Hey! Welcome to the new Facebook Notes! As you may have heard, while Notes have been around for years, Facebook has been working on a major overhaul to the look and feel of Notes, particularly from a composition point of view.
And I must say, I’m impressed.
When opening a new note, the interface is simple and contemporary, much like Medium.
Notice how clean and simple the new Compose Note interface is?
Of course, while I still strenuously recommend that you continue to use your BLOG as your home base and hub for new content, there’s certainly something to be said for leveraging outposts like Medium, LinkedIn Pulse, and now Facebook Notes.
For today though, I think it’s enough to concentrate on the mechanics and features of Facebook Notes, and we can talk about strategy another time.
GETTING STARTED
First, you’re going to want to make sure that you’re displaying and can get to your Notes. For many of us, this may very well be the first time writing, or even using, a Note. If you don’t have a Notes section listed in your left sidebar when viewing your own profile, click on the More tab under your cover photo and select Manage Sections. Here, you can activate and re-order your sections, including the one for Notes.
Click on Manage Sections.
Make sure Notes is checked, and feel free to move sections around.
You can view your notes by clicking on the Notes title of the Notes section, or by going to:
facebook.com/[yourname]/notes
like this: https://www.facebook.com/allton/not...
Here, you can view your published notes, drafts, or click on the Add Note button in the upper right to start a new note.
View Notes, Edit Drafts, and Add Notes.
Let’s click that now so you can see what the rest of the interface looks like.
While you’re editing and composing, Facebook auto-saves your notes, so there’s nothing more you need to do until you’re finished and ready to publish.
There are three main fields to consider:
Image - This is the grey area at the top of the note where you can drag and drop a cover photo into.
Title - Just like any blog post, a separate place to enter the title of your Note.
Body - And finally, a general field where the content of your Note will go.
FORMATTING
Once you’re ready to begin writing your Note, there are some formatting options and caveats to consider.
First, note that whenever you’re working within the body field, there will be a couple if icons positioned to the left of where your cursor is. These buttons give you additional formatting options, as well as the ability to insert an image at that point in the article.
Use these buttons to add images or special formatting.
As you can see, this is how you can change text to use the H1 or H2 title tags and formatting, use bulleted or numbered lists, blockquote or preformatted.
At any time, you can highlight text and immediately options for Bold, Italic, Mono or Link will pop up. You can also use standard CTRL-? keyboard shortcuts, for bold, italics, underline, etc.
When using the highlighted text option to add a link, simply paste your link into the provided field and hit Enter to save it. Any links that you paste directly into the content will become clickable links automatically.
When inserting an image, you can choose from any image you’ve previously uploaded to Facebook, or upload a new one. It will be inserted inline and centered, and you can then change the alignment to Left or Right if you wish. A caption field is also offered where you can enter whatever text you want, then hit Enter, and it will be displayed below the image in a slightly smaller, grey font.
Once you’ve inserted an image, mouseover it to reveal vertical bars to the left and right which you can click and drag to resize the image. That will also reveal the Remove button to delete an image.
Facebook automatically makes all of your text and images responsive. And that’s a big deal, since so much of Facebook’s usage is via mobile app. For those wondering why we don’t have more advanced options, like the ability insert Tables - this is why. By limiting the formatting and content options, Facebook is able to exert more control over the appearance of notes to mobile Facebook users.
COVER PHOTO
The Cover Photo is a pretty big deal since, like any blog post, this is what will help your post get attention, not to mention add character to the content.
Facebook Note Cover Photos should be 1220 x 450 in dimension in order to be formatted perfectly for the space. Smaller images will be stretched and cropped, so be mindful of that.
It’s a good idea to use a branded cover photo that reflects your style and business. Canva is an excellent tool for creating brilliant branded graphics.
MENTIONS
One of the beauties of using Facebook Notes is that it’s already integrated with Facebook’s users and your contacts. If you want to mention someone within the post, perhaps with a quote or reference, just start typing their name and let Facebook’s autocomplete call up their name.
For instance, I might say something like, “Facebook Notes are a great companion to Facebook Mentions for people like Peg Fitzpatrick who have access. They can stream live video and use the Notes to provide additional context, while seamlessly giving their audience a complete experience.”
Like any social media mention, Peg will get a notification of the mention.
AUDIENCE
Unlike normal blog posts, which are inherently Public, your Notes can have a select audience if that’s your desire.
In the lower right hand corner of the Note, there’s a drop down box which says “Public” by default. Here, you can choose to adjust the audience of your post to that of just your friends, only you, or choose from any previously created Facebook lists you might have set up.
EDITING
Once you’ve created your note, you can come back to it any time and offer edits or corrections. No doubt I’ll be editing this post from time to time, as Facebook’s Notes function continues to evolve.
Simply go back to your Notes section, click on the Note within your Notes tab, and click on Edit Note. Do note that your Drafts have a separate tab, as well as any Notes your friends may have published and mentioned you.
You can delete any Note by selecting it, editing it, and clicking the Delete button in the lower left.
PUBLISHING
To publish your Note so that your friends and connections can read and use it, simply click on the Publish button in the lower left. That will post the note to your Notes section, as well as automatically post it to your Facebook feed, with whatever privacy setting you’ve selected.
You can change the privacy settings one way or the other after publishing.
PROMOTING
Now, if you’re using Facebook Notes to create content like your blog and other platforms, you’re going to want to promote it outside of Facebook!
Once published, your Note will have standard Facebook buttons to Like, Comment and Share, and the normal Facebook commenting system attached below. So all of your contacts can engage with your content easily, as well as share it with their friends.
You can also use the Share button to share to a Page you manage or into a Group you belong to.
Beyond that, you’ll need to either use a third-party tool like Hootsuite or Buffer, and their browser extension, to share the content to other networks. Or, grab the unique URL from the address bar and paste that into other network’s status update fields.
Do take careful note of the formatting of such shares. Most networks, like Google+ and LinkedIn, will attempt a “link preview” of any pasted link. If it’s unable to successfully and attractively pull the information and image from your post, I’d suggest creating image shares and using the cover photo you created as the basis of the post. You can then type in the title and description of your content, and just be sure to include the link within that text.
For a complete checklist for promoting this and other blog posts, refer to Blog Promotionology, The Art & Science of Blog Promotion.
And That’s It!
You’re now on your way to publishing Facebook Notes and taking advantage of the Facebook platform for reaching your audience.
As I mentioned, I will be keeping this article updated with any changes or developments, as well as any corrections or omissions which might be uncovered.
In the meantime, if you haven’t already, I would encourage you to sign up for my newsletter so you won’t miss a single article, no matter where I publish.
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