Facebook Revamps Business Pages: 3 Changes

10 Famous Facebook Flops

Facebook will roll out redesigned business pages this week, the company announced in a blog post. The changes, which apply to Facebook's desktop version, make it easier for users to find information and help page admins find the tools they use most, it said.

Last week, Facebook announced another set of changes to users' news feeds to improve the consistency of the desktop and mobile versions. Those updates, which roll out over the next few weeks and are largely cosmetic, showcase larger images, a darkened background color, and fewer navigation options from the left-side menu.

Facebook's updates to pages come almost a year after it spruced up the mobile version of pages, which gave admins a simplified panel and added business-location details and actions, such as likes, check-ins, and shares, below the cover photo.

The latest Facebook page redesign includes a more streamlined look to mimic what you see on mobile, a handful of design updates, and a couple new features. Here's a look at the changes.

[Get a grip on your Facebook account. Read 10 Most Misunderstood Facebook Privacy Facts.]

Updated timeline design
Facebook will finally ditch the two-column timeline design in favor of the one-column feed that all user profiles already have. Before, posts would render differently on the page than they would in newsfeeds. Moving to a one-column design changes that. Page posts will now display consistently both on the page and in users' news feeds.

The left-side column now displays information about the page's business, including a map, hours of operation, phone number, website, photos, and videos. Previously, contact details were only visible under the About section, and you could browse photos only from the Photos tab.

Direct access to admin tools
Admins will have a slightly different view of their pages: Facebook added key information about the ads you're running, new likes on your page, and unread notifications and messages, all within the margins of the main view of your page.

Facebook also added new navigation options to the top of the page for activity, insights, settings, audience building, and help. The Build Audience tab will send you directly to your Ads Manager account.

Pages to Watch
The newest feature in the redesigned pages is called Pages to Watch. This lets admins create a list of competitors and monitor how they compared to their own page's performance regarding total page likes, new page likes, posts this week, and engagement this week. Facebook tested this feature with some pages last month, but all admins will have access to it in the new version.

Admins can switch to the Posts tab within Page Insights to view the past week's most engaging posts from the pages you add to this section.

Engage with Oracle president Mark Hurd, NFL CIO Michelle McKenna-Doyle, General Motors CIO Randy Mott, Box founder Aaron Levie, UPMC CIO Dan Drawbaugh, GE Power CIO Jim Fowler, and other leaders of the Digital Business movement at the InformationWeek Conference and Elite 100 Awards Ceremony, to be held in conjunction with Interop in Las Vegas, March 31 to April 1, 2014. See the full agenda here.