WRITING IN PROGRESS: As I was writing this blog post, Facebook pulled back their New Facebook Pages and replaced them with the old ones. I will keep you updated on the changes as I find them. We’ve currently got something looking like an “inbetween the new and old design page” where the Tabs are back:

And now they released the update that this was a mistakenly published prototype. I wish it wasn’t.

My first question was: “Where the heck did the Edit page button go”? I was calmed quite fast when I looked in the top right corner and found it there. Nice, the new Facebook Pages are here!

#1 Login as page on Facebook

This is huge. You can now login as the pages you Admin. You can easily change between the accounts you are managing and thus be yourself as well as be the page. Essentially, what this does is that it allows pages to take a more active and social role on Facebook as they can interact with the other users.

If you are not logged in as a page, then you see your own profiles updates and you can browse the network as though you are yourself. But if you are logged in as a page, then you will from now on browse Facebook as a page. Get the updates as a page, and be able to friend people as a page. You will not yet be able to message people, but you will be able to write on their walls as the page.

1. Notifications when logged in as a Facebook page

2. Switching between accounts

#2 You need to treat a Facebook Page like a friend now

I was resetting my privacy settings earlier today and sorting the different friends I have into new groups as I am preparing to open most of my account public. Amongst my friends were all the pages, which were not there before.

This is an interesting move by Facebook, but I suggest you have a look at your privacy settings and set all pages you add in a single group that you give specific or limited access to your page.

Earlier today page admins took a beating, probably as a result of the changes being implemented. However, I see the final outcome as the most important. Being able to login and move around as a page gives page owners a lot more freedom to interact and thus also a better service to those who like the page.

#3 No more Facebook page tabs

There are probably a lot of new features to be rolled out in the coming days, but the most evident change is that of the tabs. There are no more tabs on the Facebook pages. Nice! No one ever clicked the tabs anyhow and you had to employ some kind of re-publishing strategy for them in order for them to make sense. This is a great change.

#4 New Facebook Page left hand navigation

Instead, Facebook is working with a new left hand navigation. If I may remind you… TOLD YOU SO!! This is great when you want to make it easier for your users to visit yours and others applications. You can much easier build connections to your own website and drive promotional activities. The navigational structure makes a lot more sense this way.

For example, if you want to add a top navigation to your application pages, it doesn’t look f-ed up any more.

How do I change the order of the Facebook page navigation options to the left?

1. Well, simply click the more button

2. Then the edit button

3. Then wait for a couple of seconds and then you can drag and drop the options or delete them in any way that you want.

You still cannot change the order of the Wall and Info “tab” but I hope they really change that for the future or give an easy way to integrate the wall onto every page of your app.

There are a lot of rules to think about when trying to make business work for you on Facebook. Sometimes it is difficult to understand all how the different documents correlate with each other and if you can do this or that. I have previously written a post about what you must know about the Facebook guidelines. This post takes aim at talking more specifically about what you can and cannot do with a Facebook page.

Where can I find all the rules that govern Facebook Pages?

There are a series of rules you have to consider:

• Facebook Promotions Guidelines
• Facebook statement of rights and responsibilities
• Facebook Advertising Guidelines
• Facebook Pages Terms
• Facebook Platform Policies

1. Rules about creating and managing a Facebook Page

a. Who is allowed to create a Facebook page?

It is stated in the Facebook Pages Terms that “you may only administer a Facebook Page if you are an authorized representative of the subject of the Page“. Further Facebook says that Pages “may only be used to promote a business or other commercial, political, or charitable organization or endeavor (including non-profit organizations, political campaigns, bands, and celebrities)“.

b. Can I create a fake Facebook account to create my page?

The direct and most simple answer to this question is NO. This is stated in Facebook advertising guidelines 1 a) and in Facebook statement of rights and responsibilities 4.1 You are not allowed to create fake accounts on Facebook. The thing is that Facebook wants all accounts to be “real” in the sense that they carry the same name and interests and connections that you do in real life.

For Pages, in contrast with groups or applications, your personal identity is never revealed to the fan of the page. There is neither something called “creator” which can never be removed, and thus anyone at your company can go ahead and create the page. They can then add other administrators. If they decide to leave your company you can simply remove their administrative rights although they are the ones who created the Facebook Page.

c. Can I change the name or the URL of my Facebook page?

Yes,  you can change the name and the URL of your Facebook page if you have enough money to bribe Facebook. This is a fact although they tend to say no to normal users. For bigger brands this is an option and you are always able to contact your local Facebook sales representative and get this done for you if you have a large enough media spend on the platform.

For us normal and deadly users, the answer is sadly no as we do not have the resources to change page names.

d. Can I get my brand name if someone else is using it on a Facebook Page?

Yes. You do this by setting up your own page and then contacting Facebook either through the “Report/Abuse” functionality or contact your local representative. It is not allowed to operate a Facebook page to which you do not have the rights. You may not use brands, that includes Facebook in your Facebook Page name.

e. Can I create my own set of rules for the users of my Facebook Page?

No, you cannot set any other rules for your page else than the rules provided by Facebook. There is one exception and that is the rule for deleting comments on your wall. This is stated in the Facebook Pages terms.

2. Rules about promoting a Facebook page

a. How can I promote my Facebook page?

You can promote your Facebook page in a variety of ways. Facebook finally gave into pressure by removing their rule against running promotions without their prior consent and media purchases. When boiled down, you can run promotions in three different ways though.

