It’s that time of year again: another Facebook redesign. This time it’s not your profile getting tweaked, it’s those fan (“like”) pages. I’m not actually sure if they’re now called fan pages or like pages or community pages…but it doesn’t matter.
Here’s what you need to know:
- The new design will be live in March but page admins have the ability to employ the new layout right now.
- Pages are a lot like user profiles. In fact, you can even log in just as your page. This is big for brands looking to interact on people’s pages as the brand rather than brand ambassadors.
- The design is overdue. Facebook says they’ve wanted to update pages ever since the profile redesign.
- There’s new menus on the left and right as well as those obvious photos on the top of every page. Just like your user profile page.
- You can get have the best parts of your feed brought to the top. This curated feature is likely going to be brought over to user profiles in the near future. (My $.02)
- To see if your pages are ready to be upgraded, just click here to find out.
Pictures Are Different Too
Photo galleries are more or less the same but clicking on images in your stream actually opens a new AJAX-y photo viewer reminiscent of lightbox and fancybox. You can still comment inline with the picture like before but now there is a bit more information added to the bottom left of the image.
The most obvious addition to these photos are, of course, more advertisements. Now ads are placed on the bottom right side of all picture windows on a black background. That background means ads ‘pop’ a lot more and actually get your eyeballs on them a bit more. See for yourself in the photo from my feed (courtesy of my photographer friend Evan Baines) below:
All The Details
Source: Mashable
Click to view full size
The big difference everyone will notice will be the new layout. The left-hand menu for editing pages has been removed in favor of a new navigation menu that replaces the old tabbing system. And like the Facebook Profiles redesign, the left-hand “Information” box is also gone. However, page admins can now add info about their brand at the top of the page under the main title.
The right-hand menu has also been tweaked. There is now a section that features the page’s admins (if you so choose) as well as a section that shows users how many of their friends have also “liked” that particular page. Finally, just like profiles, a page can now feature relevant photos at the top. This could lead to some very creative uses for Facebook Pages.
You Can Log In As Your Page
There are some other notable differences between the new Facebook Pages and the old version, especially for page admins. The “Login as Page” feature gives admins the ability to interact with the rest of Facebook as a page, not an individual. For example, I could log in as Mashable and start commenting and “liking” things on Facebook Pages that have “liked” Mashable. Admins will also see a different News Feed if they are logged in as their page; It will display the most important news from the pages you’ve “liked.”
“A page can now use Facebook as if they were an individual with the ability to interact with other pages,” Dhawan said. “It provides interesting content when people are visiting the page. ”
More Abilities For Page Owners
Pages can’t do everything a user can, though. Most importantly, they cannot post on a user’s wall or comment on his or her status. The lone exception is for a user who has opted for the “everybody” privacy setting; Pages can comment on status updates for those individuals.
Curated Content
The other update Facebook is adding is an “Everyone” filter that brings the most interesting and engaging posts from a page’s community to the top of the page. This makes it easier for users and admins to easily find the most “liked” and commented conversations on a particular page. The new Facebook Pages are also smart enough to filter out posts that are not in a language you speak.
It’s Available Right Now
The new design launches today as a preview for Facebook Page admins. Before switching, they can check to see what their page will look like and tweak elements of the design before launch. The company is also releasing a Page Tour and a manual to explain the new design. Admins will have until March 10 to switch over though, before Facebook automatically updates every page to the new design.
To see if your pages are ready to be upgraded, just click here to find out.
I heard about this just a moment ago via an official Facebook e-mail:
How It Looks
Note that I haven’t added any photos to the Edudemic page so apparently I’m going to have to do that…asap. Man that’s ugly. If you face a similar issue, here’s a great post on how to get a custom Facebook page using all that picture space.
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