and Facebook.
7. Picture strip
Use your picture strip at the top of the page to your advantage. Any picture you post on your wall gets thrown up there but you can manage those pictures and keep what you want on the strip. Just hover over the pic you don’t want and you will have the option to delete. Use descriptive pictures and logos to tell a story or convey a message.
The good stuff:
1. The name
As I said earlier, the name is good and to the point. City and state in the category line which will differentiate you from other similar cities when users are searching for you.
2. Featured Likes
On the left side of the page is the “featured likes” section. You have used this area well and connected with other departments and partners with the city such as the recreation center, police department, and Art Festival.
3. Good content
Frequent posts with links and detailed information is great! Lots of info coming from the city so get it out there!
4. Info tab
A history of the city gives a little trivia to someone who may not even been looking for it. I like it!
5. Pictures
Lots of great pictures from events and around the city, keep em’ coming!
Finally, ask yourself why would anyone look for and then go to the City of St. George’s Facebook page and then add that information. Are they looking for relocation, employment, chamber of commerce, utility department, events, news, phone numbers, the Mayor? Even better…ASK THE FANS.
Good luck!
Click the pic!
