Every business has a unique story behind it. Whether you started big or ran out of a dirty basement for three years, your background is important to how you developed as a company. Facebook Timeline is different from other Business Pages because it encourages us to share these stories, building on our common history to form a more grounded and comfortable environment for the visiting public.

If your business was around before Facebook launched Like Pages in 2007, you missed out on the opportunity to build your history organically. This is unfortunate, as the trust that can be established through providing a company background can go a long way in creating support for a small business.

Consider the case of Beatrice Kennedy. She started her design consulting business in 1998 after spending over twenty years in the graphic design industry. She joined Facebook in late 2010 and, after a rocky start, built a small social presence for her firm. Before Timeline, visitors to Beatrice’s page wouldn’t see her years of experience or long history of design excellence. If they wanted to find that, they’d have to go looking for it, and that’s something most Facebook users won’t do.

Now that Beatrice has switched to Facebook Timeline and backdated her profile, her visitors are immediately presented with a simple, accessible visual history of her design experience. As they click through the years, they can see how she’s helped her clients and how her business has grown and developed over the past decade. By understanding these things, Beatrice’s visitors are able to appreciate and trust her more fully, opening the door to much more business and growth potential.

If you were lucky enough to already be on Facebook when you started your business, then your history will transition to Timeline automatically. Still, take the time to go back and check if anything needs to be included. There’s a new “Founded” feature that lets you mark exactly when and how your business got started which is always good to fill in.

In order to backdate a post, you must first enter it into your Timeline. You can then click “Edit or Remove” in the top right corner of the post. Select “Change Date…” from the drop down menu and select the month/year. Once you click “Save”, your post will be automatically placed in the appropriate spot on your Timeline.