Social Media Tip #105~ FACEBOOK TIMELINE

This week's social media tip is specifically for personal profiles: Facebook's new Timeline feature was just recently rolled out to the public, and it has a lot to offer, both for personal use and for professionals looking to increase awareness of their business.

To get Timeline for your Facebook profile, visit the Timeline Facebook page and follow the steps. After a quick set up, you will see that you now have room for one large banner image at the top of your profile, as well as a smaller inset one. Your profile reads like a story (starting from the year you were born and carrying on through the present day)- and if you are clever, it can also have aspects of a resume built in.

I got Timeline for my personal Facebook page - take a look if you want a visual for what I'll be talking about!

Here are a few of my favorite Timeline features so far:

-Facebook now allows you to post in the past, as well as the present. This means that you can go back and edit old events -or create new ones. For instance, if you participated in a high-visibility conference back in 2002, now you can add an album of images from that event to your profile. If you want to let people know when you started with your company, or when you got your first full-time job, you can create those dates in your timeline, too. And of course, you can add current business or personal events to your timeline as they happen.

-Since the new timeline is all about telling the story of you, Facebook offers a selection of apps to help you do just that. Movies, songs, activities - whatever you think best describes who you are, and what you want others to know about you when they view your profile, you can now showcase (and share) in style.

-Your timeline is completely customizable. That means you can decide what you want to show, what you want to hide from your timeline, and what you want to add in. Only people you originally shared a post with can see it on your timeline, so you won't have to worry about going back through everything again. But if you want to change who sees certain posts, you have that option.

Best of all, you have 7 days to tweak each detail and option before your Timeline goes live. So sign up today and take some time over the weekend to get it looking just right.

Are any of you already using Timeline? If so, what do you think of it?