Customize Your Facebook Fan Page: Tips, Tricks, Applications
Nikunj TamboliCustomization will always make you stand out from the rest of the world, the same rule applies on Facebook as there are more than 400 million active users.By now you may be well aware of Facebook fan page which is used for promoting business online on Facebook. But just creating a simple fan page won’t help you get the fan following you want. With this article I will be sharing with you some of the most basic tips that you can implement right away & customize your fan page within few minutes, using some applications and codes.
Static FBML
An application which should be implemented by most of the fan-page owners. Static FBML is really simple to implement and can be used to do various modifications on Facebook Fan Page. FBML supports pure HTML & CSS.
We will use Static FBML to create customized Fan page for Facebook.
Adding FBML To Fan Page
- Login to your Facebook account & Search for Static FBML
- Then click on the tab Add to My Page & Select the page.
Now we will add some code that will transform your fan page completely.
Creating Landing/Welcome Page
Landing or Welcome Page is the first page you see when you visit a new fan page encouraging user to click on the Like button. Creating a Landing page really simple & I will share the step by step guide on how you can do it easily.
In previous step you have already installed the Static FBML application now you need to create a welcome page image that will encourage users to click on the like button. You can do it easily in Photoshop or any similar applications.
When creating the image “Do remember that image’s width should be of 520px” the height does not matter but it would be good if you keep it of appropriate length.
1.Create an image with width 520px & appropriate height in Photoshop or similar application.
2.Create a folder name FB at your server & upload the image in that folder.
3.Now Navigate to your fan page & click on Edit Page tab below the Fan Page’s Profile Image.
4.Locate your FBML application & click on Edit.
5.Now you will see a similar window like the image below.
6.Now add an appropriate title like Welcome or your blog name anything you prefer.
In FBML part just add the following code.
<img src =”http://yourwebsite.com/FB/imagename.jpg”>
If you want to add link to the image just add the following code
<a href=”http://yourwebsite.com”> src =”http://yourwebsite.com/FB/imagename.jpg”></a>
You can also use text after the image with some HTML tags like h1, h2,, etc as done in 1st Web designer Facebook fan page.
7.Once you are done click on save changes & now navigate to your Fan Page you will see a new tab with the title you have written, by clicking on that tab you will see your image in that page.
8.Now to set your new page as default landing page you need to click on the edit page tab as we have done in step 3 & locate wall settings then set your default landing page to new page.
You are all done with creating a new & improved version of your fan page. We will add some more code to fan page to make it more personalized so keep reading further.
Adding Subscriber Form to Fan Page
If you use feedburner to manage your feeds you can easily add subscriber form to your fan page by getting the code under the Subscription management in your feedburner account.
Now navigate to your FBML application and then click on edit & then click on add another FBML box.
After adding the FBML box, enter title subscribe & paste the code from the feedburner into that box & now you are all done.
If you want that box to be appearing in the sidebar or the wall just click on the tab & select move to wall tab & then it will be appearing on your fan page’s wall. Similarly you can add contact form to the fan page as well.
Other Useful Articles About FBML
How to Add Google Analytics to Your Facebook Fan Page
7 FBML examples to rock your Facebook fan page
How to Put a Contact Form in a Facebook Fan Page
Applications for Customizing FaceBook Fan Page
If you are not comfortable using FBML, then still you can customize your fan page using various applications. This application makes easier to share photos, Videos, Files, Twitter updates & lots of other stuff depending on your needs. There are large number of applications that will help you with your fan page. Below are some of the effective applications that will help you get your work done easily.
Clobby – Group Chat
This is really useful application if you want to integrate live chat room to your fan-page. It is free application & allows users to create chat rooms & invite other friends to chat. It is great way to encourage users of the page to communicate with each other & increase the level of interactivity of the page.
ShopTab
If you sell products online then ShopTab is perfect application for you to showcase & sell you products through fan-page. ShopTab is premium application so you need to pay monthly charges.
Involver
Involver provides professional application for your Facbook Fanpage which you can install with a single click. The involver has large application gallery which has RSS Feed, Twitter, YouTube Channel, Photo Gallery & many more applications. With the free account you can install only two applications.
Tigerlily
Tigerlily application is easy to implement & its has content management systems of its own which is easily controlled from fan-page. In Tigerlily CMS free version you can easily add different modules like text editor, video, image, twitter, RSS Feed, MP3 player, flickr & podcast.
Poll Daddy
With Poll Daddy application you can create polls which you can share it on your fan page to get feedbacks from the users & increase their participation on the fan page.
Hope you found the post useful & informative, If you have other useful applications or FBML tricks to share then feel free to mention them in comments.
