What are we to make of Facebook’s Timeline? Ever since its inception in 2004, Facebook has routinely introduced new changes, some which have been well received, some which received criticism, but most of which were eventually accepted by the general social networking community and eventually forgotten. Timeline, on the other hand, seems to have shaken up the online community in a more profound way than ever before.
<a href="http://www.brandiron.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Facebook-Timeline-What-Marketers-Need-to-Know.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1625" src="http://www.brandiron.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Facebook-Timeline-What-Marketers-Need-to-Know-300x220.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="220" /></a>Facebook Timeline, for those of you who are not familiar, is a revolutionary new user interface which Mark Zuckerberg introduced in September, 2011. Timeline aims to “Tell your life story with a new kind of profile”. Just as before, Facebook’s new creation essentially seeks to share your stories, and highlight your most memorable posts, photos, and life events, the difference being that now, all of that content is neatly arranged by chronological order, making it easy and convenient for you to see what exactly you had to say to the social networking community in, say, June, 2008, or any other time for that matter. You may be thinking, “that sounds great!”, and initially many people did, and still do. The main concern is that this new method of delivery included an entirely new method of presentation, which didn’t sit well with a significant portion of Facebook’s users.  In other words, to some people, it just didn’t look or feel the same.

While it is to be expected that any change which affects an estimated 845 million people will be met with at least some level of initial resistance, the drastic shift to Facebook Timeline really seemed to rub some people the wrong way, resulting with some users threatening to part ways with the online giant, and many other actually following through.
Most users, however, complained for a day or two, and then moved on with their lives, and many have now come to prefer Timeline to some of the older formats. As one user said, “At first I didn’t really care for Timeline, but once I got used to it on my personal profile I switched the business page over and have adapted to it quickly." Hopefully, more users will come around as time goes on, because Facebook currently has no plans to switch back to its older format and it appears that Timeline is here to stay.<a href="http://www.brandiron.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/facebook-timeline-fc3b6retag_mcds.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-1624" src="http://www.brandiron.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/facebook-timeline-fc3b6retag_mcds-240x300.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="300" /></a>

<strong>What does this mean for marketers and businesses using Facebook to communicate to their customer base?</strong>

Many people wonder will this layout transition be more of a Myspace trap or will it increase business engagement? The switch to a graphic focused page may take away from the clean, streamlined look that many users have become accustomed too. Consistent feedback on Timeline for businesses sites that it feels more "pushy" and like users are being bombarded by the brand instead of interacting with the information. It will be interesting to see how businesses and users receive the switch after it becomes mandatory for all businesses this coming week.