Should I Use Facebook Fan Pages or Timeline?

Should I Use Facebook Fan Pages or Timeline? Why Data is Always King.

Posted by Corey on February 2nd, 2012

Timeline is coming. In a few weeks, all profiles will be moved to the Timeline format. Many have opted in to activate Timeline already, but for most Facebook users it will be a substantial change. Instead of replicating the newsfeed format on the profile, Timeline chronologically displays events, images, and activities in a more engaging and aesthetically pleasing way. If the old newsfeed-style profile was like talking about your life, Timeline is supposed to mirror actually living it.

So, should you use a Fan Page or a public Timeline for your business? Mashable has highlighted celebrities who have been using Timeline to share content with fans through the (somewhat) new Subscribe feature. Timeline works well for individuals who:

are their own brand
aren’t using a personal Facebook profile the way us “regular folk” use it
are already supplementing their Timeline with a Fan Page

Bjork is one of the better examples of the Timeline/Fan Page schism. She currently has 2,034,124 fans on her page and 178,000 subscribers to her Timeline. Her Fan Page uses media-rich applications to provide engaging content for fans. Bjork’s wall posts share updates about shows, videos, and photos. On her Timeline, Bjork has mostly taken advantage of life events and backdated posts to share photos and key moments in her career. Posts date back to 1988.

Both pages have engaging content. Timeline shows an intimate peek into Bjork’s life, but feels more like reading a diary and not like engaging in the kind of conversation that builds fan bases. While fans can comment on and Like content on Timeline, they can’t make their own posts. This can prevent fans from building an inclusive community around your page.

What will YOU miss out on if you rely only on Timeline? Data, glorious data! Facebook’s newly updated insights provide valuable information on how your fans interact with your content on Fan Pages. This doesn’t exist for Timeline. If you’re only using Timeline as a point of fan engagement on Facebook, you’re not going to measure the success of your content relative to the metrics that Facebook provides, like People Talking About and Reach.

What’s the right strategy for you? While you can supplement your Fan Page by letting fans subscribe to your Timeline if you aren’t using it mostly for personal interactions (like most of us do), Facebook Fan Pages still provide the most flexibility for engagement and content with the analytics to back it up.

Has Timeline affected your Facebook strategy? Are you subscribing to any Timelines without Liking the Fan Page first? Share your thoughts with us in comments.

Want more tips on building your Facebook strategy? Download our free eBook, 3 Keys to Facebook Success.

5 comments

DC Cardwell

I was suspicious of Timeline because on some people’s profiles it looked like a mess. But I took the plunge and now I really like it on my personal profile (which I mainly use for music anyway). I like the way you can control what’s visible, and the way people can scroll down and see interesting posts more easily than they could with the old linear model.

The big photo often looks bad when people just use a random snap, but I immediately took the opportunity to make a “banner” out of it and it looks pretty good!

I have to admit it has made me move my focus away from my Page (facebook.com/dcccardwell) and towards my Profile (facebook.com/davidcardwell).

I agree with you about the analytics on the Pages, though. I presume Facebook will also introduce Timeline for Pages and look forward to that day!

~ DC
Guestie Guesterson

My wife is a local politician in our city, and represents ~100,000 constituents. She has a personal Facebook profile, and has had a fan page for at least six months. She’s reached her 5,000 Fb friend limit (all of which are unsolicited, meaning she didn’t seek out or request them), so I enabled subscriptions for her. She’s garnered almost a thousand subscribers in the last six weeks or so, but her fan page still only has ~250 likes in six months. (We have apps that cross-post content from her personal page to her fan page.)

The difference in adoption rates is really astounding, and I’m now considering abandoning her “fan page” completely. Even with the same content, the fan page just seems impersonal. For whatever reason, people really seem to like connecting with her on her personal page. I imagine that’s the case with other public figures, as well.
DC Cardwell

In response to what ‘Guestie’ said, I have a similar experience and I think two of the problems with the FB “Page” are that (a) you can’t post comments on personal posts, and (b) people can’t message you personally to your page. So the whole thing looks more like an ad than a person.

Unfortunately, one of the problems with my *personal* profile is that I can’t call myself “DC Cardwell” as Facebook says “too many capitals”. It just comes out as Dc Cardwell which looks rubbish. And they won’t even accept D.C. Cardwell. So then when people share stuff they share it as “David Cardwell” and I’m always wanting to say, “That’s not my stage name!”

Another thing is that I can’t us music-related tabs such as those from Fanbridge etc on my personal profile, so I have to rely on the “page” for that.

And *another* thing is, why do they have to call it a “page”? It’s such a hopelessly generic term (like “like”) that you have to constantly say things like, please LIKE my PAGE, or, please *like* my *page* so that it doesn’t just look like random words.

Like a lot of things about Facebook, it’s kinda messy for artists and
you have to be constantly thinking of ways to circumvent problems!
FanBridge

Interesting feedback, DC and Guestie. While we really like Timeline for personal use and think it’s an interesting suppliment for public figure Fan Pages, there is that lack of apps (other than the social ones meant for personal use) and data like DC mentioned.
http://www.cpssecurity.com/ Security Services Companies

I think you have just written “Profile” there. But it’s like the Tag thing works. The text “Profile” will be shown in the “BLUE COLOR” as you tag someone or some page. According to me that’s the only problem you could have. Else, try repeating the process and do tell me again. Thanks!

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