This Week in Facebook: Offers, Ads and Timeline for Pages
Facebook's gently unveiled a raft of changes to its policies to boost advertising on the social network. It unveiled Timeline for pages, meaning that companies can now start uploading baby pictures and changing the cover photo every day. While adverts have been traditionally restricted to the right-rail of the site, now they'll be jammed in at will -- including in your mobile app (which the company conceded it wasn't "monetizing"), timeline and log in / out pages. Advertisers will also have access to a reach generator: once your brand reaches a set (unspecified) number of fans, you can pay to contact up to 75 percent of them with your adverts each month. Finally, there's offers: a way for businesses to share discounts and promotions with users that can then be whipped out at the store on your cellphone, which is certainly cooler than slicing out sections of the penny saver.
[Thanks, Chris]
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Announcing Offers, New Placements
February 29, 2012
Today we're announcing a new product called Offers and new placements for premium advertising and Sponsored Stories.
Premium Ads and Sponsored Stories on Facebook
Premium ads can now be seen on the log-out page and Sponsored Stories can be seen in News Feed on mobile devices. Sponsored Stories are posts from friends or Pages on Facebook that a business, organization or individual has paid to highlight so there's a better chance people will see them. Like all stories in News Feed, people have control over who sees a Sponsored Story.
Offers
Offers are a free new way for businesses to share discounts and promotions directly from a Facebook Page. They can be distributed through the News Feed or promoted as Sponsored Stories. People can redeem Offers via email or on a mobile device.
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Announcing an Update to Pages
February 29, 2012
Today we're announcing an update to Pages. It includes a cover photo, larger story sizes, better tools to manage a Page and more. The new features help business and organizations better share their story and connect with people.
New Page features include:
Cover Photo
Businesses and organizations can now add a cover photo to the top of their Page.
Friend Activity
When someone first visits a Page, they may see friends' recent posts spotlighted as friend activity. People will also see how many of their friends are connected to a Page.
Larger Stories, Milestones, and Page Timeline
The new Page design allows Page owners to tell stories through bigger photos and milestones that can include a date and other content.
Pinned Posts
Organizations can pin a post to keep a story at the top of a Page for up to seven days.
Admin Panel
The Admin panel is a new way for Page administrators to track their performance and to respond to private messages from people.
Activity Log
Page administrators have access to a log of their Page activity, including tools to easily highlight, hide or delete posts and change the date of a post
