Facebook Updates Pages, Allowing Brands to Have a History

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Facebook debuted Timelines for brands this morning. In a testament to widespread obsession with the site, the announcement was even plugged on the Today Show. The NBC program was one of a slew of notable launch partners to get the new brand pages, which look and function like the user Timelines that have been rolling out for weeks. Also premiering pages were Macy's, Hyundai, Coca-Cola, Lexus, Manchester United, Walmart, and New York Times.

The new Pages allow brands to tell their stories going back to their founders. For instance, Coke's Timeline begins at 1886. Shaun Quigley, a VP and digital director at ad agency Brunner, forecasted that particular feature in a ClickZ interview yesterday.

"One top Timeline consideration is that a brand's Facebook presence no longer must date to when it joined the site but can be represented with content populating its Timeline from throughout its history," Quigley said. "Brands, for example, can add an event for when they were introduced commercially, and literally tell the entire story of the brand. Also, from a pure look and feel perspective, brands have more visual power with timeline."

The Timelines will eventually be available to all businesses. The product announcement might be just one of many marketing-related revelations at today's Facebook Marketing Conference (fMC), which is being held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Following are screengrabs from three brand Timelines.

Coca-Cola:

Coke's first Timelines post, backdated to 1886: 

Hyundai:

Walmart:

Zachary Rodgers contributed.