You know about Facebook and how everyone and their mom uses Facebook. Over 350 million users so far and growing. But even though brands like Coke and Starbucks recognize the huge marketing potential on Facebook, what does it mean for your blog?
Why you should care about Facebook
Facebook Pages have become a popular way for non-profits and businesses expand their presence with Facebook users. There are at least four reasons why you should take a closer look at Facebook:
- Largest user base – 800 Million users and growing. Do your constituents / customers use Facebook? Probably.
- Viral venue – Facebook is built for sharing. Users share messages and other content either as messages or wall posts.
- Facebook Connect – Facebook Connect lets third party apps share data and other info with the Facebook platform. For example, Activity Brain let’s users create an account with their Facebook profile. This means that Facebook users are sharing outside the Facebook walls.
- Not going away – The best way to predict which social media sites you should have a presence on is to see where the crowds are.
How to create a bootylicious Facebook Page
Chances are you already have a Facebook Page. If so, there are several ways you can create an even better Facebook Page (if you don’t have a Facebook Page, check out “How to create a Facebook Page in less than four minutes“).
1. Pick A Good Name For Your Page – You can boost your search engine rankings by choosing a Page title that has carefully chosen keywords. Name your Facebook Page after your organization or whatever phrase fans might use to search for you.
2. Customize Your Main Image – Facebook allows for a main profile image that’s up to 200 x 600 pixels. Maximize this real estate! Like Gabe did with his Facebook Page. Also read “5 Creative Ways to Hack Your Facebook Profile Photo“.
3. Arrange Tabs – The order of your Facebook Page tabs can be arranged by dragging them. Simply click on the tab you’d like to move and then drag it where you’d like it to go. Avoid clutter by removing tabs you won’t be using. FYI – The Wall and Info tabs can’t be moved.
4. Create a Custom Landing Page – Facebook allows you to add up to 10 custom tabs with the Static FBML application. Check out the custom tab Greenpeace has on their Facebook Page:
Update: On March 18th of 2011, Facebook phased out the use of Static FBML. Only Pages with existing instances of Static FBML are able to create custom tabs. Please read this post about iFrames.
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5. Set Your Default Landing Tab – Once you have created a customized tab, go into “Settings” on your Facebook Page and under “Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else” select the Tab you want for your default landing tab in the pop-down menu.
6. Determine Your Landing Page – Since each tab has its own URL, you can choose any of them as the landing Page for off-site promotion.
7. Create a Custom Navigation Sidebar – A few months ago, I showed you how to add an interactive sidebar to your Facebook Page. This is a creative way to help visitors find exactly what they are looking for on your Facebook Page.
8. Add A Custom Fanbox To Your Blog – The Facebook Page Fanbox is a social widget that converts casual website visitors into fans of your Facebook Page. You can configure your fanbox to show your friends, your wall stream or simply a “Become a fan” button. Learn how to add a Fanbox to your blog by watching this video tutorial: “How to add a Facebook Page Fanbox to your website (and customize it)”
9. Feed Your Blog Posts Onto Your Facebook Page – The Facebook Notes application allows you to automatically import an RSS feed from your blog onto your Facebook Page wall. If you haven’t set that up yet, please watch this video tutorial: “How to automatically feed your blog posts into your Facebook Page”.
10. Import Your YouTube Videos – Check out the application called YouTube Video Box. It includes an integrated search to find videos on YouTube and a Tab where you can display videos from YouTube. You can also import videos from an existing YouTube.com account.
11. Get A Custom Vanity URL – Facebook offers “vanity URLs” for Facebook Pages that have over 25 fans (thanks for the info, Greg!). A vanity URL is the short Facebook URL that helps people easily access your page. A short URL with relevant keywords is good for getting the elusive Google “juice”.
12. Rank Higher In Facebook Searches – This can be done by creating multiple inbound links to your Facebook Page. You can do by linking back to your Page from your blog, linking to your Page from signatures used in forums, and linking from other social media sites like LinkedIn.
![[Free Webinar] Facebook for Executive Staff](http://www.johnhaydon.com/wp-content/themes/headway-2013/media/cache/images/eplus-post-18286-leaf-164.png)
![Facebook Edgerank Explained by Batman and Robin [Infographic]](http://www.johnhaydon.com/wp-content/themes/headway-2013/media/cache/images/eplus-post-18091-leaf-164.gif)
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Hey John – great points. On step 11 FB now allows you to select a vanity URL once you have 25 fans! I know, cuz I just got one recently. Best, Greg
Really? So you can do facebook.com/yourvanityurl ?
