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Wednesday morning seemed like any morning. I drove into the office as usual, brewed a cup of coffee and sat down at my desk to start the work day. I opened my email and to my surprise, an email from Facebook was waiting for me. The email stated that Facebook will be changing my company’s Facebook page template.
While we’re all used to ongoing changes from Facebook, this new layout change is meant to position businesses with layout templates that suit their business models the best. At the moment, you can choose to change your Facebook page template now or wait until the official rollout on August 23 at which time, all pages will move to new Facebook pages template(s).
The new Facebook pages updates will include:
- Recommendations (to include photos, tags and text)
- Action buttons for booking appointments, ordering food or sending a message (all on mobile!)
- Page stories accessible by users clicking on your page profile photo
- Additional ways to customize information such as pricing, events, offers and menus
According to Facebook, “These [pages] improvements are a small part of our commitment to help businesses connect with customers.”
This change is exciting and quite easy to do. And since all Facebook pages are going to be moving over to new templates on August 23, I thought it would help to see a run-down of what this means and how you can apply these changes to your page.
Step one:
While in business manager, click settings at the top of your page right below the search box.
Step two:
In the left column, click Edit Page which lives right below messaging and right above post attribution.
Step three:
In the middle of the page you will see “Template” below this, click Edit next to your current template. Most likely, your current template will say “standard” but for future, this is a quick way to find out which template your Page is under.
Once you click “Edit” you will see the list of templates available. In the email Facebook sent me, it gave me the suggestion that the “Services” template was the best option for Allee. However, I encourage you to review all the templates available in case one actually suits your company’s page better. As you will see, there are 10 options to choose from, some of which are business, nonprofit, shopping and video.
Step four:
To get a better idea of what each template entails and to select one, click “view details” next to the template you’re interested in. As you can see in the below image, Facebook has put the “recommended” flag on the services template.
Once you open up the template, you will see images of what your page will look like, along with information on what is displayed on your page. Keep in mind that you may need to update information on your company’s Facebook page when switching templates. Certain templates may add more information sections and buttons to which you’ll need to create content for.
Step five:
Once you have found your page’s perfect template, commit to it by clicking “apply template”.
Step six:
Once you click “apply template” a memo will pop up offering you information on what parts of your page will be changed. Again, make sure you have updated content in each of these parts. Once reviewing this, click “OK” and there you have it, your page has been updated!
As Facebook mentioned, this change comes with good intentions. Each template is meant to showcase something specific that will benefit your organization. It also puts the buttons in order of what your audience would like to see first. For example, on the politician template it is the “about” but for venues it is the “events” button. This change offers a better user experience for your audience when they browse your Facebook page. It puts your users in the driver’s seat to access the information they’re truly looking for to get to know more about your business.
For help in managing the new Facebook page template process, content creation or more ideas on how to use social media for your business, check out our blog or contact us online.
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