Continents Apart Likes New Facebook Format

March 1, 2012  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Social Media on March 2, 2012

Drop-ship home furnishings specialty rep group Continents Apart has launched a new branding campaign coinciding with the debut of Facebook's new brand Page format

Facebook, which announced the new format at its first Facebook Marketing Conference in New York, wants the layout to help retailers and brand manufacturers better personalize their Facebook Pages for individual consumers.

Continents Apart and Macy's are among the first to move to the new format. Continents Apart timed the kickoff of its new campaign featuring a fresh, updated version of its logo to coincide with the new release by Facebook.

The revamped, more visual Facebook Page for brands and retailers features a large "cover photo" that spans the width of the page, bigger tabs than the previous format, a Friend Activity section that highlights what consumers are saying about a brand or retailer, as well as a timeline that highlights key moments in a brand's history. Brands can also "anchor" particularly important posts, which ensures they are prominently displayed for up to seven days. The format will become mandatory on March 30.

The new format offers consumers a more personalized experience because they can see how their friends have interacted with a brand, according to Facebook. For instance, if someone tags a brand in one of his posts or checks in at a bricks-and-mortar location, the people he originally shared that content with will see those interactions on the Page's timeline.

The pages mirror the Timelines that Facebook began offering consumers last month. Timelines replaces a consumer's wall and profile with a virtual scrapbook that features a graphical and chronological timeline of life events on the social network, and other interests the user chooses to share, such as concerts attended and clothes bought.

Sarasota, Fla.-based Continents Apart CEO Steven Husak said, "We decided to take advantage of the roll-out by moving up the release of our new look logo that will be the start of the company's overhaul of our website and the company's story--that we are 'The Lifestyles Drop Ship Reps.'"