Tips For Boosting Facebook Engagement

Clint Fralick, VP of client services at Boston-based social media agency Pandemic Labs, sees potential value in Facebook Timeline for business.

"As concept/metaphor, Timeline's value for businesses is the historical point of view it lends to the interaction between business/brand and Facebook community," said Fralick. "Previously, the date a brand was created and the date a brand got started on Facebook were separate, and brands' Facebook lifetimes always appeared to be incomplete. Brands didn't use Facebook in a chronological way, like regular users, and users could not do with brand pages what they so often do with friends: skim through elderly posts/photos, keep in mind past lovely times, etc."

Fralick thinks businesses can benefit from Timeline even before they can deploy it for their own brands, by the residual effects of what users post on their own Timelines.

"Users filling out their own Timelines will generate a massive number of tales organically that are linked to brands," they said. "Large fashion/lifestyle brands, for example, are going to benefit from every who uploads 10-year-old photographs and goes on a thorough tagging/dating mission."

However, while specialists can see some potential value in Facebook Timeline for brands, they also see drawbacks--most notably, interference with current Facebook apps and the potential for distraction."There will be several drawbacks regarding brands that currently have Like Gates, Tabs, and other apps installed--Timeline will affect the way these currently function," said Kimszal. "Another drawback would be that customers who are used to the way brand pages look now may not like the new Timeline on the page."

Alison Kimszal, an analyst at business and know-how consultancy DefinedLogic, said Facebook Timeline would enable companies to tout their histories and provide improved navigation. "If Timeline is enabled for Facebook pages, it will permit companies to give a graphical representation of their company history--when the company began, significant milestone events over the years, photographs, and videos," they said. "Timeline has also improved the navigation of profiles, allowing users to basically browse by months or years."

Fralick agrees that Timeline could affect brands' existing Facebook apps, and notes that it might distract from what they sees as most important for businesses on Facebook--"posting simple, quality content and speaking to their communities."