Valorie Reavis, social media marketing specialist and founder of LinkUp Marketing
Valorie Reavis, social media marketing specialist and founder of LinkUp Marketing

Salons have just 30 days to prepare for the most radical makeover to Facebook business profiles since inception. Facebook announced today that it is rolling out a version of its Timeline layout to business pages on March 30th, giving salons a month to prepare.

One of the key differences, which will have a profound effect on how businesses have traditionally attracted attention on Facebook, will be the way information is presented to the user.

“The timeline redesign will force salons and spas to re-think how they engage with their users as this new format relies heavily on activity and how effective a salon is at getting people talking and sharing information,” said Valorie Reavis, founder of Linkup Marketing.  “Facebook is only interested in providing users with relevant and interesting information about what their friends and trusted sources are doing.  That’s its business – showing only the most engaging post to its users and filtering out the stuff they don’t care about.  Salons will have to think about how they can become more interesting and engaged with their audience to stay relevant on Facebook.”

The new layout will include a cover image that spans the top of the profile, a smaller profile image, a chronological layout of the company’s activities on Facebook and a new tricked-out administrator panel that also allows messaging on the page. 

Pssst! The Facebook ShakeupA sample of the new Timeline layout which Facebook will roll out to business pages on March 30.

Salon are already facing an up-hill struggle following the launch of Timeline to personal users late last year when smaller actions such as ‘likes’ dropped off the newsfeed and began appearing in the Ticker on the right of the screen.

“Salons need to create campaigns that drive engagement and get people talking on page and interacting,” said Valorie. “Contests, questionnaires and interesting trivia can all help attract attention. But businesses must take a long-term approach to this part of their marketing mix, rather than dipping in or out if they want to be truly effective on Facebook.”

Valorie Reavis is part of Linkup Marketing, an online and social media marketing specialist focusing on search engine marketingsalon email marketing programs and social media marketing for salons and spas. If you have any queries for the Linkup team check out the website www.linkupmarketing.com, email info@linkupmarketing.com, find them on facebook.com/linkupmarketing or follow them on Twitter @linkupmarketing.

 

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, Click here.