Major changes are afoot in the land of Facebook. Facebook page admins who’ve logged into their accounts recently may have noticed they now have the option to preview and/or upgrade their page to the new design, which will officially replace the old design after March 10. Here’s what you can expect from the new design:
·Top row of photos. Just like the new Facebook profiles, the new Facebook pages will feature a row of five of your most recently added or tagged photos.
·New Facebook profile picture size. Facebook profile pictures have been adjusted slightly from 200×600 to 180×540.
·No more information box. The information box, or the box located directly underneath your Facebook profile picture, will be no more after the changeover. All information box’ contents will automatically transfer over the Info section.
·Left-hand navigation. With the new design, Facebook is doing away with the tabs in favor of a left-hand menu located below the profile picture.
·From FBML to iFrames. After March 10, iFrames will replace Static FBML as the way of creating custom Facebook page tabs.
·Use Facebook as page. Page admins can view notifications and a news feed for their page, as well as “like†and comment on other Facebook pages.
·E-mail notifications. Page admins can also receive notifications of comments, likes and more in their e-mail inbox.
·New wall filters. Pages will have two wall filters visible to all Facebook users: “Posts by Page†and “Everyone.†Page admins will also be able to view “Hidden Posts†and “Most Recent†in the admin view.
·Featured pages. You can now feature pages that your page has liked in the featured pages section.
·Featured admins. You can now let Facebook users know exactly who is controlling this page.
At CyberMark, we’re pretty excited about the new Facebook page (page notifications, yay!) However, the transition from the old design to the new design will most likely call for a few adjustments. Here’s a short checklist to help make the changeover a smooth and beneficial one:
·Make sure your top photo row shows only the photos and images that put your organization in the best light. To remove photos from the photo row, simply click on them. You can also choose to leave the row blank simply by removing all of the photos.
·Check your Facebook profile picture to ensure that it still looks great in the smaller dimensions.
·With the information box automatically transferring into the Info tab, be sure to look over your Info tab to make sure there are no redundancies. Also, as Facebook has recently added several new fields to the Info tab, you might want to rearrange some information.
·Switch over your tabs created with FBML to iFrames. Although Facebook has assured us that FBML tabs will be viewable after the changeover, that’s not likely to last forever. Talk to your developer about making the transition, if you haven’t done so already.
·Find and like pages you want to associate with your organization so that they appear in the featured section of your page.
·If you want people to know who the admin of a page is, be sure to add them under featured page owners.
If you would like help adjusting your Facebook page to the new design, we would love to help. Just contact us with your questions.
