The best place you can place your brand on Facebook is through a Facebook Page. As of the time of this writing, over 10 million users become fans of Fan Pages every day. This number should be no surprise — when people “fan” your Page, their friends see it, and your brand spreads organically. What most don’t know is that you can customize this experience for your users. With just a little work, and either some knowledge of simple HTML or the ability to hire a developer to do the work for you, you can have a custom Page up for your business in no time. Here are some tips you can apply to your Facebook marketing strategies.
Maximize Your Avatar Visibility
Profile pictures on Facebook can have a maximum size of 200×600 pixels. This applies to Pages as well. Facebook Pages do not allow background images like Twitter, Myspace, and other services. What you can do, however, is take advantage of that full 200×600 real estate and get your brand in front of the eyes of your fans. This will make sure, regardless of what part of your Page they are on your brand is front and center.
Install the Static FBML App and Add a Custom Tab
Do a search for “static FBML” on Facebook (or just click here), and click “Add to my Page” in the upper-left. A dialog pop-over will appear with a list of Pages you administer. Select the Page you want to customize by clicking the “Add to Page” button next to the Page, and when you click the button it will disappear from the list. Now click “Close”.
Now what you want to do is create your tab. To create the tab, just go to your Page and click the link, “Edit Page” in the upper-left below your main Page image. Now when you scroll down you will see a subsection called “FBML”. Click on the “Application Settings” link for that subsection, and another popover dialog will appear. Click “add” next to the Tab field and click Okay. You’ve now just added a blank Tab called “FBML” to your Page. Now you need to customize it.
Add Content to Your Custom Tab
If you go view your Page now, you’ll notice when you click the “>>” tab there is now an “FBML” option in the drop-down. If you click on it, that tab appears in the list of tabs at the top, and you can drag it around (to the extent that Facebook allows you). You’ll notice the tab is completely blank. Let’s add some content to it.
To add content, click on “Edit Page” again on the left below your Page image. Go to the “FBML” subsection again, but this time click the “Edit” link. Now you’ll be taken to a very simple form with a “Box Title” field and an “FBML” field.
Let’s start by changing the title of the tab. As I mentioned earlier, the tab, by default gets called “FBML” when you add it. You probably don’t want to keep that name, so I recommend changing it to something productive, like “Welcome”, or “Introduction”. You can name it whatever you like, depending on your purpose!
Now you’ll want to enter some content. The “FBML” field will take almost any basic HTML. You don’t need to include any <html>, <head>, or <body> tags, as the HTML you enter will only take the place of that whitespace you just saw. All the header stuff is taken care of for you. Play with it and see what you can do.
Customize Your Tab With FBML
Beyond simple HTML you can also enter very simple FBML tags to simplify some of the process. FBML stands for “Facebook Markup Language”, and is meant to be a shortcut for use in Facebook applications. Facebook has also enabled the use of a subset of FBML in the Static FBML application. FBML can be a great way to reduce the amount of HTML you need to enter, while at the same time keeping Facebook’s own look and feel. The format is very simple, and if you are familiar with HTML or XML you’ll pick it up very quickly.
To learn FBML you’re going to want to check out Facebook’s documentation and reference on FBML tags. There is a large reference of these tags on their developer wiki. I recommend you look around and see what’s available, then try them out and see how they work. You can also purchase my book, FBML Essentials, which will give you a little more details on FBML (as well as the Facebook developer platform in general).
Keep in mind that the Static FBML application only supports a subset of what the full FBML reference indicates is available. Unfortunately there is no documentation stating what is, and isn’t supported. Tags that have been confirmed working and are my favorites are:
– displays a specific user’s name in the standard Facebook format
– displays a specific user’s profile picture in the standard Facebook format
– allows you to include Flash applications in your tab
– posts a Facebook live stream widget on your Tab (you must create a new application to do this)
– adds a Facebook comments box to your Tab
If you read the Facebook wiki documentation keep in mind that “loggedinuser” does not work for the uid on the Static FBML App, but “profileowner” does. Beyond that, if you specify the specific user id in that field it should show properly.
Set Your Page to Default to Your New Tab
Now that you’ve created your custom tab using the Static FBML App you may want to set your Page to default to the new tab. This can give you a nice welcome message for your fans. To do so, just click “Edit Page” as I mentioned above. Under “Wall Settings”, click “edit”, and under “default landing tab for everyone else” select your new tab in the drop down. You’re done! Keep in mind that this default tab is only visible as a default landing page for those that are not yet fans of your Page yet.
SEO for Facebook Pages
Your Page is visible to search engines! Now that you’ve created your custom landing page, keep in mind that search engines see the page layout in the same way that someone who is not a fan of your page would see.
If you haven’t yet created a Facebook Page, you should also keep in mind that the Page title can be one of the best places to create a search-engine friendly title for your brand. Be sure this is something that describes yourself and your brand, and that you think others will be searching for. It should also, at the same time, be something familiar to other Facebook users, as this is what they will see in their News feeds as their friends become fans or you post updates. Keep in mind your Page name can not be changed once you create it, so get it right the first time! It can be a pain to have to re-create a new Page and re-establish months of work building your Page if you get it wrong early on.
Hey man. Sending this from a Mobile. thanks! very helpful post!! like the template btw 😉
facebook farmwille copy articles build!?
thanks
This article is great,nice tips . Did you know that you can use FaceBook fan page notes to market your business ? I've just posted on my blog an article that shows to my readers 7 great ways to create facebook notesc that can market your business and grab attention ( http://niceblogger.com/2010/03/02/7-great-ways-to… ) . I hope that you will not considerate my comment as spam , I've just hope that this article will be usefull for all FaceBook fans.
I really enjoy your blog. I've just bookmarked this article and added your blog to my Google RSS Reader.
Keep Posting!
Regards,
Bitu Mihai
niceblogger.com
thnk you
Brilliant!! Enjoying your observations. Many Thanks!.
Thanks, for this info. you can create your Facebook fanPage to your business-related site and promote your products features on it.
Really good information! Facebook is fast becoming a place to have a business page. Thanks!
i totally agree with that but as im from france and my english isnt that cracking im not convinced if i interpreted everything exact. I would love if you could post a translated variation of your articles, so i can read them better. Hope to read over again presently here!
Very useful information.. Thanks for sharing.. Will implement these tips on my fb page..
I can't use the FBML. When I click add to my page, there's no pop up.
I read that Facebook recently released the “Fan Box Widget to Turn Website Visitors into Facebook Fans. This was a move to increase the power of Facebook Pages by allowing brands and businesses to share status updates from their Facebook Page and get new Facebook fans on any website. This Fan Box widget was built on Facebook Connect and enables page owners to put a piece of their Facebook Page anywhere on the web. This widget is designed to help convert website visitors into Facebook fans. It’s a smart move by Facebook to make it easier for brands and businesses to encourage more of their customers to become fans of their Facebook Pages. Users can view the most recent posts from the Page, see a list of other fans (including their friends), and, most importantly, become a fan without leaving the site. I’m not sure if Steve’s widget on the right is the same, but if it’s not, maybe you’ll want to update it.