Facebook Timeline –  Have you heard about this and the new features added to Facebook. Most of us might have already heard about these. Google+ has changed the equations for them and Facebook is also working hard to keep the pace.
Facebook Timeline is a new feature introduced for Facebook which is still in BETA and available to developers. When I say developers, it means anybody who has developer level access, you don't have to develop apps to access timeline.
If you want to have a look you can look at my profile on Facebook (You will be able to see it if you have developer access otherwise you will be served old profile page).
What is Facebook Timeline
Facebook Timeline is a new way to show your profile and as the name suggest it changes your profile in a time driven series. It shows activities from when you joined Facebook up to now on a time scale (it can show activities for your whole life, you just need to go back and add those to your timeline).
Here are few changes which you will get on your profile page.
1. Cover Image
New profile page allows you to use a cover image along with the profile image. This cover image is different than your profile image and it will be first thing shown on your profile page.
This is a big cover image so gives a lot of space to brand and make a contact. You can choose to use a image which promote your blog along with you to give your users a chance to connect.
2. About and Apps
This is the second thing which will be shown on your profile page, about section and your likes, subscription etc. It is an easy way to write an small bio or an attractive sale pitch. You have full control on what will be shown on your about section. Just click on the section and it will take you to the screen where you can update your details.
Your apps will be shown next to your about section. You have an option to choose the sequence and visibility of the app on your profile. It is nothing more than showing your friends, photos, likes in a compact manner. There is another detail section in your timeline for your apps.
3. Your Timeline
The third and final section is your Facebook timeline, your activities on a time scale. It is divided into two parts, your stories and your apps.
In your Facebook timeline your stories will be shown first, its nothing more than your activities on Facebook. You can change the privacy settings if you don't want something to be shown here.
The second thing is your apps, your likes, your recommendation etc, again you have a full control what to show here. You can change the settings right from that screen and remove what you don't want to show on that screen.
Why it is important?
I only have one question why it is important to have better Facebook landing page for your blogs? Wouldn't it be nice to give a new and improved look of your profile to your readers.
This is available only to developers right now, so its a good time to start and set it up. When it will be launched to everybody you will have a perfectly setup profile page.
How to Activate Facebook Timeline
If you don't like to read the process watch the video below on how to create Facebook timeline profile.
1. Create an app
To get the Facebook Timeline you need to get an developer access and create an sample app (no coding required). To get the developer access go to developer section. If its your first time than it will ask for access, click on allow access and it will take you to the next screen.
To create an app your account needs to be verified either through mobile or credit card. Click on Create app and give an name and namespace for your new app. Namespace will be like a slug for your app so there can't be any spaces in that. You can give any name it does not matter.
2. Open Graph access
Now you have to get an access to open Graph. Just click on Open Graph BETA. It will ask you to define what people can do, You can enter anything you like or choose from the sample given. Once you do that just click submit on next two screens.
3. Activate the Facebook Timeline profile
You can go to your profile page and there will be a box which will ask you to access your timeline, click on that you will get your timeline profile page. Now the only work left is edit and finalize your Facebook timeline profile.
You can go ahead and change your cover image, write your about and setup your timeline. By default it gives you 7 days to edit and setup your timeline, but if you are done earlier you can choose to publish it right away.
Few Things worth checking in new profile page
1. Your liked pages
The first thing which I would like to do is change the look of likes in the Cover section. I Like to show individual likes but it is up to you if you would want to make this change. Just click on the likes box and change it to individual like.
2. Some activities which you don't want to show
You would want to review your activities and remove the activities which you don't want to show on timeline. There are many activities and when you did them on Facebook you might not have think about this, so give 10-15 min and review what's there.
This is an easiest way to setup your Facebook timeline profile page, set it up and share with all the developers. If you don't want to do that than you can sign up for the updates, Facebook will let you know once it will be released.
Great I like this as it proves to be beneficial for us only. As I am not aware of it and heard it for the first time from you so..
Thanks a lot for this. I must going to check more on this.
