Love it or hate it, Facebook is always trying to keep things fresh with new features.
The social media networking has made headlines recently with news of its most recent changes – Timeline and Timeline apps.
Whether you’ve got a personal account or are managing your brand’s Facebook page, here’s what you need to know about the changes.
Timeline
Timeline became an optional profile feature for users in December but will be rolled out on all profiles beginning February 1st.
The new profile organizes all of your Facebook content – status updates, photos, wall posts, and etcetera – into a chronological feed. That means any cringe-worthy material from your early days on Facebook are now fair game to anyone who cares to delve far back enough on your profile.
But don’t panic – Timeline allows you to hide unsavoury posts at the click of a button. Set aside some time to patiently sift through your content, and you’ll be able to clean up anything you’d prefer to keep private. Facebook gives you seven days to create the profile you want before it appears to your friends.
Because Timeline is meant to serve as a digital scrapbook of your life, Facebook has made it possible to add events to your Timeline (for example, when you moved to Europe or when you started a new job) and to highlight certain events (make the wall photo of your graduation portrait larger than other posts).
It’s important to keep in mind that while you may have been diligent about your privacy settings as of late, you may not have been so rigorous in your early Facebook days. Once you’ve implemented Timeline, you’ll see an option within your privacy settings called “Limit the Audience for Past Posts.” Enabling this will ensure that your early posts may only be seen by friends, and friends of those tagged.
Are you an administrator of a company page on Facebook? Rumour says Timelines for brand pages will be available as of February 29.
Timeline Apps
To complement Timeline, Facebook has added integration with apps and other websites. For example, if you’ve connected music listening application Spotify to your Facebook account, Spotify will automatically post your activity on your Facebook Timeline.
Pinterest, Foodily, Rotten Tomatoes, and Soundcloud are amongst the 60 or so apps that can connect to your Timeline.
If you’re the creator of a suitable app, this new integration means increased visibility and a chance to grow your user base.
For users, it means the ability to share more – or too much. If you don’t want your already-enabled apps posting to your timeline, be sure to choose “Dismiss” when apps ask to connect to your Timeline. When downloading new apps, select “Only me” when the app asks “”Who can see activity from this app on Facebook.” To edit the settings for all your apps, select ”Apps” from the left navigation of your home page. Click the pencil icon beside each app to make changes to its controls.
Have you used Facebook’s new features? Do you think they’re a welcome addition, hard to use, or too intrusive?
