The new layout for Facebook Pages is gradually becoming mandatory for all, after first being made available to those who wanted to embrace the changes back in March. Over the course of the next few days page admins who hadn’t previously enabled the new layout will see that their Facebook Pages now more closely resemble the Timelines that they’re used to seeing on the Profiles of individual users.
With the posts now streamlined all the way down the right hand side of the page in a Timeline, this frees up the left hand side of the page for sections containing the other media and content types. Admins are also able to organise these sections, giving greater control over what is seen first by visitors the to a page.
The cover photo area has been tidied up to include simple text buttons in place of the clunkier ‘tabs’ that used to feature between the cover photo and the main content of a page:
The People and About sections are anchored at the top of the left hand column, (the right hand column being the Timeline), which is just beneath the cover photo and quick navigation buttons, but everything else can be reordered:
So for example if you have a very visual product you could position the photos section right at the top, or if your page had previously enjoyed lots of engagement via one particular aspect, you can make sure that your audience can continue to find it easily by positioning it close to the top.
Page admins might also want to think about what they have as their page’s last section, as this will remain visible when someone scrolls further down your timeline, so if you can put something memorable or compelling there, you might find that it is the section that gets the most viewing time.
Have you have the new Facebook Page layout for a while, or are you just getting it now? What are your thoughts? Let us know by leaving a comment below, or if you have any tips for ordering sections please feel free to share them here.