On 10th February 2011, Facebook announced the new looks to fan page layouts. Remember early this year Facebook did an automatic upgrade for all profile pages to their new layout? Fan pages now look the same. By 10th March 2011, all fan pages would automatically be upgraded with the new features. We'll walk through some of the new features of the fan pages and how we can use them to continue to engage with our fans.

Facebook gave the option of previewing the new fan page layout for admins to prepare for this change in their fan page. With the new features rolled out, this means a lot to businesses that are trying to engage with their customers. To preview the new look of the fan page that you are an admin of, check out http://www.facebook.com/pages/status/. Here, select the fan page that you wish to "preview" and you would notice that your fan page has changed to the new layout. However, it is not changed till you "upgrade" it.

We've upgraded Techsailor's fan page. Let us walk through some of the new features:

At the first glance, the new layout is clean and neat. There are no more tabs at the top of the page and all navigation are at the left side below the profile picture.

The profle picture has been downsized from the original size of 200x600 to 180x540.

Most prominently, there is a photo strip on the top of the page, where 5 recent photos are showcased. These photos are from the albums that are uploaded by the page or are being tagged in. It will not show photos that fans post on the walls. Nonetheless, it is not possible to arrange the photos or choose which photos to be shown. It poses the problem where it showcases photos of no relevance to the page, but since the page was tagged, the photo is there. Thus, it is necessary to take note of the photos uploaded and tagged. A suggestion given would be to have a standard set of 5 photos and upload this set of photos each time a photo of no relevance is reflected, and take down the previous set of photos.

The wall is unarguably the most important part of the fan page. This is basically where all the interactions between fans take place. The wall settings have now changed to be able to see posts by the fan page itself, or sort in accordance to "Most Recent" and "Top Posts". This allows fan page admins to easily see the posts in recency or popularity, which is effective for fast noticing of posts.

Noticing the right side of the page, if you are an admin, you can see who else is an admin with you. And it was a wish come true too when Facebook now allows the admin to switch between accounts to interact, as themselves or as the page. This used to be a barrier and sometimes an identity crisis to many admins as they could not interact as themselves. It now gives a whole load of flexibility for admins when they are able to switch between accounts.

With this function, admins can also visit other pages and post, comment and interact as the page. This offers the fan page more visibility on other pages, and definitely increases outreach and exposure.

This column houses quick links for admins to promote the page via Facebook ads, and view insights. At the same time, even not as an admin, fans would be able to see who else in common Likes this page and what the page Likes. This encourages fans to Like the page as they see friends they know Liking it as well.

As a page, admins can receive notifications of the activities on the fan page. Just as in a profile, the top left portion would show notifications of the latest fans who have joined and the activity on the page. The only thing missing from between the two notifications, would be being able to send a PM as a page to users. This is something on a wish list!

There is also a Moderation Blocklist (Edit Page --> Manage Permissions) where admins can enter words that will be filtered out and put under "Hidden" or what used to be known as a spam list. Till the admin approves, it will be hidden. We recommend the settings to be at least medium, such that there will be some control over the posts. Of course, it would always be better for someone to be monitoring the interaction and activity on the fan page.

Last but not least, remind fans of the new feature in the profile accounts, where there is an option to see feeds. This became a hindrance for fan pages when Facebook first rolled out the new feature. Most of the time, fans would see a post but do not interact with the fan page. Thus, there was fall in the interaction as fans who did not often interact the fan page, did not see feeds from the fan pages due to this setting. Thus, by letting fans know through private message and updates, this was also necessary to encourage everyone to keep in touch with the fan page.

With Facebook's creative juices at work, this is definitely not an exhaustive list of the new features of the Facebook fan page. However, it is truly a good start towards being able to interact more with your fans on your page and increasing exposure on other pages.

Have you begun using the new features? We'd like to hear your thoughts on this change and if there's any way in which we are able to help you with your Facebook fan page, we'll be more than glad to. :)