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A few weeks ago we discussed some of the changes made to Facebook at the annual f8 developers conference and asked how these changes to Facebook could affect businesses in the future.

Well since then there have been a few other changes, tweaks and new additions which we wanted to share with you and suggest how they could affect individuals and most importantly business pages in the next few months.

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Use your personal timeline to promote your business

On Facebook there are personal profiles that are just about you “Joe Bloggs” and business pages that are solely for your business “Bloggs Building Supplies”.

A few weeks ago we discussed that personal profiles will soon be replaced by Timelines. A long stream of content instead of a traditional looking profile. Although this is only a personal profile feature, All Facebook writes that many business owners are using features of the new Timeline to promote their business and business page.

One of the main ways of doing this is with the cover. At the top of each new Facebook Timeline there’s what’s called a cover photo and people have been using this to say things about their business.

Here’s an example from All Facebook:

all-facebook-exampleThis is something that only a few VERY web savvy users are adding at the moment, but if you want to talk to us about integrating your business into your personal Timeline with a new cover photo then get in touch with one of the Codastar team.

Facebook pages now have “Talking About This” number

If you’ve been on your Facebook business page recently, you’ll notice that as well as there being a “XX Like This” number there’s also a “XX Are Talking About This” number too.

In fact you don’t even need to be a page admin, this data now shows up for both owners of the page and just regular visitors!

New tools within Facebook now create this number to show how many people are talking about and engaging with your page. Some of the things used to get this number are:

1. People liking your page.

2. People posting to the wall of your page.

3. Liking, commenting or sharing content from the page.

4. Answering a question posted on a page.

5. Mentioning the page.

6. Tagging the page in a photo.

7. Checking-in at that place.

They are just a few of the things that Facebook will look at to make the new “Talking About This” number. The number has both advantages and disadvantages. Firstly, it’s great because if a lot of people are talking about you and engaging with your content it’ll now be more obvious than ever. However, if your page isn’t very popular, people may notice that more now too. Although the team at All Facebook believe very few users might even notice the new number!

There is now quick-fire answer about how to improve this number, but creating good content that the community will care about and updating regularly are two very important and central things to consider.

Facebook makes guides for public figures and non-profits

Although most of the companies we work with here at Codastar are small, privately owned companies, we think it’s important to let you know that Facebook has recently launched all kinds of guides to help public figures (like celebrities, politicians and journalists) and non-profit organisations get ahead on the social network.

Some of the tips incude:

1. Offer exclusive content

2. Use more social apps and plugins.

3. Talk to your community and join the conversation.

To read through the guides for yourself visit the dedicated public figure section of the Facebook Pages website. Although it might not all be applicable to you, there could still be some useful information for you and your business.

Facebook makes translation available to all pages

Facebook has integrated a tool from the search engine Bing into the social network which now allows people to translate certain posts into a different language.

As an admin, if you want people to be able to translate bits of your page into their language, then you must go to:

Edit Page > Your Settings > In the “Translations From” section > Select “Admin, Community and Machine Translators.”

Once this change has been made, people can then translate certain posts once they have the Bing Translate plug-in installed. Although we imagine this change could take a while for people to catch on to, once it gets more and more popular lots of people will want to read content in their own language, so it makes sense as a page admin that you allow them to do that.

There are lots more Facebook changes on the horizon, so keep checking back to the Codastar Blog for more information and tips to make the most of the platform.

[Images via the Facebook blog and All Facebook]

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