Okay so now that I’ve actually had time to look into  the New Facebook Page in more detail and also reading in depth on the Facebook Pages Policy.

So many people are ranting that the new Facebook Pages is death to businesses marketing capability. But in reality after playing with with it a bit more, sure we lost the ability the to have a default landing page, but I believe the gain for having a cover photo instead of those small photos that use to be there gives businesses more of the branding opportunity. It actually goes in line with the real strategy of social media . Sure you can have all this call to action and on and on, but seriously? Social Media has allowed us to amplify our brand and stay in front of consumers where they are ie.. facebook, twitter, pinterest, etc..

I’m excited to see the change because this will force us all to be more creative, and once again adjust to this shift. Another thing I’m happy to see all of the garbage pages disappear. You know the ones that aren’t real business, but just want you to like it and add no value whatsoever just to blast you with spammy links, Yeah those.

For small businesses the page change will force you to get more involved with your business brand. Rather than just passing off social strategy to an outside agency or a kid in the basement, they could pretty much create the call to action pages and let them sit on cruise control. Now that all those distractions are gone with trying to keep up with facebook landing pages take a step back and really think about your Brand. For larger corporations I am looking forward to seeing many turn on the messaging feature which allows fans to send direct messages through fanpages. We are so accustomed with live chat I think this would be an easy transition for the general public. I just think of the many times I’ve been sitting on hold it would be nice to send a direct message to get an issue resolved. On the business side this would be easy to implement because with the Facebook pages comes different levels admins. So you can delegate the customer service to have access just for the messages. This will be a great addition!

I love the ability to pin post and have them showcase at the top, well for seven days at least. Think of those times when you had a customer post a great review of your product or service only to see it get covered by other posts within 24 hours. Now at least you can control what you want showcased.

So long story short no need to panic about the new change. Just keep an eye on big brands to get ideas if you’re a small business. Remember you don’t have to be guru just concentrate on what your brand and start thinking about how you’re setting up your community management levels.

Check out their timeline history to get some ideas.

Coca-Cola

Ford motor company – Not really digging the cover photo (at this time 3-7-12 it’s a building) let’s see when this changes…  but the timeline is a nice blast in the past of the evolution of cars.

Ciao~