How to make a Custom Facebook Fan Page

It has inadvertently become Facebook week. I did not plan this and originally was only going to use the placement I wrote on Monday about not integrating Twitter and Facebook. Except then a question in the comments inspired me to write the tutorial for deleting and editing Facebook applications. So, now I will round it off with information on Facebook fan pages.

I recently created a Facebook fan page for this website and my company. Earlier to this I was sending business information through my personal Facebook page. While I still do this with my blog posts, my private page contains too much goofiness, like links to new Monkey Island videos, to be consider professional. The fan page contains some of articles, reviews of my work and links of interest about Word Press and freelancing.

I learned relatively a bit about Facebook while making the fan page and discovered some applications that are really useful. At the base left of fan or business pages are a link that says ‘Create a Page for My Business’. Clicking on this will catch your started. You attractive much just need to name the page and say that you have the right to create it.

Facebook then creates a non-payment page with the Wall and tabs for the other basic applications such as Info, Boxes, Events and Notes. The Wall, Info, and Boxes tabs cannot be removed. It used to be potential to rename certain tabs like Boxes but apparently this stopped working with the last Facebook update. This will become more important a small later in the article.

Facebook Fan Page Customization

Facebook is the one of best social network in the world. There is a bundle of potential for marketing on Facebook, but to get optimal benefit you want your page to stand out instead of looking like every other page. Having a Facebook fan page is a excellent way to promote your blog, your business or anything else you do in the online world. Further Facebook allow you to customize your fan pages a bundle using their FBML language making it completely unique and perfectly aligned with your marketing strategy. For example it is possible to add forms to gather emails, PayPal buy now buttons etc. Check out these examples to get an idea of what is possible.
Like Facebook’s user base increasingly grows larger (it just hit 500 million), so do the benefits of having a fan page to market your content. If you’re a regular visitor of other peoples’ fan pages you can have noticed that it is more and more common that they are customized. It is not that tricky and you should consider giving it a try yourself.

Social Media Marketing vs Traditional Marketing

Although both social media and other forms of marketing might sound the same to you, there is a huge difference; the difference is interruptive marketing Vs. uninterrupted marketing. Traditional marketing such as TV and radio force advertisements that we have to take in. Think you are watching your favorite show and then comes an ad telling why it is the best toilet cleaner in the world, during the most interesting part of the show. Whether you watch the ad, change the channel or walk away is because you are forced to that ad. which comes to what I am saying, you are interrupted from what you were doing.

Social media marketing on the other hand doesn’t implement such methods. There is no walk out involved. It is your choice whether you want to view the ad or not. Social media marketing requires particular social media platform communities. 

As social media becomes more and more everywhere in today’s online generation the impact on business will only increase. It is not only beneficial, but absolutely essential for the bottom line of any company’s sales goals and to stay ahead of your competition.

Facebook Fan Pages

Facebook has always been touchy about members spamming, but in the earlier period they’ve really opened up opportunities for businesses and professionals to represent themselves on the site.  The greatest way to make your presence known if you hope to use Facebook for marketing is to make what is called a “Fan Page” in the name of your business or organization.

The main difference between a Fan Page and a usual user profile is that the Fan Pages are public.  For people to view your own profile on Facebook, they must first register and then request to be added to your list of contacts.  Other than a Fan Page can be viewed even by non-members.  It does not contain your individual name (unless you want it to), personal photos or other information that you don’t necessarily want to share with the general public.

One more great feature to Facebook Fan Pages is that whenever anyone becomes a “fan” or adds you as a contact; it is broadcast via their profile to all of their contacts, reaching potentially thousands of other people who may not have heard of you before.

So what are the elements that will create your Facebook Fan Page stand out?  Here are five:

1. Apply a simple page title such as your business name or something else that clearly describes what you do.
2. Apply an easily identifiable logo or profile picture.
3. Keep your page updated, new, and interesting without adding a bunch of lame apps to clutter it up.
4. Join in on conversations that ensue on your page.  People love to know that a real one is watching and listening to what they have to say.
5. Be willing to create changes and add features that your fans are asking for.  They are major contributors to creating your Fan Page successful, so let them participate in its design and operation.

Obviously, the equal rules apply to Facebook Fan Pages that apply to all other social networking:  don’t be pushy and don’t force yourself on your contacts.  The great thing about Fan Pages, however, is that people who select to be a fan of your page know that you will be talking about your business or product on there, so you don’t have to worry about them getting indignant at you when you post business-related things.

