London based magazine The Spectator have taken full advantage of Facebook’s new Timeline and provide visitors and fans with an interesting and engaging experience. Thanks to @marcusinstroud for drawing it to my attention.
Here’s how they’ve used key elements of the new design:
Cover photo – has been used to display a great photo of recent issues of their product; the Spectator magazine. No added text is needed – the photo tells you all you need to know.
Profile picture – used to display the cover of the latest issue of the magazine.
Tabs – the tabs at the top beneath the cover photo have been used to display a review of Mad Men, a form for subscribing to the magazine and links to recent blog posts (although it’s s shame you have to install the Social RSS app to read them).
Tab icons – Appropriate icons have been added to each tab, the best example being the Free Issue icon which is in line with their brand and should encourage potential subscribers to click.
Timeline – The Spectator has really taken advantage of the Timeline feature itself to tell the story of the magazine. The Page admins have taken a lot of trouble to go back to the magazine’s launch and publish relevant posts and images covering the whole history of the magazine. From a scan of the original magazine in 1828 there are photos and posts relating to magazine covers, Editors and milestones over 184 years through to today.
The approach has paid off resulting in lots of interaction with 433 ‘talking about the page’ at the time of writing on 2 April 2012.