Facebook’s Revenue Generation Schemes for 2012: Timeline for Brands
Ever since the highly-anticipated launch of Google+ Business Pages in November 2011, marketers and social media professionals have been expecting a response from the innovators at Facebook. Those brands that have been anxiously awaiting the roll-out of Timeline for Brands won’t have to wait much longer than mid-February, according to David Fischer, Facebook VP of Marketing and Business Partnerships. The launch announcement is expected to take place at Facebook’s first-ever fMC marketing conference on February 29, 2012.
Due to the image-heavy, bulletin board feel of Timeline, brands will be able to make a more poignant and long-lasting visual and emotional impact on their fans and page visitors. The distinct new template allows for a full expression of a brand’s colors, logos, and general look and feel. Additionally, brands no longer have to limit their Facebook presence to the day that they launched their first Facebook page; in fact, products can populate historical content from the start of their brand’s existence. For example, Ford Motor Company, a brand that has been around since Henry Ford founded the company in 1903, could potentially create a story for their Timeline starting at that date. This capability allows companies to communicate a fully-developed and interactive brand story and positioning as a part of their social media marketing strategy, and engage in more impactful two-way conversations with their users.
After Facebook filed for the biggest IPO in tech history at the beginning of the year, there has been a lot of industry speculation about how Facebook’s IPO price can be justified. The roll-out of Timeline along with the Facebook Platform, which provides a set of APIs enabling third-party developers to integrate with the Open Graph, are integral parts of Facebook’s new revenue growth strategy.
Open Graph Apps, whose beta was launched at the last F8 conference in September 2011, allows users to broadcast all of their actions through more expressive action words than the original Facebook “like” and encourages companies to spend more money for the development of apps. For example, Pinterest users can track and share their “pins” through their Timeline, Newsfeed, and Ticker. Similarly, GogoBot shows when a user has “wishlisted” a city, the Washington Post shares what stories users have “read,” and Foodily keeps track of what recipes users have “cooked.” Facebook developed this user + action + object formula to support the full integration of products and services into all the key Facebook distribution channels. Instead of solely engaging their fans through Wall posts and Status updates, brands can infiltrate the Timelines, app views, News Feeds, and Tickers of their users, essentially bombarding them from all fronts. The Open Graph roll-out has proven especially valuable for advertisers, allowing them to more effectively segment and target their audiences by where they travel, where they shop, and what they buy, listen to, and read about. Sponsored Story ads, as well as additional changes to the mobile app and News Feed, will also help Facebook to better monetize its current users as the number of potential new users continues to dwindle.
Before the announcement of Timeline for Brands, the Facebook marketing and PR teams went out of their way to stress that Timeline was not created specifically for product and brand promotion. Timeline was said to be designed to celebrate individual Facebook users and give them a venue to tell their story in a unique and creative way. In fact, when Timeline was launched at the last F8 in September, there was a strict policy that no brand pages would be allowed to make the switch to Timeline. We have to wonder though, especially amid the simultaneous launches of Open Graph apps, Sponsored Stories and speculation about Facebook’s revenue generation schemes, if Timeline was born for brands first, and users second.
One thing is for sure, the brains behind Facebook’s Marketing and Development teams are dedicated to continually changing Facebook for the benefit of individuals and brands alike. Updates to the site’s functionality and layout are being incorporated more and more frequently, showing Facebook’s dedication to leading the market in social media.
According to reports, Facebook plans to initially roll out the beta of Timeline for Brands to a handful of partners and continue to release the rest to marketers in several stages. Information about the fMC conference and a livestream of the event can be located at http://www.facebook.com/business/fmc.