Facebook is presently the most popular social networking site in the world, so if you are not using it to support your business you are simply missing out.  Make sure you have links to your Facebook Fan Page on your blog and your usual Facebook profile so people know it exists.  You may need to do a little bit of promotion when you first start it up, but eventually it will hold on as people see your updates posted in their friends’ public timelines.

get time to set up your company’s Facebook Fan Page, put some real thought into it, and then use it as yet another tool for generating awareness about your company online.  Do you have a Facebook Fan Page for your business?  put down us a comment with a link so we can check it out!

Privacy and Facebook Gets Its personal Fan Page

Upset about your privacy on Facebook? You’re not the just one, and Facebook has officially responded to the widespread unease with an official Facebook and Privacy Page. Following weeks of negative press on the topic from blogs to typical media alike, Facebook announced in a blog post today that they have launched a Page that will cover up all things privacy on the site. According to the post, the reason of this new Privacy Page is as follows:
The Facebook and Privacy Page serves as a living reserve and a venue to help an interactive discussion about privacy with all of you. We’ll often post updates on relevant new content, products and news stories related to online privacy.
Already the Facebook and Privacy Page (Fan Page, Like Page, Business Page… anything you like to call it!) has a wealth of information about how to set privacy controls, with articles, videos, and pictures. We’re impressed with their landing tabs that present even more information, including the Resources Tab and Experts Tab.
The only thing misplaced is a Facebook fan Pages Design landing tab from FaceItPages, but hey, we might be just a bit biased in that regard.

Fan Page Photo – Quick Tip

While creating your Facebook Fan Page, one of the first things you must do is add a Page Photo. This establishes your identity at a look (many times that’s all visitors will do — glance) and helps to solidify your branding, so it is an absolutely essential step when setting up your Fan or Business Page.
Because most places around the web require or re-size profile images to be square, many people assume the same is true for Facebook. Not so! Your Page Photo can be up to 200 pixels wide and 600 pixels high, which is a pretty good amount of real estate to send a quick message and make a first impression. We suggest taking the time to create a Page Photo that includes your logo or branding, as well as a simple “first impression” message to your Page visitors. While the size is up to you, it is helpful to be aware of the possibilities.
Lastly, keep in mind that your Page Photo will be used for the thumbnail image that is displayed next to all of your status updates and posts. The thumbnail image is automatically re-sized to 50 x 5o pixels (yep, a square), which sometimes looks weird if you’ve uploaded a long Page Photo. To modify this a bit, hover over your Page Photo and click “Change Picture”, then “Edit Thumbnail” (see screen shot below). This will let you select an area of your Photo which looks best as a square. Don’t overlook this last step, since your thumbnail is what everyone will see in their news feed!

Facebook Joins the Patent Smack down Culture on a New Front

Mobile patent wars have raged for a few months. Currently it’s time for high tech battles, part II: patent infringement suits in social networking. Like part of a now year-long ongoing dispute, Facebook filed go with against Phoenix Media/Communications, which owns an alt-weekly and an alternative rock radio station in Boston. Given how young and in change the social media industry is, this type of early assault is likely to recur.

A process for providing a personal page on a computer system accessible to a plurality of remote users during a computer network, the remote users having profile information stored in the computer network and easy to get to other remote users, comprising the steps of:

a.       suitable profile information from a plurality of remote users;

b.      prompting a page-creating remote user with a plurality of page templates for the individual page and receiving a template selection from the remote user;

c.       prompting the page-creating remote user to enter content to the personal page and receiving entered text from the remote user;

d.      prompting the page-creating remote user to select or enter graphical information to present on the personal page and getting the selection or entry from the remote user;

e.       storing attributes representing each choice or entry made by the page-creating remote user in one or more databases;

f.       providing the page-creating remote user with means to input safety parameters for the personal page, the security parameters specifying authorization of at least one other remote user to access the personal page;

g.      storing the security parameters in one or extra databases; and

h.      Displaying the personal page upon request only to remote users who are allowed to access the personal page.

Although Phoenix used the technology for online dating, the patent — filed for in 1997 and granted in 2001 – would seem to cover the personal pages on Facebook … or many other online services. (Why perform I suspect that Facebook is not the only company to hear from Phoenix?) Now, a year later, Facebook is asserting two patents in a countersuit.

This might seem like an aberration, but then so did the opening patent infringement suits in the mobile space, and look how knotted up that has become. And, as additional correlation, when I wrote about Face book location-based social networking patent, I received a digit of emails from special patent holders and lawyers who all seemed to think that they had applicable patent claims that predated those of Facebook. Between to facilitate and the tensions building up between Facebook and Google, I think this could be just the opening of a wave of social networking patent fights. Remember the saying: Follow the wealth and eventually you will run into the lawyers.