Timeline for pages: A rebuttal to the naysayers

Joel Farr

March 30, 2012

Change has arrived. Today Facebook rolled out the new timeline format for all Facebook pages. If you haven’t seen how they look yet, here’s a peak at Target’s new page:

All of us are creatures of habit.  Most of us hate change.  Many of you are whining and complaining about the new look, but I’m going to try and help you see it from a different perspective.

First, let’s get your attitude right.  Imagine a world with no Facebook.  How much harder did it just become to reach your audience and to reach out to their friends?  Realize that Facebook is a free service that offers an incredible way for you to network beyond your wildest dreams.  Facebook doesn’t owe you anything, and you aren’t paying them a dime to house your business page on their servers.  Yet it empowers a gigantic network of people to come in contact with your company/business and brand, who otherwise might not have through any other way.

Now that you’re feeling grateful, hopefully I can help you see the good in the Timeline change.  Here are my top three reasons why this change is a good thing:

  1. More real estate – Both the homepage and the custom tabs allow for more space to brand your page in better ways.  Would you complain if you had a billboard on the freeway and you got notified that they were going to make it bigger?
  2. Easier to navigate – Now that your status updates/posts are organized by year and on a convenient timeline, it’s much easier to find that hilarious gif of a cat knocking a 3 year old off his trike you saw 3 months ago.  Who can argue that that’s not better?  Also, the new layout highlights your custom tabs MUCH better, as they have been given a convenient spot near the top of the page.
  3. Much cleaner layout – I don’t know about you, but personally I don’t like websites with a bunch of gobbleygook (Gobble E Gook) everywhere. Gobbleygook is anything that gets in the way of you trying to do whatever you’re trying to do.  The new layout is MUCH simpler. And although there might be a bit of a learning curve, I think once a new habit is formed, you’ll all agree with me.  Even the new and improved admin interface is much cleaner and more organized.

Target has a well-branded, good looking Facebook page that demonstrates the beauty of the new look.  When done right, Timeline can bring even more power to your brand and online presence.  So stop your whining and start taking advantage of that bigger billboard Zuckerberg just gave you.