See that Facebook icon there? We see those quite often on the Internet now, but have you ever stopped to consider what is contained within each “Like” on your page?

Is it your most loyal fan, intently following every step of your career? Is it a silent passerby who recently discovered your music through advertisements or other referring pages? Or is it just one of those livid fanatics, flaming every one of your posts with strange comments? If you are like many artists, Facebook has become THE central hub for interacting and communicating with your fans and this weekend ushers in several big changes, namely the new Timeline layout. Are you ready for it?

Today marks the first day of Facebook’s mandatory Timeline layout for everyone. Whether you have a page or profile, it will be switched over to Timeline format this weekend (whether you want it to or not). Timeline has restructured the organization of the original landing page, featuring existing apps and tabs in a “slideshow” of boxes underneath the main banner image, instead of on the left side. Four apps can be visibly displayed on the page at one time, with a total of twelve in the slideshow rotation.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that applications and their tabs will be less effective…instead, they have just been reorganized as completely unique “sub-pages” of your personal Facebook webpage and should be ranked by their overall importance. Tabs may no longer be set as default landing pages, so to make full use of their benefits, you need to convince fans to physically click on the featured icons.

Additionally, if you have a big announcement to make, be sure to use the new ‘Highlight’ feature that pins your post at the top of the page in a much larger format. This ensures that essential announcements get to all fans, whether the read it in the news feed or not. Large announcements can also be made retrospectively through the use of “Milestones.” These big events offer a historical look into your band’s greatest moments, even from its inception. Upload classic photos and album covers to share favorite milestones of your career with your fans.

What are your thoughts on the new Timeline layout? Do you think that its new design and features will encourage more fan interaction than its pre-existing counterpart? If you are already using the Timeline layout for your page, share it with us! There are a lot of great creative designs out there already!