You might have heard some of the BUZZ going ’round about the new Facebook Profile called Facebook Timeline. This is a really cool feature that will be replacing your current Facebook profile with something that’s more along the lines of a virtual scrapbook which chronicles your life. The purpose of the Timeline is to tell your own life story through sharing of pictures, events, & applications on Facebook; a visual representation of your time on Facebook retold and re-expressed in a more modern way.

(If you landed on this page but are looking for info on how the new Facebook Timeline Changes are affecting Business Fanpages, you can see that here!)

What does the new Facebook Timeline mean??

There are some important things to know about this roll-out because the new Timeline will mean something new to each of us. I’m going to cover some of the top things you should know about this launch and I’m also going to share you a simple step-by-step which you can do in very little time that will allow you to save all of your old profile info before it’s goners!

Let’s start with what you need to know about the new Facebook Timeline Changes!

1.) Facebook Ticker:

Old info of yours that has been stored on Facebook is now going to be shown on the Ticker. This is kind of a cool feature because it show some of your shares on Facebook in a new and engaging way. This could very well connect you with your friends in a way that may have been missed before since some of your old shares had been buried in the archives of your profile wall.

Any shared activity that has been previously authorized will be made viewable and that information will show up in your Ticker. This also applies to comments that may have been made on another friend’s wall (even if you’re not connected to them) so long as that wall is set to being publicly viewable.

Ticker

You won’t necessarily know which parts of your own activity are being published because your own activity isn’t going to show up in your Ticker. This can be a little confusing if you’re trying to pinpoint what is being shared and where. (This is all the more reason to keep reading the tips below so you are sure that you’re representing yourself in the best possible light.)

Here’s what the new Ticker looks like (click the thumbnail to see the full image).

2.) Public Officially Means Public: 

So what do I mean by Public Officially Means Public? Here it is, this is a BIG huge one and it effects pretty much everything you do on Facebook. Once you enable subscribers to receive your public posts, those posts will show up in their newsfeed; hence, anyone you add as a friend automatically becomes a subscriber of yours. As soon as you confirm the friend request, the new contact is given “friend” privileges. Now here’s the kicker…if you turn that friend request down, that person will still be one of your subscribers, giving them access to all of your public posts.

3.) Facebook Fan Pages: 

Facebook Fan Pages are public by default, so any info that is listed on your Fan Pages is going to be publicly accessible. In addition to that, each and every post that you make on a public fan page will be fed into all of your friend’s Tickers.

4.) “Frictionless” Facebook Experiences: 

I heard this termed and found it to be a bit nebulous, so here’s what it means…You know how when you start using an app in Facebook you get that dialog box that pops up and asks you if you’d like to allow that application to “publish activity” to your newsfeed? Well, from here going forward, you’re going to see MUCH fewer dialog boxes asking you those questions every time you’re updating or using that app.

Let’s say for instance you have authorized Farmville to publish your activity. When you first set up the app, its going to ask you what level of permission you wish to grant it. You might want to consider making these updates non-public if you plan to be on Farmville all day because otherwise every little thing you do on that game is going to start publishing all over your friends’ Tickers. Hey, maybe that’s okay for you – and if so, go with it! But if you’re on Facebook with a bunch of co-workers and perhaps your boss or other professionals, you probably don’t want to be looked at like that gal/guy whose chicken eggs are always hatching on Facebook.

It’s going to be very easy to forget what you’re sharing and not sharing since you won’t be seeing reminders asking you whether you want to post your app updates every time one is made, so you may just want to be mindful of how this works so that you’re representing yourself the way that best suits you.

5.) Facebook Security Changes:

Facebook is now going to represent more shared info in more visible places, so they have also included enhanced security features to give you the option of how visible you want your comments to be. Before you confirm your comment by clicking the “Post” button, you are able to hover your mouse over the box in front of the “Post” box to see the different options available to you. Depending on what level of visibility you wish for your comment to have, you may choose the appropriate box. Some of the choices you will have are Public Visibility, Friends, Custom (settings you may create for yourself), or even just specific lists of friends that have been predetermined.

You want to be thoughtful about what kinds of comments you will be making on public posts; because, just like with Public Fan Pages, any comments you leave on a status update will be shown on the Tickers of every person on your friend list!

6.) New Facebook Privacy Handling: 

I found this new change to be particularly interesting and you may want to pay special attention to this one if you’ve ever had to un-friend someone on Facebook. In the new Facebook Timeline, your former friends (the ones you’ve un-friended) are still going to be subscribed to your public posts. So that means that if you really want nothing to do with someone and you don’t want them to be seeing all of your updates in their Ticker, you should also block them.

7.) Facebook Timeline is coming to get ya, that means everybody!

Facebook hasn’t given a specific date yet, but you should know that these changes will affect everyone who has a Facebook account. If you’d like to get yours up now, you are able to do so by requesting the update here. Mashable published an article about how to enable the new Facebook Timeline that you may find helpful. Click here to read it.

8.) Facebook will give you time to clean up your Timeline!

I know that a few of you may have gotten a little tense hearing that old comments and such may be aired publicly soon. It’s possible that there may be some things you don’t necessarily want to be represented in your Timeline. I think we can all relax though, because Facebook is going to give you some time to go through and clean up your information. Any Timeline post may be deleted, hidden, or you can simply change the visibility to which ever of your friend groups you wish to share it with. After you’re happy with your edits, you can publish your Timeline * et VOILA* it will align with your preferred settings.

In summation…

Due to all the changes, it’s a good idea to be careful what’s said and how it’s said! Hey, my Mama told me long ago,

“Honey, if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything.”

Since the stream-of-consciousness which so many of us tend to openly share is going to be represented in more ways and more freely nowadays, we may each want to take heed with Mama’s advice!!

***If you are still struggling to learn the RIGHT ways to advertise and grow a business using Facebook, have a look here for some fantastic and UP TO DATE tips!***

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Tagged as: Facebook, Responsible Recruiting, Self Branding, Social Media, Survival Skills