You’ve probably heard the big news over the weekend about Facebook’s new profile pages, but there has also been some kerfuffle that Facebook’s business Pages will soon be getting the same treatment.
As it turns out, the new Pages design is part of the beta rollout for the merging of Facebook Pages and Places (see last two pages). Starting in August, select businesses with Places were given the option to combine their Facebook Page with their Place, giving the merged Page a “richer design” with check-ins and maps.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show fan page was recently merged, sparking the attention of the Facebook community. In the new layout, the navigation shows up on the left-hand side rather than as tabs at the top of the Page. While we have yet to test out the new layout for ourselves, we noticed a few things that we think our readers should look out for once the feature is available to them:
- You can’t reverse a merge – so be absolutely sure before you decide to try it out!
- If you are a brand with one Page and multiple locations, we suggest that you don’t merge your Page with your Places yet. Facebook plans to figure out a solution in the future for companies with more than one location.
- It looks like the tab width on the merged Page is reduced to 494 pixels (from 520 pixels), so you will have to revise your custom tabs to make sure nothing is cut off.
- You can no longer set a custom landing page; users are directed to the profile page by default.
This is big news for businesses looking to promote and support their brand on Facebook. On the one hand, it allows small companies to streamline their presence on Facebook with everything in one place. On the other hand, with the smaller tabs and left navigation, it may make it harder for brands to stand out using custom tabs.
There has been no official announcement from Facebook yet, but we’ll keep an eye out for updates here at October 17 Media… stay tuned!
