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Preparing Your Brand
Page for Facebook’s Evolved
News Feed & Timeline
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Social Matters
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© 2013 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved
In March 2013, Facebook announced significant
changes to the way that content will be displayed
to users in three of the core elements of the
Facebook platform:
1. News Feed
2. Ad units
3. Timeline
While these changes are primarily aimed at
individual users and will roll out over the next
several months, the Critical Mass social media
strategy team has identified the impact these
adjustments will have on Brand Pages and has
outlined the implications and action plan for
each element.
Rethinking Your Brand’s
Visual Presence on Facebook
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NEWS FEED
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Page likes will now display both the cover photo
and the profile image
Primacy of Visuals
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Examples - Photos/Videos
Before
After
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Examples - Thumbnails
Before
After
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Examples - Page Likes
Before
After
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Facebook’s continuing evolution to a mobile-first experience has seen the
social network continue to adjust to the way users choose to access their
profile and share content with each other.

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Facebook has gone back and forth with News Feed filtering over the years.
Users ultimately want to control what they see. For some, they see too much.
Others don’t see what they want or expect to see. Trying to find the right level
of control for users is a tricky undertaking.
The latest attempt puts filtering in an obvious place on the News Feed and
gives users a choice of options that could potentially relegate Brand Pages to
a second tier within many people’s News Feeds.
Enhanced Filtering
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News Feeds currently feature sorting mechanism that allows users to switch between the default “top stories” setting and “most recent” stories.
The new News Feed will include the ability to navigate by friends, content type or “following,” which is where Brand Pages will be housed.
Example - Enhanced Filtering
Before
After
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FACEBOOK ADS
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Some of Facebook’s ad units have received makeovers in line with
the look of the updated News Feed, but it seems they are taking
their time and testing different types as the News Feed rolls out over

Page-post photo ad
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Examples - Facebook Ads in the right rail
Before
After
Notice how the ad titles align with the rest of the copy, giving the ad images more prominence
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Action Items
for Brand
Pages
Relevant, compelling content is still the key to success in social
Use of the entire Facebook ecosystem (page, apps, ads)
ensures reach and engagement
Improve the visual quality and cadence of the visual content
your brand is sharing
Create and optimize images for use on desktop, tablet,
smartphone and Facebook media
Consider adding image-sharing apps to your social footprint
(e.g. Pinterest, Instagram, Vine)
Use short, direct, well-crafted copy to support images.
Monitor Page Insights as the Newsfeed is adopted by all
users to determine if Page reach and engagement drops
due to filtering
Thursday, 4 April, 13

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Some brands use custom tab icons to add
additional visual interest to their page. A cleaner
design will put more focus on the cover image and
profile picture
Other recent changes
In addition to the Timeline layout, additional changes
to content structure and policies have recently been
announced that will have a more immediate impact
on Brand Page design and content strategy:
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Comments on posts will be threaded making it
easier to have a discussion in the comments
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Cover images can now contain calls to action,
though Facebook still maintains text must take up
no more than 20% of the image
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Possible inclusion of hashtags to allow for
aggregation/searching of posts similar to Twitter
The key changes in the personal Timeline that are most significant are:
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Examples - Timeline
Before
After
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