• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Social Media Examiner

Your Guide to the Marketing Jungle

  • 🔥 Free Newsletter
  • 🎙️ Podcasts
    • Social Media Marketing Podcast
    • AI Explored Podcast
    • Social Media Marketing Talk Show
    • Our YouTube Channel
  • 🌟 AI Society
  • 🗓️ Marketing Conference
  • đź‘‹ About Us
    • Marketing Events
  • Search
  • Embrace AI & MarketingGet Ongoing Training & SupportBEGIN YOUR JOURNEY NOW

    Facebook Timeline and What Marketers Need to Know

    by Maya Grinberg / January 24, 2012

    social media toolsAre you wondering how Facebook's Timeline will impact your business and marketing?

    Right now Timeline is currently limited to personal profiles and with no schedule set or promised for brand pages.

    However, given Facebook's history with design changes and how changes of this sort first get released to users and later on get applied to brands, it's likely that Timeline is on the horizon for business pages as well.

    This article will explore what the timeline means for marketers.

    Timeline for Users

    User profiles have been completely overhauled into a sleek new page with large cover pictures, featured actions, certain aggregated information and more.

    At its core, Timeline is a chronology of a user's life on Facebook, with items automatically appearing based on an algorithm intended to capture a user's most important life events.

    A few things to keep in mind:

    • Some objects are grouped together, such as all things a user Liked in a given month.
    • The more engaging an action, the more prominently it will appear and remain in the Timeline.
    • Users can manually add, remove, feature or de-emphasize Timeline events. In his keynote address at F8, Mark Zuckerberg enthusiastically demonstrated how a user can go back to the year of his birth and upload a baby picture.
    • Although historically, major profile changes have often been followed by similar brand page changes, there is no official word yet on whether brand pages will also be redesigned.
    objects get grouped together
    Objects get grouped together at the end of the month, such as all the Likes I subscribed to myself in November, and the friends I added.

    Open Graph and Custom Actions

    Last year, Facebook rolled out Open Graph, allowing brands to connect to a user's Facebook social graph. This year, it rolled out significant changes, allowing app developers to create custom actions using any verb and object related to the activity taking place on the app.

    These so-called “lightweight” activities can be defined by the app creator and pushed throughout the Facebook experience.

    Here are the highlights, and how the actions affect Timeline:

    • The Open Graph integrates with the News Feed, Ticker and Timeline, making the app a key part of users' and their friends' Facebook experiences.
    • As users engage, the custom action appears on Facebook News Feed, and remains on the user's Timeline; e.g., Jane cooked a recipe from Best Recipes app.

    Changes to the structure of permissions allow a user to give permission one time for an app to post about that user's activity on the app thereafter.

    Discover Proven Marketing Strategies and Tips

    Want to go even deeper with your marketing? Check out the Social Media Marketing Podcast! Publishing weekly since 2012, the Social Media Marketing Podcast helps you navigate the constantly changing marketing jungle, with expert interviews from marketing pros.

    But don’t let the name fool you. This show is about a lot more than just social media marketing. With over 600 episodes and millions of downloads each year, this show has been a trusted source for marketers for well over a decade.

    CHECK OUT THE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PODCAST NOW

    This is how you're seeing so many more postings about what your friends are listening to, for example, if they're using a social sharing music app like Spotify. It even gets its own designated spot in the Timeline and displays a running list of what the user is listening to.

    structure of permissions
    Changes to the structure of permissions allow a user to give permission once for an app to post about that user's activity on the app thereafter. This is how you're seeing so many more postings about what your friends are doing.

    What Should Marketers Do?

    Now that we know what changes Facebook has made, brands and marketers need to figure out what they mean for social media marketing.

    AI Business Society

    Ready to Unlock AI Marketing Breakthroughs?

    If you’re like most of us, you are trying to figure out how to use AI in your marketing. Here's the solution: The AI Business Society—a new AI marketing community from your friends at Social Media Examiner.

