From yesterday’s fMC event in New York came no shortage of big announcements from Facebook.  The difference this time is the impact on brands, marketers and agencies — hitting a lot closer to home.  The big themes: Timeline for brands, relationships at scale, creative storytelling and mobile utility.

We’re certain these changes have left many marketers worried and wondering what this really means for them and their fans.  The answer is a lot more than a beautiful new cover photo.  We’ve put our thoughts to paper in another edition of Following Change on Facebook and hope they help with embracing this latest Facebook evolution.

To summarize, we think this is yet another step in the right direction of bringing brands and people together.  Why?  The new Timeline delivers an unprecedented opportunity for brands to express their identity by telling stories that drive participation and connection with fans…and friends of fans.  What’s more, as creative storytellers and participation practitioners down to the community management level, this agency is perfectly poised to help our clients succeed and thrive on this platform.

We should also note that effective March 30, Facebook will require all pages to convert to the new Timeline format.  It isn’t optional.  There are several things that brands need to do to prepare, and we’ve covered those in this paper as well.  Our best advice is to not jump in too quickly.  The more time to tinker with these new tools, develop new content, apply new settings and even tweak existing strategies the better.

Thanks to Marina Molenda, Kate Twohig, Alina Cowden and Daniel Craig for their contributions.

I sign off with a quote from our Chief Innovation Officer Mark Renshaw who attended yesterday’s event: “Today, Facebook has rewritten the rules and created a platform that provides relationships at scale, with relevance and reach. The sum of their product evolutions will revolutionize the way brand and people interact.”