It’s been just over a month since Facebook business page owners were required to switch to the new Timeline layout. Since the change, reviews have been mixed, and so is the data concerning how the new format has affected Facebook user engagement.

Simply Measured, a social media measurement company, looked at the number for 15 brand pages that adopted the new format early. Among those pages, the company found that average engagement (meaning comments, “likes,” etc.) rose 46% in the three weeks after the change, when compared with the three weeks prior to it.

However, both Simply Measured and Wildfire Interactive, a social media marketing software company, found less-than-stellar numbers when looking at brands individually. Brands with more “likes” seemed to be negatively impacted by the switch to Timeline, according to Wildfire’s data.

Brands with less than 1 million “likes,” comments grew 40% and “likes” increased 60.3%. For Brands with more than 10 million fans, however, all metrics declined more than 10%.

Neither company found the data conclusively reflected how Timeline will affect businesses’ Facebook presence in the long-term. Because most interaction between Facebook users and business pages takes place in News Feeds, rather than on the businesses’ page, the overall impact of the switch may turn out to be negligible.

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