From the Static HTML team here is there update… we’ve updated and tested out the below for our clients Facebook fan pages and was easy as pie.

Here’s what you need to know about Timeline and your tabs: Your tabs on Static HTML will remain unaffected by the changes, and the new timeline dimensions are now available on all versions of this app.

Landing Tabs
- Landing tabs are still alive and well, you can still direct people to tabs created with Static HTML via links that you control, such as Facebook ads (there’s an option for destination tab). But unless the user follows a direct link to your tab, they will land on your Timeline.

Landing Tab Substitutes
- Put your landing tab as the first tab after the photos (scroll over the tab icon in your admin panel, and select the second most tab after Photos to “Swap position with”. (Photos is Facebook’s default first tab, currently you can’t change it).- Pin your call to action and include a link to your actual landing tab. To pin a status, (1) post your status, then (2) scroll over the status and in the upper right click “Pin to Top.”

Dimensions
- All Static HTML tabs can now be 810 pixels wide when used on a Timeline page. To adapt a 520 pixel tab, all you need to to is convert your page to timeline, then go to your tab and re-save it.

Like gating
- Like gating still exists within tabs, but currently Facebook doesn’t refresh the tab after someone likes it. It is unclear whether this is a bug or a new policy — we’re keeping an eye on it. If it isn’t a bug, we will build a workaround that will be available by default within Static HTML.

Custom Icon
- On Timeline pages you can now also select a bigger custom icon for tabs (111×74 pixels) through Facebook itself. To do this, go to your page > Edit Info > Apps > Edit Settings > Change Icon (here you’ll upload an image).- We’re researching ways to change the icon directly in the app, to provide simpler organization of all pages you admin.

For more information on all of these things, see this article: http://mashable.com/2012/02/29/facebook-brand-timelines-changes-marketing/

A: Mission control for your business on Facebook
Timeline is an evolution of Facebook’s pages that replaces the Profile and Wall pages, and merges them together. It shows the story of your company, as you choose to tell it, in a visual, scrolling, reverse-chronologically ordered timeline. It’s a cross between visual blog and online scrapbook. Read below for a list of features that comes with this new format.

Fan Pages

Fan Pages are the essential place on Facebook for businesses to build connections with people. It’s where you connect with fans by announcing new products, sharing news, and gathering feedback. Your Fan Page is also where you create unique brand content that can become ads and sponsored stories. It’s the core place for businesses to manage their posting and advertising content.

The new Timeline Pages allow you to:

1. Express your identity with features like cover photo and Page timeline.
2. Reach and engage your audience on the web and on mobile.
3. Respond to people in a quick, more personal way.

TELL ME MORE ABOUT FACEBOOK TIMELINE

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Personal Digital Assistant

This is definitely the great-grand son of the PDAs from our pasts. These lightweight, internet connected devices follow us everywhere we go, without forgetting to remind us of where and what we need to do next. Be sure to take advantage of services like Apple’s iCloud or Google Apps to store all your emails, contacts calendars and documents in the cloud. It may seem like a gift by getting iPads for your entire staff, but think about the cost of shutting down your entire company just to sit around a table. If video conferencing and having voice dictation notes automatically recording both text and audio is the conference room of the future, then the future is today. And it is pretty nifty!

Point of Sales (POS) Register

Bringing the register to the client, now that’s customer service! Also think of all the time spent on training someone on how to use those colored number pads, or archaic DOS programs just to ring up a sale.

The easiest way is to attach a card swipe directly to your iPad (or smartphone). Providers such as SquareUp, Intuit’s GoPayment, VeriFone’s Payware, and PayPal’s recently announced PayPal Here make it easy to use your iPad as a POS. They even go beyond most POS systems by including emailed invoices, sales reporting and the capability for the purchaser to add a tip or donation if it’s applicable.

Remote Computer and File Access

Log into your Mac or PC quickly with full screen controls by using a services like LogMeIn or VNC. While both of these offer very similar capabilities, the VNC takes a little bit more effort to setup initially, where as LogMeIn comes with a small monthly fee for the super easy configurations and additional features. The VNC route provides you with a lot of different options, and is completely free if you are even just slightly technically inclined.

