As many of you probably know by now, Timeline is here. What’s TimeLine you ask? Well, great question. Timeline is the evolution of Facebook. Your present profile will be replaced by Timeline. You can ask for it now, you can wait until it is offered or you can wait until the inevitable happens, and you are ported over to it.
The best description I have seen of Timeline is, “Timeline is supposed to be a scrapbook of your whole life.” Associated Press
But realistically, it can’t be your whole life, but your life on FB and be sure to understand this part…the part of your life that FB wants to show.
I’ve been on Timeline for about a week now and I really have mixed feelings about it. (Kind of how I feel about Facebook in general). So, I’ll save my personal opinion on each aspect of it, but I will give you a couple of things to think about.
The literal timeline allows for anyone to take a look at your history way easier than ever before, so if you’ve got skeletons…get rid of them. Who you are now, may not be the person you were five years ago.
Activity Log – This is you, everything you have done, said, liked, commented on, posted, etc. This is the easiest way to navigate your history. You are the only one who can see this.
Friends – Are you hiding your friends? I suggest you do, but even people you aren’t friends with you can see any mutual friends you share, regardless of your privacy settings.
View of my personal FB account from my work account. Notice they aren't friends, but you can see the mutual friends. Clicking on Friends will show all mutual friends.
Cover Page – You can put your own picture here to act as the cover for your Timeline which partners with your avatar.
Life Event – You can add depth to what you have done both on Facebook and off. There are lots of sub-menus so experiment.
When you get Timeline, don’t switch over to it right away. Presently you have 7 days to play with it, tweak it and customize it. TAKE THAT TIME!- Take a look through your past posts. Reassess if you want to delete them, change the audience for them and or hide it from Timeline.
- Review all your privacy settings. This is something you should be doing anytime you hear about a functionality change to FB in general.
- Take advantage of the Feature setting.
- Use the “View as” feature to see what your Timeline looks like.
Click the link below for an overview of Timeline from Facebook.
Here are some other great articles about the change.
Facebook Timeline Now Pushed To Everyone, Users Get A Week To Clean Up Profiles
http://mashable.com/2012/01/24/facebook-timeline-everyone-2/
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-timeline-and-what-marketers-need-to-know/
