5. Pay for Premium

Premium Advertising on Facebook means one thing: Exposure

If Facebook can live up to its promise and deliver 75% reception among fans of your page, this may be the best option for bringing in new customers. Increased exposure means more interest, more interest means happier customers, and happier customers means more recommendations for your products.

There is one concern here, however. This service wasn’t created for businesses, it was created for Facebook. With previous Pages, Facebook had no way to profit from organic or repeat traffic; any user could find any page through a random link and the FB wouldn’t collect a penny. Now, with high exposure dependent on Premium advertising, subscriptions will be at a premium, and organic traffic is likely to suffer due to the flood of artificial activity. Luckily, there are ways around these pitfalls.

4. Tell a Story

Timeline is what it sounds like. Maybe your business has been around since the 90s, but you only got a Facebook page two years ago; your Page is going to reflect that. Using Timeline’s Back Date feature, you can share the history of your company and expand from just a few years all the way back to your founding.

Customers appreciate history. Seeing that your business has a rich history shows them that you are reliable and, more importantly, successful. Even if you’ve only been around for a short time, a comprehensive background demonstrates trustworthiness, and that can be just as important for drawing in new business.

3. Create Direct Links

Effective today, Facebook has eliminated the landing tab feature on Pages. Now, anyone who clicks on your posts will be routed directly to your Timeline. This simplifies things for Facebook, but it makes it far more difficult for Pages to distinguish themselves, create exposure, and establish a strong following.

It's exactly like uniforms in high school.

If you want to distinguish your business from everyon else, you’re going to have to start referencing people to specific pages. Facebook makes this pretty easy; links are available with a right-click or simple search through the new Admin Tab. The only problem with this is that the URLs come out sloppy. They can be shortened by running them through ow.ly or similar applications, but fb .blahblahblah will never ring as true as a titled URL. Luckily, Facebook has included ways to manipulate their system.

2. Highlight/Pin Posts

The problem with Walls was that they were never relevant for long; as soon as a new topic was posted, the previous conversation dropped out of sight. Timeline compensates for this short sight by introducing “Favorite” and “Pin” options to each post. Now, important topics can be Starred, doubling their size on the Timeline and making them much more visible both on and off the Page. Essential topics can even be Pinned, placing them at the top of a Timeline for seven full days or until a new Pin is selected.

In a world without Landing Tabs, Pinning is definitely a good option, allowing you to display important information or advertisements as prominently as possible within Facebook’s new restrictions. But there is a better way. Ladies and gentlemen, the Un-Disputed Heavyweight Champion of Facebook…

1. Like Gates

No matter how the channels shift, engaging directly with customers is the end-all be-all of Facebook marketing. Likes allow Pages to reach their viewers with a directness and frequency unmatched by any other channel. Even Premium Advertising is dependent on visitors’ Likes.

Facebook recognizes that Like-Gates aren’t going away, and Timeline has remained fully compatible with Gate-based apps and promotions. Creating this content is important; a lot of businesses wouldn’t be anywhere without it. It just goes to show, even with a radical change like Timeline, the best thing a Facebook Pages user can do is to stick to the basics and focus on building individual connections.