What's a Facebook Timeline?

Slowly but surely Facebook has been turning user's profiles into the new "Timeline" format, which has some banging their heads against their monitor screens and others happily going with the flow.  The bigger question is what does this mean for brands?

Well to start, Timeline will be different for personal pages and brands... Marketers need to rethink their strategy a bit, so here's a few tips:

Plan for the aesthetic changes first!

The new format is a total 180 from the previous Facebook profile.  This means that you need to analyze what each part of the format works best for what.  The cover photo will be an obvious choice to showcase the brand.  All in all, PR pro's should take a second and figure out how the looks of the page can benefit their brand.

Courtesy of Mashable.com

What's your brand's story or history?
Timeline is made for this.  Users can easily go back through the years via a simple click, but you want your story to be exciting and interesting.  Since Timeline is extremely visual, have a photo gallery of different ads from over the years, or maybe even a gallery of products and when they were first introduced.

Interacting with fans has changed.
Now, instead of asking fans to "like" a post if they have used your product, posts will need to be made in moderation to emphasize a chapter in your brand's life.  In other words, we aren't expecting the customer service users to go away, but don't spam your own page with useless posts, because most likely thousands of users have used your brand today (given the size of the brand).

So what should we take away from this? Facebook has changes that come around every now and then, and we all have to adjust.  If used properly Timeline can beautifully showcase any brand or image, it just takes a little more understanding and patience this time around.

Flipping the bird v. Exposed breast

Last night was the Super Bowl, as I'm sure all of you know.  The half-time show is always highly anticipated, and this year it was the Queen of Pop- Madonna.  Madge was joined onstage by a few new artists like Nicki Manaj, M.I.A., LMFAO, and Cee-Lo Green.  At one point during her duet with Madonna, M.I.A. flipped the cameras off- the screen went blurry for a second- and returned to normal.

Now, we all remember the now-infamous Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake incident known as "nipple-gate" when Ms. Jackson had a major wardrobe malfunction and her bare breast was exposed.

Woopsie Daisy...

Okay, now that was a pretty big deal, especially since it happened at the VERY end of the performance and the cameras were literally paused on JT and Janet.  The Parents Television Council (PTC) laid down the law after this occurred because the Super Bowl is a family event, and kids do not need to see nudity.

Well, a few years later we now have a new scandal with M.I.A.  Will the NFL, NBC, or M.I.A. be held responsible for the hand gesture?  While I personally don't think that this is all that offensive, people are comparing it to the Janet Jackson incident.

While I do think that it was not in the best interest of the performance, and all would be fine if this incident never occurred, I do not think that this is the end of world causing for strict new rules for the performance.  No one involved other than M.I.A. herself knew that she was going to do that.

I realize it is prime time, and everyone and their mother is watching, but the game is changing with television.  What can and can't be shown on TV is changing every year, and it is a live performance.  I think people need to calm down for a second and realize that 99% of the people watching, probably only noticed that the picture freaked out for a moment, not that she gave them the middle finger for a split second.