The new profile page looks great and give a flexibility to decide the layout and what to show. Good addition on Facebook
Sanjeev, one small question, i am bad with coding, and you said in the post that there is absolutely no coding needed, but when i opened the Facebook Developer page i found that the first thing they need us to do is to develop an app.. i stopped there, as i am zero with coding so i immediately left and got back to Facebook as usual!
Grant, Yes they ask to build you a app, but the only thing which you need to do is give a name and namespace for your app. You don’t have to do anything else. Check the video for step by step guide, I hope that helps.
The Timeline is nice, but it shares too much information.
However, it helped me to clear up some of my posts, that my friends were only able to see, and not me.
Anyway, I’ve put together a new website with Hundreds of Free Facebook Timeline Covers
Feel free to use them on your Facebook Profile. 🙂
-Andrew Davis
I have installed the new feature yet as I am in two mind still. It looks attractive, but i am sure about its benefits in general.
The good thing is that it won’t go live for all users, only people who has developer level access will be able to see it, other people will get the old profile page only. So even after changing the profile page it will not be served to major community.
Facebook keeps on adding great new features to its social networking site, got to love them. This evening i’m installing this feature 🙂
Its Great, A good way to create an interactive profile page.
Hi Sanjeev,
I heard about this new feature a while ago and waiting for it as it seems very interesting and impressive too, Can you tell me when it’s going to release for normal facebook users. I know it’s releasing dates are getting delayed every time. 😉
It still in BETA I have seen some issues like cover image is not aligning up correctly some time etc. Small issues but they might want to fix it before releasing it to everybody. You can sign up for the updates, link is at the last in the above post.
Thanks Sanjeev, I didn’t know they are working on introducing the feature. Very informative post.
I am all for new features and new development, but looks to me like another reason for users to runway from Facebook. Knowing how Facebook introduces features (more attention to the feature itself and little attention to privacy and security), this feature will introduce many problems.
Users are still complaining about the new way Facebook determines what “I” need to see and what not on “my” newsfeed, of course there are always was to subscribe to specific updates and unsubscribe from others, but how many of us like to change and custom change their Facebook settings every time a new little feature is introduced.
For me personally it is simple, yea, introduce whatever feature you develop, but give me the option to enable/disable that feature, educate the user with the benefits of that feature, don’t just enable it and expect me to understand the innerworkings and customize it to fit my privacy preference.
Oh, Facebook lately has been trying hard to introduce feature after feature just to try to keep-up with G+, I believe before you know it it will just be too complicated for users to keep up with compared to G+.. Time will tell though.
I agree and that’s the reason I mentioned to check the timeline before publishing it. There can be many things which we might not want to show on timeline.
The only good thing is that they have given a privacy button right there so no need to go somewhere else to change the settings.
Facebook Timeline is the best thing that Facebook has done in the recent past and its just awesome 🙂
I am also liking the new looks!
I just realized we are talking about apps for a website, a social network. Kinnda interesting to see where will this take us in a few years. Think about it, social networks are begging to give us more and more options, features, apps and stuff like that, it all sounds like an Operation System, yeah, someday a social network may replace OS for ordinary people…
oh yes, we are getting apps everywhere now, open graph is a great way to generate apps for facebook, so let see how it comes out…
I dont like TimeLine. It looks intricate.
It is really a matter of choice, I really like the way they have given an option to configure profile pages to the users.
Agree with you Sanjeev
new headache for google+ facebook timeline lets see who wins…
Yes, I was thinking google + will win but now i am not sure. Google is also busy with lot of other things.
At the end its only going to benefit users….
Hope it will release to everybody soon, but its a great an easy way to get ready for that.
The launch of Timeline is somehow beneficial because it allow us to share the significant events in our past to our friends, relatives and people you know 🙂
Since i enabled Timeline to my facebook account, I was able to showcase the very interesting and significant stories of my life 🙂
It is really great and give you a way to show what you like, I also love their featured option, you can just click on star on the activities and it will feature them on top.
I couldn’t find any reason to use this feature. It’s just an ugly effort to squeeze down all the news in a same place.
This new feature seems so interesting. The timeline, as what you’ve said, can change the shape and image of your profile. This could be a unique way and maybe fun too to display your profile in my facebook account.
