“Your life will no longer be the same,” said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in September last year at the f8 developer conference. There he presented Facebook’s new Timeline, which will be going live for all users today.

Facebook Timeline is a radical change the way we look and read Facebook pages. The social network said that a week after the initial Timeline roll out, about 8 million brands – about a quarter of all brands on Facebook – updated their profiles in compliance with the new design. Those who did not will be automatically transferred to that format on March 30.

The new timeline was released in late 2011. The transition from the timeline of Facebook users has separated into two groups: those that love and welcome the change and the others that hate it.  Many had resisted change, arguing that the platform violated the privacy of some of their new tools.

However, there are those who enjoy the latest Zuckerberg brainchild.  The cover photo is an example that highlights the remodel. Many took the opportunity to display creative designs, while companies use it to offer products in a more straightforward way.

Timeline Initial Success

The new Timeline has been a considerable improvement for participating brands as well. This is demonstrated by a study by Simply Measured, which ensures that with Timeline, interactions and user engagement with brands grew by 46 percent.

According to the report, some brands like Livestrong and Toyota have seen their engagement grow up to 161 percent and 156 percent respectively. The report also highlighted that the answers to the status updates are down with the Timeline, but the commitment through videos and photos is increased by 65 percent.

Virtue, a social marketing platform that has already initiated their Facebook Timeline for clients, said that some brands have seen as much as a 190% lift in engagement rates per fan. It has also reported that there is a reduction of 52% in engagement when the Timeline shift was made. Vitrue offers a scalable and secure cloud-based social marketing solution for brands to market their products on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and new platforms.

The Timeline already saw large brands such as Nike, Starbucks and Coca Cola readily adapt to its new design, providing brands the opportunity to ‘take note’ on the substantial changes.

Others like Fanta, ESPN, Red Bull, Old Spice, Verizon Wireless, and Ford etc. are making great use of Timeline features, providing their fans valuable and entertaining content.

Why Marketers Should Adopt the New Timeline

As more brands integrate social strategies into their marketing plans, it’s crucial that companies take note and adapt to the changes of the Facebook Timeline. The Timeline is great for advertisers because it allows brands to tell their story, placing high-impact graphics to support it.

Given the changes, companies who have begun using the social network recently will face the challenge of creating new content. With the new layout, brands will undergo a transition and they require detailed strategy and implementation for engaging users, and the appropriate look-and-feel that will lead to increased fan engagement.

The landing page is a great way to introduce brands to fans and potential customers, welcoming visitors, make things more personal, expressing the brand image and style, showing logos in a creative way and giving their fans more value. Brands will transform their target page to an attractive platform full of videos, games, contests, discounts, etc. that will give Facebook users a reason to love the page.

Applications are also an important aspect of the new Facebook Timeline, giving companies the opportunity to configure their own unique brand. They can use these applications to highlight special promotions, videos, contests or games. The apps are also providing a way for advertisers to customize their pages.