From 31 March 2012, all Facebook business pages are being converted to the new Timeline format.

If you don’t revise your Facebook page so it takes advantage of the new Facebook Timeline format, you’re definitely missing out!

Timeline allows a more visual Facebook profile for a brand or company, and the ability to post historic photos or other descriptions that demonstrate its changes over time.

Not everyone thinks it’s a good idea:

From the Montreal Gazette:

Stephen Terrell expected a group of happy users when he updated his company’s Facebook profile page to the new Timeline format, allowing his mostly senior-citizen customers to register for a contest to win a trip to Hollywood to meet nonagenarian actor Betty White.

Instead, there was an explosion of anger and confusion. When the Lifeline Program, the Atlanta company for which Terrell is senior vice-president of branding, revamped its Facebook page last week, some elderly users trying to register for the contest were so angry and vocal that Terrell had to ban them.

“It is really creating a communication problem between us and our client base,” Terrell said.

And the Chicago Tribune:

“I think there is some pain that is going to happen, but you have to look at it from the overall perspective. I think it is a positive for most companies,” said Michael Fauscette, an analyst with the research group IDC who follows social networks. “It gives them a greater capability to promote their brand, and to really brand their pages and make them stand out.”

Facebook’s requirement that all business profile pages convert to the Timeline format by the end of this month means that companies, nonprofit groups and other organizations that use Facebook pages must explain those changes to their customers, and in some cases may face the brunt of user anger about them.

Like it or hate it, the Facebook Timeline conversion is happening anyway. So what can you do?

Click here for details of our Facebook Timeline Special Report.

pages from the Facebook Timeline Special Report