2011-11-10dated from the article

Don't Panic! New Facebook Pages Not Yet Launched

Written November 10, 2011. Platforms and services described here have changed. This is kept as a record, not as current advice.

Yesterday there was much confusion and consternation amongst some Facebook Pages administrators when they logged in to their Page to see a completely new layout without notification from the company. The old layout was soon restored however, with Facebook tweeting that the change was an error whereby “some internal prototypes were exposed to people” .

While there is no guarantee that the layout which was erroneously leaked yesterday will be the next phase in Facebook Pages development, it does seem likely given the recent overhaul of personal profiles (to which the new Pages layout bears a strong resemblance). In this post we are going to take you through the key changes to the layout and discuss what it will mean specifically for Musician / Band pages (screenshots and info from Simply Zesty and Mashable articles).

Tabs No More In the same way that the new personal profile got rid of the tabs at the top of your profile page, the leaked Pages layout is also without tabs. Instead, navigation links are moved beneath the Page picture on the left hand side of the page. But unlike the profile layout there is no ‘filmstrip’ of images along the top of the page. For a current social-platform reference, see Later.

This change is likely to hamper page navigation and may result in the time spent on pages reducing. For musicians, tabs applications such as BandPage and SoundCloud are really important, so their relegation to the sidebar will most likely result in fewer visits to these applications. Admins will need to think of clever ways to encourage people to visit these harder-to-find-applications.

Permission to Land? If this change comes to fruition it is likely to cause the most upset for page admins; in the leaked ‘prototype’ there was no ability to choose a default landing screen. In the past this is a function we have highly recommend musicians to use. Specifically that the default page/tab for people who have not yet Liked you is one which does its utmost to encourage Likes, by giving access to content such as free download for example.

So, if you currently have a landing tab which gives new arrivals a taste of your music and the opportunity to download a free song in exchange for a Like (as per the one below for one of our clients) you might be counting down the days until this is removed. Memories are Made of This A new feature in the leaked ‘prototype’ is ‘Memories’ which gives a brief review of past status updates, photos and connections.

This seems like a nice feature but to our minds is more suited to a personal profile rather than Pages. On popular pages with high levels of interactions however, this could come into its own. Voulez vous coucher avec moi? Well, it’s the reason you got into music in the first place, right? ‘Questions’ is a feature that has been around in Facebook for a while but the leaked ‘prototype’ increases its importance by giving it centre stage in the top bar.

This should encourage more fan interaction between musician and fan and between fans themselves. Ch-ch-ch-changes This is one of particular interest to those people (like ourselves in Amp) who admin multiple pages; the ability to log into a Page while not having to be logged into your own personal profile account. It’s unclear though whether this means that those few people in the Western world who don’t have a Facebook account, can still administrate a page.

Included in this change is a quicker, easier way to switch between different pages. While all of the changes discussed above have implications for musicians the message is: DON’T PANIC! For now at least. Facebook have stated that they will warn Page admins in advance of the actual changes happening so that you can be prepared for it.

Keep in mind too that yesterdays leaked ‘prototype’ may be just one iteration in a number of layouts which may be more or less radical. One thing is for sure though, change is coming.