The 7 Most Important Changes to Facebook Pages

Amplify’d from blog.appbistro.com

The 7 Most Important Changes to Facebook Pages

Today Facebook announced some major changes to Facebook Pages for businesses. We wrote about some of these changes back in December when Facebook accidentally pushed an early version of the new Pages live. Admins will have until March 10 to switch over to the design before they are forced to switch. At Appbistro we know the Pages are a major part of your marketing strategies, so we took an in depth look at the new design, and now present the 7 8 most important changes that will affect you, Page admins.

1. Tabs Are Gone

We talked about this is December, and it’s important to talk about it again now. Facebook has moved tabs to a left column navigation underneath the Page profile photo. This is a move Facebook made because of the low engagement that tabs saw. By moving the navigation to below the Page profile photo, they are hoping more users will interact with 3rd party applications.

2. Photos Are Front and Center

Photos are an important part of Facebook. Facebook is the largest photo sharing site in the world, getting almost 2 billion photos uploaded monthly. Photos are highly engaging and one of the many reasons Facebook is used by so many people. Facebook redesigned user profiles in 2010 to make photos front and center. Facebook’s Rohit Dhawan, the lead product manager for Facebook Pages, told Mashable that at Facebook,  “we strongly believe you should have consistent experiences when possible.” So having a user profile that looks starkly different than Pages goes against Facebook’s philosophy of consistent experiences.

3. Posting Preferences

Facebook has made it easier to post on your Page as yourself, rather than posting as the Page. There is now a setting that allows you to always comment and post on your page as the Page even when using your Facebook user account. You can alternatively turn this feature off, which will allow you to post as your user profile unless you are logged in as the Page. More on that later.

4. E-mail Notifications

Facebook has also introduced a new setting that will allow you to get an email anytime someone posts or comments on your page. This is a big change for Page admins, in the past you had to use 3rd party tools to know when users are posting on your Page. This should make it way easier for admins to keep up with their Pages.

5.  Use Facebook As Your Page

This nifty new feature will allow you to use Facebook as if you were logged in as your Page. This will enable you to get notifications in real time anytime someone interacts with your Page or posts, see a newsfeed of only the Pages you like, Like other Pages and feature them on your Page, and make comments as your page on other pages.

6. Admins Section

Facebook has also introduced a feature that allows you to show who is administering the page to your users. This new box will show in the right column. At the time of this blog post it was unclear if the admins actually displayed to your users or only to other admins.

7. Everyone Filter on the Wall

Another update Facebook is adding is an “Everyone” filter. This brings brings the most engaging posts from a page’s community to the top of the feed. This makes it easier for users and admins to easily find the most “liked” and commented conversations on a particular page. The new Facebook Pages are also smart enough to filter out posts that are not in a language you speak.

Update:

8. FBML is Gone March 11, 2011

Facebook just announced on their developer blog that you will no longer be able to add the Static FBML app to your Pages as of March 11, 2010. From their blog:

On March 11, 2011, you will no longer be able to create new FBML apps and Pages will no longer be able to add the Static FBML app. While all existing apps on Pages using FBML or the Static FBML app will continue to work, we strongly recommend that these apps transition to iframes as soon as possible. Read more at blog.appbistro.com

 

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