Facebook Timeline for companies during 2012

What does Facebook say about Timeline for companies?

Since Facebook Timeline for private persons was launched during 2011 there has been lively speculation as to when Timeline for companies (Pages) will arrive. This speculation is natural since Facebook, on the launching of Timeline in September, said this was a long-term and important development in the way of presenting pages and information in Facebook. It is also easy to see new possibilities for companies to leverage their brand and highlight their business pages in Facebook with the increased possibilities that Timeline offers, not least in terms of graphic impact.

Timeline is also able to offer interesting connections to other sites and services that the company has, not least with Facebook Connect’s trusted connections. We at ComAround, for example, would be able to disclose the latest shown or most popular guides in our ComAround Free service directly on our ComAround Page in Facebook.

On 15 February, representatives for Facebook said to Mashable: “we are currently focused on Timeline for individuals and will consider how to make consistent experiences for Pages, but we have nothing to announce at this time”. The fact is that this giant in social media never stated, in so many words, that Timeline would be available for companies.  Nevertheless, it seems self-evident that we shall see some variant of Timeline for business. The question is not if but when it arrives. Just now it does not appear that such an update is close at hand bearing in mind the above statement.

In September 2011, Mashable had certain graphic designers involved in marketing at major companies create brand pages based on the graphic preconditions from Timeline for individuals; you can see some of the results below. A direct transfer of Timeline as it operates at present to Pages would, without doubt, have a great impact in leveraging a company’s profile and presentation on Facebook.

Timeline for pages – increased business engagement or Myspace trap?

Certain sceptics warn that a launching of Timeline for companies would mean that the focus is shifted from communication and interaction between users to strong graphic statements and branded Facebook pages with a more push-oriented approach from companies where information is pushed into the face of fans and visitors. This same group is only too keen to point out how things went for Myspace. They also claim that Timeline for business, in purely visual terms, would remind one a lot of Myspace before things started to go wrong. The people at  Facebook have so far done most things right and they will surely find the golden mean and ensure that it will engage both the business sector and their visitors.

Giant public listing = a note of caution

Something that suggests that we may have to wait some months for Timeline for companies is that Facebook just now stands on the threshold of a giant public offering of its shares. The clearest criticism directed from investors in connection with this has been that one has not demonstrated that it is possible to capture a decent volume of paying corporate customers and the other uncertainty relates to how one can charge for adverts on mobile phones. At present it has been decided not to display any adverts on mobile phones and the latest figures shows that Facebook had 450 million logged on users in one month in December 2011. The scale of mobile use is thus enormous; were it possible to create clearer income streams connected to this strong trend then the earnings would increase very substantially. To launch Facebook Timeline for companies would, I believe, increase companies’ engagement in Facebook in terms of business and its business ‘pages’. Moreover, when companies come to allocate their marketing budgets it is no disadvantage if the company succeeds in engaging businesses even more. Just now, everything points to the public offering taking place and the capital sought being obtained; the valuation points to 75-100 billion dollars. This means that Facebook is valued as highly as McDonald’s, for example, and at about half the value of Google. At this stage the giant has no need to take unnecessary risks or to make major changes which might turn out badly and create uncertainty. My guess is that we shall not see any major updates or changes such as Timeline for business before the public listing is wholly complete in April-May. The last thing they want just at present is wild speculation concerning how new changes might affect Facebook’s future prospects and the prerequisites for creating earnings in future. After the public listing is settled in May-June we should see a series of changes in the pipeline being rolled out during the second half of 2012.

 If you haven’t activated your own Timeline so far then take this opportunity to watch my video “The new Facebook Timeline – take a look before upgrading your Facebook account”. You can also check out Facebook’s own presentation of Timeline.

Thanks for having read this article! I look forward to reading your comments concerning Facebook Timeline for business.