There have been rumblings that Facebook would roll out a new fan page layout for some time now, and at last, they’ve finally made it official. Custom profile tabs are being re-sized from 760 pixels to 520 pixels beginning the week of August 23, 2010.

More importantly, what does this mean to you?

Here’s the scoop:

1) This change will affect EVERY organization that has created a custom tab with a width greater than 520 pixels. Yep, it’s time to get out your app development utensils, cause you’ll have to go in and perform surgery on your FBML/HTML code to be compliant with the new width;

2) If you have yet to resize your custom tabs to be 520 pixels wide, they will unfortunately look like half-made sandwiches (with cut off or missing images and messaging). Hint: the impression you will be making on your current or prospective customers will most definitely be memorable, but not in a good way…;

In addition, much of the functionality on your custom FBML tabs will no longer be active because the page’s clickable buttons, interactive features, and links will no longer be accessible;

3) Individual page owners have a very strategic decision to make, as you don’t want the extra headache (and expense) that comes with re-building design assets and re-writing lengthy code;

4) If you’re one of the many graphic designers, interactive agencies, and social media consultants that manage multiple pages for a roster of clients, you’re most likely staring at an intimidating wave of work right now.

Take a deep breath, collect your thoughts, and then try to quickly figure out the most efficient and effective way to service your clients and get their pages corrected without having to overnight yourself a weeks worth of 5-Hour ENERGY shots (psst…we have some ideas here);

5) Lastly, the tighter width forces us all to re-think our page layout. Should you have more white space around your profile pic so it doesn’t take away from your tab designs? Does the compressed real estate allow you to better direct visitor eyeballs to engage with your custom tabs?

The opportunities to bring your brand to life with innovative Facebook page design are a plenty. Use this announced change to push yourself and your design team to think in new directions.

Here’s a solution:

ALL North Social Apps are ‘520 Friendly’.

Unlike other application development shops that have to re-build and re-size all of their applications, the entire suite of North Social apps were built to the 520 pixel spec from day one in anticipation of this change.

So if you currently use North Social apps to power your page, you have nothing to worry about. In fact, you probably haven’t even noticed this change in preview mode, because our apps already fit nice and snug into the new tab dimension.

But if you are sitting on the fence and still evaluating which social marketing platform is best for you, North Social is here to help. We already have the biggest and best-priced selection of ‘520 Friendly’ apps on the planet and will be dropping four additional apps in the coming weeks.

Still have questions? Just go to North Social, click on our support tab that is hanging out on the left side of our site and someone from our team will get back to you in a flash.

Cheers,

The Team at North Social

PS – If you care to read more about the change to 520 as well as the announcement regarding the elimination of the Boxes Tab, visit the Facebook Developer Blog