Last week Facebook announced that Timeline would be coming to Facebook pages at the end of March.
There are design and layout changes that will impact your page and any custom tabs that you may have.
Here are some of the size changes for images and layouts that you should be aware of.
The Dimensions
- A custom page tab with timeline can be 810px wide. That’s quite a difference from the 520px layout we’ve been forced to use. You do not, however, immediately need to adjust the size of your custom tab. It is narrower than 810px, it will be centered in the middle of the page. The following screenshot shows my custom tab centered as I have not made it wider yet.
- The dimensions for the cover image are 851px by 315px. If it is smaller, Facebook will adjust the size but it won’t always be as clear.
- You can add your own image for the navigation tab icons. They are 110px by 74px. I used one that was 150×150 and it was resized without any problems.
- The profile image is now 180x180px. It will scale down to 32x32px when you post on the timeline wall or in the news stream.
While many of these changes should eventually be beneficial, they will probably be a burden for small businesses who don’t have the time or the budget to create cover photos, navigation icons, and new custom pages that are wider. This article is pretty negative about timeline and small businesses but I agree with many of the points.
What do you think? Are you excited about the changes or are they creating a burden for you and your business?
For the most part, timeline is a useability nightmare. You don’t know where to look first. If Facebook is all about the here and now, why rework it to be an online history of a person?
Definitely a Jumped the Shark moment.
Thanks for the stats, been looking for those. In the process of re-doing so many fan pages…ugh. To me it all looks so generic now. Before there was some art in building a cool reveal page to draw someone in. Using your 5 photo images to tell a story that would make sense no matter how they were ordered. Bleh, guess this will take some getting use to.
Thanks again!
I have run into some of the same problems you have and as you said some people can’t afford to have people change things for them as needed.