Correct. I think it's a best kept secret, but I did it with just 25 fans, and here's the FB FAQ: http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=900#/help/?f…
Greg
Greg – thanks for the update! I'll amend the post…
great basic check list – shared on my Facebook Fan Page — people love tactical and practical suggestions
Thanks, Beth! I appreciate it.
Great series John. I came across it on Beth Kanters Facebook page and have spent a good 30 or so minutes reading many of the other posts in the series. I'll be subscribing to this blog and looking forward to your posts and comments.
Liz – that's awesome! If you subscribe by email, I include extra content that's not on the blog – videos, social media tactics and other goodies. I call it my “back stage pass”
I prefer email subscriptions John and I not only subscribed I recommended your blog on my twitter and Facebook. Looking forward to reading lots of great info and wandering back through the archives. Liz
Liz – Great to have you! If you have any ideas for blog posts, or any questions, call me (number on my about page)
This is great. I will be making some changes to my Facebook Fan page this weekend. It needs a little more excitement.
Awesome!
This is what I have done so far: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Just-Chick-Flicks…
It still needs some tweaking.
You forgot the first step: Determine the need for it.
That was covered during days 1 and 2.
This is beauty, John. Thanks for writing it up. I didn't know about the custom Nav sidebar and the Youtube import. Very helpful!
Awesome! Glad it helped.
Hi John – This is a great article!
About #7 – Facebook is removing boxes and is converting everything to tabs. According to the development roadmap is should be happening any time now. I don't know if there will be anything we will be able to use as a replacement. So far, it doesn't look like it.
Boxes, to me, have been kind of useless anyhow…
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Facebook Pages by John Haydon. I am following your 31 day course, and it has been of great help, even though I still have had little time to comment. I am running since Jan 10 a similar concept for birders on my blog. Social Media for birders workshop. I have to take a somewhat different approach. My 31 days are spread out over 2 months (minimum) as both I have not time to write and my followers time to read. Additionally, most birders are novices at Social Media and most are not bloggers. But it is quite clear that Social Media is changing the birding scene.
Anyway, today I am writing about Facebook pages. And I will be linking to this post. Thanks again for a great series John. I have my guest post almost ready. Plan to send it to you before Wednesday night.
Gunnar – I'd love to see the post! I image that birders are big Flickr
users?
John, Here is my blog post that links to your Facebook Page post…
http://www.kolibriexpeditions.com/birdingperu/b…
Yes, many birders use Flickr and have accounts. Although, few use Flickr,
Facebook and Blog combined to reach other birders. Most have not understood
the potential of the social network connection. They are Social Media
virgins…so my workshop has gotten some attention, but less that I hoped,
because it may be a bit early….After a year of necking, most will have a
better idea what it is all about I think. I don't want to expand too much
here, but if you are interested in the approach how to tackle a great
existing community, which at large are social media virgins, but whom more
and more are signing up to Facebook as we speak have a look at the first
post in the series.
http://www.kolibriexpeditions.com/birdingperu/b…
I shall finish the guest post today…and you'll see if you want to use it.
Gunnar
John,
Great content. I teach a program on Social Media Connections geared toward membership orgs – nonprofits, schools and associations and they are starting to look for next steps. Many people are still learning the difference between a group and a page but they are moving fast and hungry for more. These are great simple steps people can do for little money and a reasonable learning curve.
John, Here is my blog post that links to your Facebook Page post…
http://www.kolibriexpeditions.com/birdingperu/b…
Yes, many birders use Flickr and have accounts. Although, few use Flickr,
Facebook and Blog combined to reach other birders. Most have not understood
the potential of the social network connection. They are Social Media
virgins…so my workshop has gotten some attention, but less that I hoped,
because it may be a bit early….After a year of necking, most will have a
better idea what it is all about I think. I don't want to expand too much
here, but if you are interested in the approach how to tackle a great
existing community, which at large are social media virgins, but whom more
and more are signing up to Facebook as we speak have a look at the first
post in the series.
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[...] How to create a bootylicious Facebook Page John Haydon (who focuses on social media for not for profits) provides some great tips for [...]
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