Facebook will reportedly extend its new Timeline profile pages to brands this month. According to AdAge Digital, the social network will announce the change at its first fMC conference for marketers in New York on 29 February.
Since the unveiling of Timeline in September last year, Facebook has always said it would eventually introduce a slightly modified version of the new design to brand pages. Timeline essentially creates a chronological digital scrapbook of all of a user's activities and posts on Facebook. The new design will also allow for easier branding of pages through the use of the cover-photo feature.
The new design became available to users globally in December, and Facebook is in the process of making the change mandatory for all of its over 850 million users.
The first of the Timeline-brand pages will reportedly be tested in beta by selected partners, before being released publicly in stages. As yet it is unclear what will happen to the tabs and apps currently used by brands and whether these will become boxes on the brands' new Timelines. It is, however, expected that brands may be able to develop their own apps with their own unique verbs as opposed to the standard “Like” action.
Verified accounts
In the meantime, according a TechCrunch report, today will see Facebook begin rolling out verified accounts and introducing pseudonyms to the network. Users will, however, not be able to apply for account verification, and will instead be selected by Facebook.
Once their accounts have been verified, public figures will be able to use a preferred nickname or pseudonym. Verified accounts are expected to gain more prominent placement in Facebook's suggestions tab for subscriptions.
Facebook introduced the new “Subscribe” button in the run-up to the release of Timeline last year, in a move that was widely seen as an attempt to add an element of Twitter functionality to Facebook. The social network has since been pushing for celebrities and journalists to use the feature to build a following on the site.
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