You might have heard about Facebook’s newest makeover – Timeline. Timeline recently became available for the public and will be something that everyone must convert to in the future, but Facebook is not saying exactly when that will be yet.
Timeline organizes all the information you have been pumping into Facebook for the last seven years into a, well, a timeline. It has created a sort of autobiography. Every wall post, every picture, update, location – anything you have ever posted to Facebook is now listed chronologically on your profile. True, all of this information has always been stored in Facebook, but it has been buried deep beneath layers and layers of new updates, new wall posts, new Farmville accomplishments. This new format simply brings it out to the open.
Rest assured that your privacy settings will remain intact. Things that were only shared with friends are still only shared with friends etc, but there are a few things to think about. If you have had your account for a while chances are that you have gone through a life change or two since you started Facebooking. What was once a funny wall post about a weekend frat party from years ago could now be embarrassing fodder for water cooler talk. It is a good idea to take a look at what others will now easily see and maybe make a few edits.
Facebook has made this easy for you to do. For one – they give you an entire week to edit and update your profile. From the time you click Get Timeline you have seven days to hide posts, restrict views
etc. before it is published. Of course you can choose to publish it at any time before that, and at the end of the seven days Facebook will automatically publish it for you. To hide a post from Timeline simply click on the pencil in the upper right corner and choose Hide from Timeline. For some people this will be an easy task, for others who post a little more often it may become quite a chore. When you think you are done, you can check out your profile as your friends or the public will see it. This gives you a last check before publishing.
Have you ever thought – I wish Facebook was around back when…? Well now you can add events and pictures from the past. Facebook is encouraging you to complete your social media autobiography with pre-Facebook information. Add baby pictures, add photos of your trip to the Grand Canyon the summer before 3rd grade, add high school yearbook pictures, whatever you feel like sharing and Timeline will put this information in event order. You can also update old posts with locations and correct dates. This is a great feature for those of us who feel cheated that Facebook wasn’t around before 2004, as we can now go back and fill in those missing years.
There are a few other little things that are new. It allows you to have a cover photo, in addition to your profile picture. This is a broad, page-wide picture that spans the top of your profile. You can also Feature a particular post or picture by clicking the star icon in the upper right corner. This makes the post full sized rather than the half page size of normal posts and returns to normal size by clicking the star icon once again.
Eventually every Facebook account will feature the Timeline look, so you might as well hop on board and get used to it. There is no U-turn, once you switch to Timeline view there is no going back to Wall view, so make the most of your seven days and start perfecting your new look today. Happy Facebooking.