Written by ContentPowered.com
On Facebook, the only constant is change. They’re constantly redesigning profiles and Pages, to the widespread annoyance of most users. Business Pages are the most recent victim, with a new change announced early this year and rolled out gradually. By now, most everyone has the new Page layout, but many only encountered it just recently. Take the time you need to adjust, find all the features you need wherever Facebook hid them, and learn to take advantage of the perks the new layout gives you.
Take Advantage of Larger Images
Pages switched from two vertical columns to one feed and one informational column. The feed is wider than the individual feeds before, which has two effects. First, your highlighted posts will be smaller, because they don’t stretch across the screen. They have a blue ribbon to identify them, but they’re otherwise identical to normal posts. The second change affects all posts; images are now wider. Instead of ~400 pixels wide, they stretch to 504 pixels wide. This gives you more space to show compelling images, and a better incentive to post wider images on your blog. A 504×504 pixel image will display in full resolution.
One important note you may have missed; Facebook adjusted the positioning of your profile picture to be slightly higher. If you had a profile picture and cover photo designed to mesh together, they won’t line up properly any more. Check to make sure the new layout isn’t covering important text or making your header look bad.
Optimize Your Tab Apps
Your tab apps are not gone, so don’t despair. They’re just organized differently.
Top Bar: Your top bar apps are no longer visible as icons, as they used to be. Instead, you have one featured app in the text bar, which you can customize. Put a compelling app here, one that doesn’t need a graphical icon to show what it does. Contest apps are a good idea, as are free book apps.
More: Next to the featured top bar app is a drop-down labeled “more.” This menu opens up a list of apps, again with just textual names. You can customize them as you desire.
Sidebar: On the left side in the informational column is an apps section. This is where your graphical icons for your apps have gone. You get a large icon and a bolded title for each app; use them wisely. You don’t need to worry about the tiny 16 pixel square preview images; these icons are the full rectangular 111×74. Make the most of the space.
Order Your Sidebar Appropriately
The two-column layout puts all informational and multimedia app content on the left and all page posts on the right. The order of which boxes appear on the left is almost completely customizable.
At the top will be the People and About sections. You can’t change these at all. Any section below, however, you can order however you want. Pictures, Videos, Posts to Page, Apps, Page Likes and any other informational content box can be ordered in any way you please. Order them from most appeal to least; users won’t likely pay a lot of attention to the boxes lower on the list.
All you need to do to manage these is click the pencil icon on one of the boxes and click to manage sections. Just drag them in the order you prefer and confirm their new positions.
Find the Relocated Options
Wondering where your direct messages and page notifications have gone? Check your activity tab. Facebook accumulated a lot of disparate information under this heading, including your activity, your messages and your inbox.
Another option you may be concerned about is how to switch between your personal profile and your business page. Rather than a nice, clear box at the top, you need to click the little drop-down arrow in the corner to swap. It streamlines the top bar slightly, but it will take some getting used to.
In your About box, you may notice a new line with your website. Facebook pulls this link from your extended About description, so you don’t need to make sure your link is in the short description for the About page. Just make sure it’s present so it can be pulled and show up.
In your Settings menu, you’ll find a lot of information that was previously in other locations. There’s too many moved and tweaked options to list here, so just be aware that if something you used to use is missing, it’s probably under Settings. Pay particular attention to the banned users section; you can change the user group and see other sorts of users on your page. It’s a little counter-intuitive but there it is.
Manage Reviews Proactively
Above, you may have noticed that the People/Reviews section is prominently displayed in the sidebar. Specifically, it’s on top with a very visible star rating. This means you need to be incredibly proactive with responding to your reviews, encouraging positive reviews and minimizing negative reviews. Your star rating is incredibly visible and, when a user clicks it, they are taken to a page with all of your reviews. You need to make sure to respond to negative reviews and reach out to improve your customer relations, particularly if your star rating is low.
Beneath this box is a like box with the pictures of some of your followers, similar to how the Facebook widget looks on external websites. This is a nicely visible way to make sure the friends of your followers are seeing who they know who has liked your page. You can’t do much to optimize this, but you can at least be aware it exists.
Weekly Insights at a Glance
Page admins are able to see a bar to the right of their Page that shows some weekly insights. These include page likes, post reach, notifications and messages. Hovering over any one of these sections will show you a more detailed view, and you can click through to actually visit the insights pages. It’s a great way to see your statistics at a glance without having to dig through Insights and set time limitations.