Timeline for Facebook Pages: THE COMPLETE GUIDE

Whether you like it or not, the Timeline format is coming to Facebook Pages, and you have until March 30th to figure it out.

If you're lost and you don't know what Timeline is or how it works, don't worry—I'm here to break it down and make it easy for you to understand.

Why does any of this matter?

Because Facebook is still huge for online business, blogging and driving a ton of traffic.

It is consistently my #1 referring website (click here to see the last 90 days), and even through I wasn't too keen on the changes at first, a lot of the new features for Pages really excite me.

Here's my new Facebook Page after switching to Timeline.

Below you'll find a number of videos, resources, snippets of codes and links, to help you work your way around Timeline.

I will continually add more videos, tips and tricks—so please bookmark this post for future reference. 🙂

Note: All of the videos have closed captioning enabled.

Please keep reading, and enjoy!

Getting Started

If you're brand new to Timeline for Facebook Pages, the video below will walk you through the most important elements of Timeline that you need to understand before diving in.

(Or, you can click here to watch the Facebook Timeline for Pages Tutorial on YouTube)

As mentioned in the video, I have provided a Photoshop slice file (.psd) that will allow you to create a cover image, a profile pic and application thumbnails from one continuous image or photo, which is not required to use, but many will find useful.

Instructions are included in the PSD file (1.9mb) below:

UPDATE: Click here to use the Timeline Slicer Web Application version of the PSD file, which doesn't require any type of software except a web browser. Kudos to Joey K. from incomePRESS for taking my PSD file to the next level and making it more widely usable.

A Landing Page—for Timeline?

With Timeline, Facebook got rid of the default landing page option. 🙁

This is sad because I used a landing page since day 1 to better engage my audience and encourage new visitors to like my page and become a fan.

With that said, you can still create a landing page using the links to specific tabs. Watch the video below for a more detailed, step-by-step walkthrough:

(Or, you can click here to watch Facebook Landing Page on Timeline on YouTube)

As mentioned in the video, here are some helpful snippets of code you can copy and paste into your own html content areas. I will continually add more useful snippets over time. After copying and pasting, please don't forget to replace my own links with your own. 😉

HTML to Show an Image (make sure image url ends in .jpg or png):

<img src="https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/images/content-image.jpg">

HTML to Show an Image and Make it Clickable (and open in same window):

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/smartpassiveincome"><img src="https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/images/content-image2.jpg"></a>

HTML to Show an Image and Make it Clickable (and open in new window):

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/smartpassiveincome" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/images/content-image2.jpg"></a>

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The New and More Organized Admin Panel

The new admin area for Pages is much more organized. When open, it looks like this:

The usual suspects are all organized here:

• Manage: so you can edit your page settings.
• Notifications: so you can quickly see the latest activity and respond accordingly.
• New Likes: so you can see new fans and possibly engage with them if you wish.
• Insights: so you can get a quick snapshot of page activity, or click “see all” to get more detailed information about your reach.

Another new feature of Timeline for Pages, however, is the ability for fans of your page to directly and privately message the administrator(s) of that page. Messages are shown and can be responded to from the admin panel as well.

Luckily, you have the option as the page administrator to turn the direct messaging capabilities off if you wish. Under Manage PageEdit Settings > Manage Permissions, you'll see this option in the middle of the page:

Messages can be a great way to further allow your audience to engage with you, however it's another messaging platform that you might have to worry about. Some companies and brands, I suspect, might direct all or most interaction or customer support here, forcing people to become fans first and potentially allowing multiple admins to respond to fans with private questions much quicker.

I like.

The Extremely Important About Area

The about area immediately underneath your cover image and profile picture is one of the most important elements on your page.

It's the only space near the top where you can actually include a clickable and direct link back to your site (you aren't even allowed to write out a link in your cover image), but it's even more important because most people will land on your wall first, so this becomes your visible elevator pitch.

Make it count.

The about area is clickable as well, which takes people to your company overview page. Thus, it's really important that you spend some time maximizing the impact of your copy here. You can edit this directly from your overview page, or through the settings in the admin panel.

How to Integrate YouTube and Twitter

Here's a handy video that'll help you, in less than 5 minutes, integrate your YouTube Channel and/or Twitter Feed on your page so that your fans can view those items directly from there.

Lastly, to finish up, don't be afraid of the new changes, embrace them. 😉

There's nothing we can really do but adapt. Hopefully, I've made it a little easier for you.

Cheers, all the best, and please share!

[Editor's note: As of 2021, we’ve chosen to move our student course communities off of Facebook. As we strengthen our commitment to fostering community for the SPI audience, we believe that Circle is a better platform for us. We launched our private membership, SPI Pro, on Circle in July 2020. We’ve had such a great experience that we decided to use Circle to host SPI Academy, a shared space for all of our course communities.]