Last week, Facebook’s Timeline layout rolled out for business pages on the popular social website.

While there is conflict among many users as to whether this change is good, bad or indifferent, the one thing that is certain is that it’s mandatory. The goals of the new design are to provide easier interaction between businesses and fans, give better graphics capabilities, allow businesses to feature posts and also swap private messages with fans.

So, what are the big changes and how will they affect social media marketing for your law firm?

• Add Cover Photo, Update Profile Pic: You’ll want to get started with the new graphics abilities: upload a cover photo that will showcase your attorneys. When users head to your page, this photo will be the dominant image they see. Your profile photo, on the other hand, will be the small image that appears next to status updates — an ideal choice for your law firm logo.
• More About Your Law Firm: Whereas info about your practice used to be buried, now it’ll be featured at the top — so a rewrite may be in order! Focus on short and punchy, rather than long and detailed.
• Post Control: With the new design, you’ll have better control over posts on your page. You can highlight one, change post dates, and “star” a post to make it larger and more prominent. Your new Activity Log let’s you do all this.
• Private messages: Now you’ll be able to exchange private messages with Facebook users, taking issues and complaints off the your wall and moving them into your inbox to handle in a less public light.

If you need help navigating the new Facebook look and how to use it to improve your law firm, contact Thunderhead Marketing today!