Facebook’s Timeline from A Business Perspective

In a few short weeks, something will happen and it will impact the lives of over 800 million people worldwide. The event in question will be the worldwide roll-out of Facebook’s new interactive Timeline. To the general public, Facebook Timeline will be a cool feature which will transport them through time, allowing them to see all their memorable events, status updates, uploaded/tagged photos and friend lists from when they first joined Facebook. Timeline will also provide a host of commercial benefits that will bring a smile to the faces of marketers and business folk everywhere.

The first benefit will be access to more in-depth customer data. By going through a person’s Timeline, brands will be able to conduct virtual market research and gauge consumer behaviour over the course of a few weeks, months and years, or through the life cycle of their product promotion. All of this data can be gathered, assessed and implemented to maximise the effectiveness of marketing strategies and provide companies with solutions on how to better market products to customers.

The second major benefit will be more engaging media posts. With an emphasis on edge rank, the new Timeline will place heavy weighting on photos and videos. This will be a great advantage for businesses, as Timeline will inspire users to upload more weird and wonderful media content; great for photos competitions and brand reputation, as brands can encourage customers to upload videos of products they have purchased and loved.

It’s clear that Timeline was introduced mainly to make Facebook more interactive, fun and addictive. Mark Zuckerberg and co envisioned a way of getting users to stay online for longer and it has definitely worked (or shall we say, will work once the feature is rolled out to everyone any few days). Yet on a deeper level the Timeline was meant for more than just social fun; it was also meant for business.  As a large chunk of Facebook’s revenue comes from advertisements, Facebook encourages brands, both small and large; to use platforms such as their sponsored stories or Facebook adverts to reach customers and fans.  If you look at the Timeline from a business perspective you’ll quickly come to realise it’s more than just fun; it’s another string to Facebook’s bow to try and capture more brands and get them to launch their campaigns on this leading social network.

Anthony Ngaithe

Anthony Ngaithe is a Social Community Executive at Caliber Interactive overseeing client’s social media accounts and providing reputation management. Prior to joining Caliber, he was the assistant head of Marketing at a fashion event company responsible for promoting fashion campaigns and acquiring sponsorship for company events. Aside from work, Anthony loves to write and read poetry, socialise with friends, play video games whenever he can and immerse himself in all things digital media and technology.

Website - Facebook - More Posts

Bookmark the permalink or leave a trackback.