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daddydesign
Posted 522 days ago 30great article! thank you
lean
Posted 522 days ago 29still no images come out, something wrong with my link???
please help :(
thanks
Aaqil Mahmood
Posted 539 days ago 28chat and FBML things are awesome :)
chris
Posted 539 days ago 27Is there anywhere novices like me can learn how to do the first tip – I tried importing an image but all that shows up on the page is the code. More specifics would also be nice – the code you give just says yourwebsite – does that mean
http://www.yourwebsite OR
yourwebsite/admin/media etc OR
JUST YOURWEBSITE
your readership doesn’t all have the same skill
II-Eirin
Posted 546 days ago 25Thank you very much! It improved our page dramatically! :)
Arun B
Posted 546 days ago 24Hi,
You may also want to look at:
http://www.facebook.com/thinklive
thanks
Rajesh
Posted 543 days ago 26Hey,
I just saw your comment on this article. So I just want to ask you some doubt about the URL which you have used for facebook fan page
http://www.facebook.com/thinklive
Actually am trying to create the facebook fan page but am not able to have the clean URL like you. My Url is : http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Tiptoptest/152261924790289?ref=sgm
So please help me :)
Thanks,
Rajesh
Nikunj
Posted 502 days ago 35If you need custom url for your fan-page you should atleast have 25 fans after that when you are logged in your account use the following url: http://facebook.com/username
If you need step by step instruction you can find it here
http://webylife.com/general/how-to-get-a-personalize-custom-username-for-facebook-profile-page-fan-page/
Cara
Posted 551 days ago 23Thank you for all the tips. I do have a question about Daddy Poll.. is it possible to design a custom poll box?? If not, what do you suggest is the best way to go about designing a custom poll box that can be placed in a fan page??
Jeff Thomas
Posted 563 days ago 22Thanks much for sharing.
fbml
Posted 572 days ago 21the best facebook app to convert your facebook fanpage is shoptab. however it is a bit too heavy. it’s better to use something more simple and understandable for visitor. Use some good pictures and and attractive words with button “Shop Now” or something like this. IMO.
Sumeet Chawla
Posted 592 days ago 19Great article Nikunj.. I was having problems in adding the twitter feed on my fan page :) But now its solved..
mazuki
Posted 593 days ago 15nice one….your blog post give solution….;)
Rishabh Dev
Posted 593 days ago 14Great Post. Some basic fbml code can be found at http://zarrata.com/durofy/web-design/basic-fbml-for-everyone/
rebecca
Posted 593 days ago 13Thanks heaps!!!
Very useful article!
I just happened to be looking into FBML when i came across this article in my regular blogs.
I have been trying to customise both my personal fan page and the one for work, so thanks heaps for this article!
I have tweeted and facebooked this link.
thanks again!
Nikunj Tamboli
Posted 593 days ago 16Glad to know the article helped you. Thanks for the tweet & share :)
Allen Cooper
Posted 593 days ago 12Awesome tutorial. Thanks
Nathan Latka
Posted 593 days ago 11These are great tips! Did you happen to see this FBML resource on Facebook? I swear they give out code every day! http://bit.ly/FBMLHelp
Cheers!
Nathan
Dan @ wpevolved
Posted 593 days ago 10Cool, I didn’t realize how customizable Facebook pages were. Thanks for showing!
boom
Posted 593 days ago 9Default Landing Tab is not working.
I set the default landing tab to new page but the Wall page is still the default landing tab.
Nikunj Tamboli
Posted 593 days ago 17@boom
If the Fan Page you have created is new & does not have enough people giving a like to it then its possible that you cannot set your default landing page.
Michael Alperstein
Posted 584 days ago 20@boom It’s possible that the default tab is just not working for you, because you are the admin. But it might be working for someone else who lands there for the first time. I am pretty sure that is what is going on.
and @Nikunj, thanks for the great info!
Dan
Posted 594 days ago 8Very informative. I can’t wait to try the FMLB.
MIchael
Posted 594 days ago 7Great concept for an article, and great info and follow through with both the mini-tutorial and the recommended apps.
Thanks for your time doing this.
Quick question to you, or any other reader, and it is with regard to donations.
Is there a recommended method for offering fans the ability to donate?
Links to pages with payPal buttons is of course an option, but it would be nice if there was something in-line or something so users could remain on the fanpage.
Thanks in advance! And thanks again for your article.
Nikunj Tamboli
Posted 593 days ago 18Hi Michael,
Adding a link to paypal button is simplest way.But as Facebook uses FBML payment without leaving fan-page would be difficult thing to achieve & would require complex coding.
Even I could not find any application capable of doing it.
Roderick
Posted 594 days ago 6Great post! Thank you, it was very helpful.
flashmint
Posted 594 days ago 5Just for your readers information. Flashmint lunched new product called facebook templates. You can check them here:
http://www.flashmint.com/show-type-facebook.html
They are cheap but still attractive. We provide tutorials and manuals for installation and customization of these templates.
La Ode Adam Saputra
Posted 594 days ago 4thanks for this tutorial
Irina Borozan
Posted 594 days ago 3Thanks for the tips! Nice tutorial :)
Hussein Gaber
Posted 594 days ago 2amazing tutorial :)
Abhishek Bhardwaj
Posted 594 days ago 1Wow. great article! Really needed that..thanks ;)