If you’re keen on online marketing, you may already know that Facebook is about to roll out a major update to user profiles layouts. This UI update adopts a “timeline” approach, enabling a chronological view of a person’s activity. Using Facebook’s developer centre, it is (and was) quick and easy to view the new layouts before general release.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to my timeline Facebook profile (annotations to follow!)

Iv’e blacked out the parts of the profile which remain (pretty much) the same, and highlighted four new / highly altered page areas.

When you see the new layout for the first time, it’s quite shocking. Not much has remained the same. I think a lot of people will be put off by such a large change at first. Anyway, that’s not what I’m here to talk about… So let’s get onto the four annotations.

Firstly, there’s the all new “cover” for your profile. This is a banner across the top of the profile, which users can customize by uploading their own images. Note that I’ve already been playing with mine, to incorporate the profile picture (which lays over the top of the cover). The introduction of these “covers” is a huge step for brand awareness via Facebook pages, as I’ll discuss in a minute!

The second alteration is the timeline. Contrary to previous speculation (including my own previous article) the timeline takes a vertical approach, rather than a horizontal one. The “horizontal rumors”, as we shall call them, were imagined with the possibility of reducing the amount of content under the fold of a typical profile. The ATFC (Above The Fold Content) has been addressed with annotation four, however!

Annotation number three comes in the form of conglomeration. Friends, Photos, GeoTagging, Likes, Music and much more are now accumulated in respective groups (almost like Folders) which can be expanded independently. This generally tidies the profile (in my opinion) and leaves more room for the all important “wall”.

The final point is the wall itself. Facebook have divided the area into two columns (4″ to 9″ wall, for those in the building trade?!) to maximize on space saving. This works well, especially with a blue timeline running down the middle to show when individual posts were added.

It’s a good looking, next generation profile layout (and it’ll look lovely if replicated for Facebook’s iPad app!).

What does this mean for Brand Awareness and Online Marketing?

Ok, so that’s an introduction to some of the new features of Facebook timeline profiles, but what does this mean in terms of online advertising?

Well, for starters the cover (as aforementioned) provides a huge amount of screen space for getting brand identity out there. Take the space as a free 850 x 315 billboard! It’s the first thing customers will see, and it makes a big impact if done well. Grab their attention – check!

Take, for example, the RedBull Facebok profile. It’s clever use of the cover really stands out, and accompanied with the custom background (I’ve not looked into this yet, but I think it may only be for pages rather than profiles) and clever display picture gives a great aspect of brand identity. You’re not going to confuse this page for “Monster: Energy Drink” anytime soon! RedBull have a large online marketing presence, and some of their campaigns have been added to the wall; Including a video and imagery.

Similarly, McDonalds have produced a great looking cover, and let the profile picture do the explaining. That’s fine for a globally recognized brand, but smaller organisations may have to do a little more explaining in their banners! Anyway, so McDonalds have promoted their Free WiFi with a lovely large promotional image and used the “about” information (below the profile picture) to describe their service (not that they particularly need to!)

To conclude, the new Facebook interface brings much more customization and a greater identifiable page to the profiles. Remember the day of totally custom MySpace profiles? Well, it’s not quite THAT changeable, but it’s a perfect blend of standard format layout and unique profile content!

The new Facebook layout will give a new slant on Facebook based marketing, and I think we will see more and more organisations taking to social media advertising as this new layout is rolled out.