I like the fun part more on this, its a good way to display profile in a unique way at least for now.
I think with this Timeline, it does prodive a lot of interaction. It’s down to G+ and Facebook going head to head.
Ita a good competition, at least good for us.
Technically true, good for us. More topics can be shared and discussed 🙂
Great post! It’s very clear what to do to get facebook timeline.
And it’s smart to be prepared for when it gets launched to the public.
But I don’t believe this is a very smart move from FB to make this timeline. It looks like a desperate attempt to be different.
Now there are many desperate attempts to keep the pace and a lead in social networks, Google+ has already a big name in there and going to give tough competition.
Facebook’s Timeline is pretty great and if things don’t work out, they can always revert back to the previous interface. It’s a trial and error process.
Hi Sanjeev, I started to activate the Facebook Timeline profile a while back but then decided I’d just wait until everyone has access. I don’t spend a lot of time on FB for my personal account and only those with developer access could see the changes anyway so, basically, I’d just be jumping through those hoops for myself. It’s a fun idea but I’d be a lot more excited if Facebook would allow something like do-follow links on our fan pages. Wouldn’t that be great? I hope they’re reading these comments. lol
It would be really great if they allow do-follow links on our fan pages, lets see how far this would go with this competition….
It is amazing facebook timline thank you so much Sanjeev.I have a Question how i can register on this site and how i can be an author on this site i want to share there some tips ???
Joseph, please read the information on the contact page and check out the requirements for guest bloggers in this post https://basicblogtips.com/seo-pressor-review.html
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Thanks for sharing this information because I had no idea about the timeline. I have been a little out of touch with Facebook lately but this will help me get back on track.
Truthfully, for me, I found this timeline feature is quite useful and makes it easier to use Facebook. More comfy, I’d say.
Facebook as always, offers something everything very creative, interesting and useful. I’d like to try this new feature, it will make my Facebook using much simpler. I even don’t know what else should we expect))
Thanks Sanjeev,
The videos are excellent – great work 🙂
Ivan
Thanks Ivan for liking it.
I don’t like the idea of facebook knowing everything I’ve done in the past. Facebook really is getting scary! Google+ is the way forward!
the only issue with Facebook is if you don’t set your privacy setting than wverything is public. Which is annoying….They should do something about it.
weird… i wasn’t aware of this. come to think of it, I saw my friend’s page recently and it looked totally different from mine, perhaps he had enabled the timeline feature! it looked cool
Thanks for the TUT. It’s like my space before.
There are certainly a lot of details like that to take into consideration. That is a great point to bring up. I offer the thoughts above as general inspiration but clearly there are questions like the one you bring up where the most important thing will be working in honest good faith. I don?t know if best practices have emerged around things like that, but I am sure that your job is clearly identified as a fair game.
I am actually curious how Faceboook Timeline works. Thank you for posting this article. I think it would be an edge for us who have business to actually grab this one and develop a page for my niche.
Hi Sanjeev,
I have heard about this new feature but thanks for your live video helps me to understand what exactly this feature is!!! Thanks for provide information in detail.
Hi Sanjieev, very good post. Facebook Timeline is really a cool feature.
I actually had this installed on one of my pages but didn’t really like it. I guess if/when they make this necessary I will set it back up and mess with it more. Nice tutorial, btw.
This is the old guide. It’ no longer needed that you jump though all of these hoops!
You can enable your facebook timeline right now!
I dont like the timeline..its to confusing. How do I change it back to my old settings (Basic)?
Thanks Sanjeev,
Let me get this straight:
1. Google loves facebook
2. Everybody has facebook
3. Breaking new ground with facebook puts us ahead of the competition
I am on it! Keep us up to date, please.
RJ
I’ve notice those facebook timeline while my friend was using it. Very cool app for marketing purposes.
I don’t wanna change my account into timeline; doesn’t like the look of it as if everything is big. Is the news about facebook banishing true?
The launch of Facebook Timeline is beneficial because it allow us to share the significant events in our past to our friends, relatives and other people.
I like the facebook Timeline feature a lot. It looks more attractive than the old one.