    The AI Business Society is the place to discover how to apply AI in your work. When you join, you'll boost your productivity, unlock your creativity, and make connections with other marketers on a similar journey.

    I'M READY TO BECOME AN AI-POWERED MARKETER

    Based on Wildfire's extensive experience running over 150,000 social media campaigns, here's our take:

    • Likes are still very important. This is the way brands build their audiences, with whom they can communicate directly, and promotions are the best way to encourage Likes. Sweepstakes and instant-win campaigns are best for generating Likes; while contests, trivia, group deals and engaging pages are best for fostering engagement.
    • News Feed vs. Brand Pages. There had been recent talk of apps/tabs/pages decreasing in significance. Now deeper, more engaging actions are the ones that will appear in Top Stories and Timelines and are therefore more persistent within the social graph. Now the “lightweight” actions have been removed to the fast-updating Ticker. In this way, the more “important” stuff, like meaningful interactions with branded content, will remain in the “Top Stories” and Timeline.
    • Open Graph Connections are easier than ever. Facebook plugins, which are readily available for all domains, are easier than ever to use to increase your brand's earned media.  Decide which plugin(s) work best for your domain and install them to all relevant company properties, like your website and blog.  Watch as visitors share the news of your brand for you on their own Timelines!
    facebook plugins
    Having Facebook plugins well-integrated into your business domain increases the opportunity for brand advocates to spread the word about your brand, such as how Alain's Timeline reflects his activity on the Wildfire home page and blog.

    Final Thoughts

    Facebook Timeline is the newest development in Facebook's quest to make over the Internet, integrating a social layer into every interaction and information node available. With Timeline, users have an increased ability to broadcast their lives (including any activity with brands, businesses, applications and services) to all of their friends.

    These highly personalized interactions and the newly organized way of sharing them serve to lessen the friction among users and the connected Internet world. Preparing your brand to take advantage of Timeline is every savvy marketer's first step in enhancing earned media potential.

    Your Turn

    Now that it is available to the public, what do you think of the new Timeline? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments box below. We'd love to hear from you!

    AI EXPLORED

    Curious About How to Use AI?

    Our newest show, AI Explored, might be just what you're looking for. It's for marketers, creators, and entrepreneurs who want to understand how to use AI in their business.

    It's hosted by Michael Stelzner and explores this exciting new frontier in easy-to-understand terms.

    Pull up your favorite podcast app and search for AI Explored. Or click the button below for more information.

    I WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT AI

    Tags: Facebook

    About the authorMaya Grinberg

    Maya Grinberg is the social media manager at Wildfire Interactive. She specializes in corporate social media strategies and teaching businesses how to optimize them. Follow her on Twitter as @papayamaya or @wildfireapp.
    Other posts by Maya Grinberg »

    Get Social Media Examiner’s Future Articles in Your Inbox!

    Get our latest articles delivered to your email inbox and get the FREE Social Media Marketing Industry Report (43 pages, 60+ charts)!

    Industry Report Cover

    Worth Exploring:

    Facebook

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Instagram

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    YouTube

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Linkedin

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    AI

    Next Frontier Explore More →

    Social Media Marketing Industry Report

    Get Free Report →

    Social Marketing Trends

    The data you've been missing!

    Need a new plan? Discover how marketers plan to change their social activities in the 16th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report. It reveals what marketers have planned for their social activities, content marketing, and more! Get this free report now and never miss another great article from us. Join more than 385,000 marketers!

    Simply click the button below to get the free report:

    Footer

    Your Guide to the Marketing Jungle
    Copyright © 2025 Social Media Examiner®
    All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy.

    Helpful Links

    • About us
    • Our content via email
    • Our podcasts
    • Our YouTube channel
    • Our live show
    • Our social media marketing industry report
    • Our generative AI marketing industry report
    • Sponsorship opportunities
    • RSS