This will get you into the front door, but if you want to go deeper you should also add on a file management service like iCloud, DropBox, or SugarSync . Most of these come with a free or at least trial account, and will automatically sync your documents, photos, and business assets in the cloud. This makes sharing files within the company extremely easy, and reduces all those cluttered folders on your desktop that you will never get around to sorting.

 Sales Catalog, Portfolio or Service Offerings

Unless you can speak as fast as that man from the Micro Machines commercials in the 80s, you probably won’t be nearly as effective as your iPad on this one. Even if you are not available to help a customer or client, you can affix your tablet on display for them to browse or find exactly what they are looking for by the time you return. You can also just as easily wrap this nicely in an app for distribution, which will let people share their favorite products, photos or content and grow your exposure with their sphere of influence.

This is where beautiful photography pays off with the iPad’s crisp, colorful screen. You can quickly showcase your full product lines, examples of your work and even scroll through user reviews and testimonials with your fingertips.

Taking Inventory and Collecting Data

This is applicable for just about every business out there, and is one of the most tedious tasks to boot. We’ve used it at every event we attend to collect emails for our newsletter with great success. It seems people still like to communicate (even if just one-way) with people they have met face-to-face. But you don’t have to limit yourself just to personal information, you can have surveys for feedback, giveaways at tradeshows and even get fancy wih qr codes so they can take the information with them when they go. The limited camera quality still hasn’t made it the ultimate inventory system, but there are still some great options for managing your inventory through barcodes and SKUs.

Let us know if you have any business ideas for using the iPad in your workplace.

• The layout is much like a scrapbook and displays your life from the time you joined Facebook. Once you make the switch to the new Timeline layout, make sure to go through and delete any post you might not want anyone to see. Some posts you had hidden before more than likely will be shown on the wall for all to see.

• NO MORE LANDING PAGES!  When we explain the main feature changes to clients, one of the biggest complaint is the removal of the default landing tab. We used this landing tab to create custom landing page for fans and non-fans using an iFrame, an opt-in newsletter box, run contests and give fans a reason to join the Facebook fan page.

• With the new Timeline design, you get a rather large area called the “cover image” at the top of your page. Who knows you may not even miss the landing tab disappearance with this piece of prime real estate that is always visible to fans and non-fans. When designing a new cover image make sure to keep in mind that the dimensions are 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels high.

• No more Facebook landing pages but you can still have the custom tabs

• Take a peek at what your Facebook fan page will look like before March 30th.

• App Showcase – Your tabs have not dissappeared… they have just migrated to a section below your large cover image. Your ‘tabs’ are now displayed as apps or views. You have a limit of 12 apps and only four are always displayed. The first one is always Photos and cannot be moved. ‘Views’ are Facebook’s default apps or features such as Photos, Events, Likes, Notes, Map. Apps are all third party apps.

• Custom App Photo - Creating your own app image is easy!  The dimensions are 111 x 74 pixels. To add/change a custom thumbnail, first expand all apps by clicking the small down arrow to the right of the four app display. Then hover over any app > click the edit pencil > click Edit Settings > click Change next to Custom Tab Image (opens in a new window) > click Change > upload an image. The image loads and saves right away.

• Pinning Posts – Another new feature is that any post made by the Page can be pinned the top of the wall for up to 7 days. This is a great way to keep highlighed things at the top while continuously updating to your fans.  Be sure to rotate the pins so that you keep things fresh!

• Highlight Wall Posts – Fan Page Admins can make any wall post as double wide… meaning the post spreads across both columns of the Timeline.  To do this, hover over a post and click the star icon to highlight.

Your Facebook Cover Image

Dimensions for the large cover image is 851 x 315 pixels. If you upload an image that’s smaller than these dimensions, it will get stretched to this larger size. The image you upload must be at least 399 pixels wide. Facebook encourages you to change your cover image as often as you wish. Newsflash: each time you change your cover image, this posts on to your wall and goes out into the news feed of your fans.

Square Profile picture

Your profile picture is always a square and is displayed at 125 x 125 pixels or 150 x 150 pixels, depending on the size of someone’s screen. The photo you upload must be at least 180 x 180 pixels. Facebook discourage page owners from changing their profile picture that often. This is the primary, instantly-recognizable image that tracks you throughout Facebook wherever your posts go and wherever you comment as your Page.