I read a report that 1 in 4 brands have switched over to the new Timeline for Pages. As of right now 8 MILLION Pages have switched. You can switch yours now or you can wait till Facebook forces the switch on March 30th and start playing catch up.
It’s called Staying Ahead of the Curve and yeah I can read your lips… I know, “it’s tough to do”. The truth is, if you are in business it’s not optional.
I flipped the switch on http://fb.com/MikeMuellerConsulting a while ago.
When you update your Page to Timeline you might see some funny icons under your cover photo for your custom apps.
Quick Tour: Moving from left to right, you’ll have a snippet from what was your INFO Tab, now called your About. You can adjust what is there but can’t move or delete it. Next icon you’ll see is Photos. The icon is the last photo you added and can’t be changed nor can the App be moved. The rest is up to you.
In the screen shot above the pineapple icon’d App is a custom built page App I recently built to replace the one to it’s right. The pineapple image is just that, a custom image I created to represent the ‘”Replacement” App behind it. We’re building a replacement for the Welcome tab as well.
But why build a Replacement App?
Two reasons. The first of which is StaticFBML. Both of theses icons denote that the old app was built using StaticFBML. These were actual apps (from Facebook) that you could put on your page. They gave you an open box in which you could put basic code or html thereby creating a custom landing tab. Weeeeee!
But Facebook announced recently they are doing away with FBML. That means these style of Apps are going to evaporate! Booooooo!
The other reason we rebuilt the App was to take advantage of the new full width that Facebook is giving us. Instead of a confining 520 px width we now have 810 pixels of real estate to play with! That means we can get a lot more above the fold. The screen capture below is of my app on my page. I reduced it to fit in this post but if you click on you can see the difference.
So back to the task at hand (Staying Ahead of the Curve) – what to do about your old Apps?
If you have an old StaticFBML App that I built, I can rebuild that in the new App style in two options.
- We can keep it at the old 520 px width (it’ll be centered in the available space like this)
- We can rebuild and adapt it to the new 810 px width
If you have an old StaticFBML App that someone else built, I can rebuild that in the new App style in the same two options.
- We can keep it at the old 520 px width (it’ll be centered in the available space like this)
- We can rebuild and adapt it to the new 810 px width
Or we can go with a completely new Redesign and start new and refreshed. The choice is yours. No matter what option you want, the new App will render in both secure and non secure browsers (read THIS) and follow along with my terms of service.
The cost? Entirely depends on the options above and what’s involved behind the scenes. It’s going to range from $100 to $400 if that helps. Want a more definitive answer? Just contact me.
Bonus: If I created a new style App for you at 520px (Pre Timeline) your Custom App will work just fine in the new Timeline. It’ll just be centered in the space. If you want to upgrade to the 810px width, you know how to get a hold of me. I’ll be happy to give you a quote.
Bonus Bonus: I’ve also been creating the custom app images and custom cover images for pages. While I’m not a graphic designer, I have what they call great “photo chopping” skills. Most often you don’t need a new design, just a new rendering from your old graphics. I would be happy to help. Just ask.
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