Archive for Facebook
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For those of us who use Facebook, keeping up with the pace of change can be difficult at times, especially when it occurs behind the scenes without premise or much, if any, publicity. To that end, I have been reading posts by Mari Smith, Relationship Marketing Specialist, who seems to have her thumb on Facebook’s latest switcheroo, authentication requirements for setting custom landing tabs on Fan Pages.
In order enlighten and lead you from the land of confusion, I offer the following synopsis.
On May 19th Mari reported that some members of her community alerted her to the fact that default landing tabs for their Facebook Pages had reverted back or were now working. Although I knew Facebook made alterations to their Page requirements in this regard, my curiosity was peaked nonetheless.
You see, without warning Facebook made it mandatory to have at least 10,000 fans on one’s Page before the default landing tab option was made available. During Mari’s initial research of several Pages, she discovered that this was in fact true, but not on a consistent basis. Some of the Pages she tested with less than 10,000 fans did not lead to default landing tabs, but some did. To add to the perplexity, some of her community members reported that they did have over 10,000 fans and were still unable to create default landing tabs.
Then, on May 20th, Mari posted the following, which was provided by the same Facebook staffer who reported on the initial authentication requirement update:
“Hello,
As of last night, we’ve removed the recently-added authentication requirement for setting custom landing tabs on Pages. The requirement was instituted as part of a Pages quality initiative, and we apologize for the inconvenience this caused to our developer and business community. We are re-investigating the situation, and will not make any further changes without first giving our community standard notice and lead-time.
Thanks for all your feedback,
Matt Trainer
Facebook Developer Network Team”
So what is the moral of this story? In order to save face on Facebook, it is imperative that we, as a social networking community, continue to keep each other informed of legitimate changes occurring on this social media forum and to raise flags when glitches happen. And if I may be so bold, it is equally important for Facebook staff to keep their users informed of any significant changes they are making or contemplating.
Yes, change is good. Change helps us grow. But change disguised as surprise can leave egg on the face. (Pun intended.)
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Now that Facebook Fan Pages have gotten rid of the wording “Become a Fan” and replaced it with the “Like button,” chances are more fans will be showing their support. This new language makes it simple to capture the interest of fans. As fan pages are shared and promoted, this is the perfect opportunity to expand your fan base.
Rather than following the standard strategy of creating a fan page and inviting all your friends at once, there is a smarter approach. In the article 21 Creative Ways to Increase Your Facebook Fanbase, some good suggestions are given. Here are some highlights:
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Use your email list to invite subscribers. Since these are people who have already shown interest in your website, utilize them first by encouraging them to become fans and write on your fan page wall. In addition, you also also include a link to your fan page with any email signature. Remember, your fan page is an extension of your website and just as important to promote.
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Put Facebook widgets on your website. This is a softer way to advertise your fan page to interested users. Above the widget, write an action headline to entice visitors to become a fan and use the “Like button.” Use Twitter and Linked in as well to promote your fan page.
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Create a good landing page on Facebook. Just like your website, a strong landing or welcome page for a fan page is important. Consider incorporating video and interactive elements, such as encouraging comments.
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Use Facebook advertisements. Now that the “Like button” is in place, more Facebook users are going to press it. Use Facebook advertisements to get your name out there and encourage fans to join in.
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Add Google Analytics to your fan page. Facebook now has a Google Analyics tracker device that is free and easy to use. Check out the article
How to Add Google Analytics to your Facebook Fan Page and follow the 3 steps that are outlined. After all, your fan page is an extension of your website, so tracking visitors is important.
As you can see, it’s an exciting time to multiply your Facebook fans. Try out some of these tips and let me know how it works for you.
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Many companies are marketing on Facebook to brand themselves and reach customers. If you haven’t already gotten a Facebook page for your business, this should be high on your list, but also take note. Facebook loves to change things. We’ve all seen Facebook shake things up in the last year with their privacy settings and redesign of the Home page, and changes are going to continue.
Facebook is launching a new design that will eliminate the “Boxes” tab that appears on the left side of the page and in the “Boxes” tab at the top. This means that if you are using boxes to do marketing on Facebook, you’re going to need to change too. This will affect many businesses who currently feature promotional items or post videos in the “Boxes” tab.
As a replacement, Facebook users will use an applications tab to promote their content to fans. Facebook is also doing a redesign of the applications tab that will change the size from 720 pixels to 520 pixels, affecting many custom designs. Also, to make the applications tab more engaging, Facebook will use new ways to communicate with fans, including news feeds that appear based on the number of people who visit the page.
In addition, marketing on Facebook is going to become even easier as the site becomes an advertising platform. Businesses will be able to access email addresses from pages and applications, making it easier than ever to build an email list through their site. These changes are set to go sometime in 2010. In the meantime if you have any questions about how these changes will affect your Facebook brand, let me know.
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Facebook is currently the most popular social networking site, with many users logging on daily and continuously sharing information with each other. According to their statistics, there are over 2 billions pieces of content, such as photos, website links, articles and blogs shared each week among users.
Now Facebook has also made it even easier to track and distribute this information, all with the push of a button. Known as Facebook Share, this tool quickly allows users to share content and measure how many people are reading the links. With a few lines of code, you can get the Facebook Share button as a widget on your website. The live counter keeps track of how often the URL is opened and sent to other Facebook users. It also gives you a few other key features, such as how many people “like” the link, how many comments are posted, and clicks back to your site.
The Facebook Share button can easily be added to a website. To try it yourself, go to Facebook’s widgets page and paste the html code into the body of your website. This is a great opportunity from Facebook to get real, measurable results and keep your marketing efforts going strong.
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