Facebook Timeline For Pages: It Is Not That Serious

If the past few weeks in the blogosphere have been a blur of the word "Pinterest," the next few will undoubtedly be the same thing--except instead of posts about Pinterest you'll be drowning in posts about  Facebook Timeline for Pages. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing--there are a lot of useful posts out there already--precise specs for Timeline images, free or cheap resources for those who don't have the luxury of hiring a designer to create a show-stopper of a cover image, and warnings about what you better not include in your cover images.

But while you sort through all the hype and how-tos, I think there's one thing that's important to remember: most people will never look at your page after they like it. So at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if your cover image is so gorgeous it makes people's eyes bleed....for the most part, nobody will be looking at it. So before investing countless hours reading posts about how to optimize your Page's cover image or perusing Pinterest boards of the best cover images EVER, please take a deep breath and remind yourself that, in the grand scheme of things, Timeline for Facebook pages is not that big a deal.

Two things that are a bigger deal, Facebook-wise, IMO:

• Facebook has a vested interest in making sure brand pages are, in and of themselves, not that useful. If you're a Facebook page admin, you've undoubtedly noticed that the reach of the content you post to pages has plummeted since last fall when Facebook changed to the new "top stories" model. Signs are indicating that if you want your content to reach fans, you'll have to pay.
• Come March 30, people will be able to send private messages to pages. Unless your member service staff are prepared to basically open up an outpost of your org's member service center on Facebook, I'd recommend disabling this  (Admin Panel > Manage > Edit Page > Manage Permissions).