Google isn’t alone in their ability to spark nail-biting announcements to the social media marketing community. With each new, major profile update, Internet marketers are less than eager to know just when Facebook will roll out profile changes to their business page. Until then, social media managers will be stuck nervously clicking their profile day after day, announcing, “Let’s move!” with shrieking intensity when the new profile layout, sizings, and image requirements are unleashed. However, profile updates don’t have to feel like the end of the world as we know it. Personal profile users are excitedly clicking around Facebook, waiting for the chance to show a little extra personality in their profile customizations. Why do businesses have to feel any different about Facebook profile updates? The truth is, you don’t! That’s why we’re going to discuss these changes ahead of time and how you can brace yourself for impact.
Part of me wants to shrug off these updates as nothing spectacular in a world where even the most surprising changes tend to feel expected. But, the truth is – these updates are far more exciting than your average Facebook change. While many of these updates seem obvious and long overdue, they’ll do their job to reignite a little Facebook passion. These updates include looping profile videos, more control over photo publications and profile personalization, and a few tweaks to your profile design.
Let’s go through each update and what it means for you.
Animated Profile Photos
Tumblr made the .GIF more popular than any other social medium – almost forcing other social media websites, like Google+, to adopt these animations from the very start. Let’st not forget, however, that animated images have been floating on our news feeds since Tom auto-friended us all on MySpace. I can only imagine the round-table meeting at Facebook where managers paced the room insisting, “We need something new, something better!” while groups of entry level marketers and interns threw out their ideas on massive whiteboards. You’ll be happy to know, their hard work has paid off. Introducing – the animated profile photo (aka the “why didn’t I think of that” moment).
With this new update, you will be able to create a brief, personal .GIF of you laughing, smiling, spitting, chewing, jumping, punching… whatever you want!
What does this mean for business pages?
This is the perfect opportunity to jump into a bit of creativity and show how your business can get animated! Literally! This is the point where I can say, “Not all businesses have the demographic that would benefit from an animated profile photo,” but in most cases, that’s not true. Some of the most unassuming business brands that adopt these types of changes have paved the way for ensuring a younger, more interactive demographic takes notice. Whether you’re an insurance company, a college University, a Life Coach, a dentist, a plumber, or a yoga teacher – spend some time now to figure out just how you can stand out as a brand.
Note: Your profile image will now be somewhat larger and centered at the top of your profile like the examples shown above. Now is the time to redesign your Cover Photo to ensure nothing is covered by the new placement of your profile photo.
Social Media With A Cause
Over 26 million individuals changed their profile picture on Facebook to the “Celebrate Pride” filter to celebrate the U.S. legalizing same-sex marriage. For Facebook, this spawned a brilliant idea – temporary profile photos.
Temporary profile photos will allow you to support a favorite team, get behind an important cause, celebrate a holiday in style, or highlight your vacation time with expiring profile images. Soon, you will be able to upload a new profile photo and set a specific amount of time before your profile image reverts back to an original profile picture or video.
How can you use this for your business page?
Update your profile photo to match the seasons or an upcoming holiday without worrying that you’ll let the image overstay its welcome or use your profile photo as a call-to-action for an event or webinar happening now.
Profile Personalization
Google+ introduced circles as the best possible way to easily manage your friends and followers. Circles allowed you to share posts to certain people, leaving out entire groups of people with ease. At nearly the same time, Facebook allowed you to create Facebook lists – an organization that didn’t take off as particularly easy to use or as a feature your average Facebook user is even aware of. Facebook attempts to reignite a little friendly organization by allowing users the flexibility to show profile details to Public, Friends, or certain friends groups only. Currently, Facebook will assume classmates, colleagues, and family members for you. By using these auto-created lists, you will be able to manage whether your work colleagues can see your listed political or religious views while being sure your old classmates know you’re married to a hotty and scored a dream job.
What does this mean for your business page?
Nothing. Your business profile information will remain public unless otherwise specified.
Additional profile updates include a one-line bio added to the top of your profile page and a selection of up to five featured photos to showcase at the top of your profile. With these additions come a new Facebook layout.
Note: We do not yet know if or how featured photos will be used on business profiles.
What does this mean for your Facebook Business Page?
To allow for greater mobile optimization of profiles, Facebook will be moving your profile picture to the center and making it larger. When your profile is being viewed from a mobile device, the “Photos” and “Friends” tabs will be shown more prominently.
These changes generally spark excitement for Facebook users eager for a change while forcing business profiles into stressful, last minute changes. For now, the most you can do is be aware of upcoming changes and plan for changes as best as you can.
Facebook has not yet announced specific sizes for the new Facebook profiles. In anticipation of changes, consider how the new profile layout will change the way your header and logo should be presented on your Facebook profile. Without preparing for these changes, the new layout may cover an important part of your cover photo.
Facebook gives no official release date of the new profile changes. Instead, Facebook has announced these changes are already underway to the UK market and throughout California. Facebook says, “We’ll be rolling them out to more people soon,” with no additional detail. For more information from Facebook, read their latest news update here.
Post Update: Facebook has vaguely announced this update as a “mobile profile” update, leaving it unclear as to when or whether these changes will be applied to the desktop version of Facebook.
Post Title Change: Starting With Mobile added for clarity
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