Facebook has increasingly become the central hub of corporate social media. Its sheer number of users (more than 900 million as of late April) makes it the de facto foundation for any Internet presence. A company may not be considered “real” unless it has a profile on Facebook.

There is another reason for contractors to have an in-depth profile on Facebook: the new format. Known as “Timeline,” the new layout presents a consistent, easy-to-grasp, visual digest of a Facebook user. It shows signs of becoming the “first contact” point between buyer and seller in the federal contracting world.

“The new Facebook format gives customers, including federal customers, a very quick and accurate overview of a company,” PJ Tael, president and CEO of Circa Systems, tells Set-Aside Alert. “Contracting officers can, within seconds, get a good idea of where a company has been and, thus, where it is going,”

The head of the Arlington, VA, Web services and social media consulting firm believes contractors have to think of their Facebook page the same way they think of their capability statement, with the added advantage of it being available to far more prospective customers both in and out of government.

Jeanne Hopkins, VP of Marketing at Cambridge, MA-based HubSpot, a marketing software company, is also bullish on the new format and its potential impact on the federal marketplace.

“With Timeline, you have the ability to show your history, your feature sets, and how you have operated over the long term,” says Hopkins. “Many corporate websites only cover recent history, but for federal work the need to show how an organization operates over the long-term can be critical.”

Hopkins explains that the new Facebook format does not require yet another way of doing things online. “Just think of it as your website’s ‘About Us’ section,” she says. “Just more visible and easily accessible.”

To keep up with the latest government-related Facebook developments, check out http://www.facebook.com/government.