• Paying for advertising
• Building an application
• Engaging in viral dialog with your fans

Within these categories there are sub tactics such as promote a post, social ads vs. normal ads, post to wall application features etc. You should have a deeper look into your media plan and select the kind of promotion you think will suit you the best, but that is not for this tutorial to sort out.

b. Will I get banned if I buy fans to my Facebook page?

No, there are no rules as to whether or not you can “buy fans” to your Facebook page. The only problem is that these fans are virtually useless and the cost for buying fans is virtually the same as for running a good advertising campaign on Facebook. I would recommend you put up a narrow advertising campaign with a CPC budget attached to it so that you can control your costs/fan easily. This will lead to more engaged and active fans than if you buy advertising in external newsletters/seeding programs.

c. How can I promote offers and run promotions on my Facebook page wall?

According to the new guidelines you can. The only restriction you have is set forth by point 8 in Facebook Pages Terms. “If you display any content on your Page that is an ad or could be construed as an ad, that content must comply with the ad requirements of the Advertising Guidelines“.

I strongly advise you to read these guidelines through. I mean REALLY read them through. Especially from point 15 and onwards. It really helps your creative mind with some barriers to land within.

3. Rules about Facebook Pages and Applications

a. Where can I promote my application on the Facebook Page?

You may promote your application on a Facebook tab, through a Facebook ad or by posting the link to the application on your wall.

b. Can I store and use the user data I obtain from my Facebook Application?

Yes and no. The exact rules for this are stated in the II point of the Facebook development policy page. Some of the more important facts are:

• You will only request the data you need to operate your application.
• Improve user experience and you should try to keep the data up to date.
• You will have a privacy policy that tells users what user data you are going to use
• For all other data obtained through use of the Facebook API, you must obtain explicit consent from the user who provided the data to us before using it for any purpose other than displaying it back to the user on your application.
• You may not directly or indirectly transfer any data you receive from Facebook to any thrid party Ad network, regardless if you have the users consent to do so
• You have to delete all data you receive from Facebook concerning a user if the user asks you to do so. You have to make this easy for the user to do.
• You may not not include data you receive from us concerning a user in any advertising creative, even if a user consents to such use. (This includes images, text, or other such information or materials.)

If you have any other questions I will find the answer and add to this tutorial. Please ask in the comments.

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This is not only big, but this is HUGE for businesses launching pages on Facebook. Finally, Facebook has launched a way in which you can import your existing CRM, e-mail spreadsheet or gmail contacts to your Facebook Page fans. This will make a huge dent in the spammer networks out there who’s greatest argument is that they allow you to build page numbers quickly. This way, businesses can be up and running in no time and focus their marketing budget on attracting new fans and running cool campaigns. I like.

How to import e-mail address for invites on Facebook Pages

1. Go to your Facebook Page and click Edit page

2. Click the Marketing menu option to the left

3. Select the option “Tell your Fans” appearing in the middle

4. Select either to upload a file from your desktop or import your contacts from gmal, hotmail or yahoo mail

5. Preview the invite and press invite

AllFacebook wrote about this during the morning. I will update this article as I test this functionality out during the day and the weekend.

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You might be one of those companies who have currently created your social media strategy. Somewhere in it, you should have some lines about how to leverage Facebook’s technology from two perspectives.

1. How can I work on the Facebook platform
2. How can I leverage the value of user data derived from Facebook

You must remember that Facebook is a technology and not a network in itself. Just like the fact that you aren’t guaranteed a lot of visitors, buyers or other success just because you choose EPiServer or WordPress as your CMS. You need to do good stuff in order to do well.

First something about transparency and content

In your strategy you will probably have some sentences about transparency and that social media is about sharing valuable content. This is good, but we have to elaborate on this a bit for it to make sense business wise. You shouldn’t be transparent about everything, and you shouldn’t create any kind of content, just because your users find it valuable.

What level of transparency do you need?

Let’s start with transparency. What users expect from you, especially if you are a product brand, is that you are transparent about your intentions. Your goals and ambitions with your social media investments shall be public and easily accessible by the users. Also, you should make sure that you are transparent on the full promise you can deliver on with your products. If you are using child labor or if you are engaged in some kind of tax fraud, this is not the time to let it out there. You should probably get it sorted and change your business ethics instead.

The transparency of intentions sets the users expectations at a reasonable level. They know why they connect with you and they know what kind of communication they can expect to get out of you. All you have to do after that is to stay true to your promise. In some companies this is difficult as the bosses tend to neglect reason when they see a nominal number. You should make sure they understand, and are in compliance with the promises you make, before you start being successful. Otherwise things will/might turn really ugly. When it comes down to it, you will take the blame, so make sure your boss is there to make the promises with you in the beginning.

Is remarkable content really necessary?

Secondly, we have the question of “remarkable content”. Your primary objective is to find a funnel that leads to a billing relationship with all your fans as soon as possible. This is important to remember. If you give away stuff for free, people will expect this in the future as well, and thus you will have little success in driving business if you don’t set the foundation for this right away.

On Facebook, you are not allowed to give offers in the news feed, so you need to find another way of utilizing your Facebook page in order to drive sales. One of the best ways is to create a weekly coupon. People love coupons. I don’t know why, but they simply do. I can tell you that you will have a million times more success putting a weekly coupon on a Facebook page tab than you will if you put an online offer with a direct link on the same tab. Make an image of a coupon, create a button that reads “Claim your weekly coupon”, and then watch it go.

Naturally, you connect your coupon with special permissions that post to wall and collect all the user data through an application. Just imagine the possibilities with a “Jesper just claimed his weekly coupon on xxx.com” (don’t go to that site by the way… it was just an example… bad one perhaps.. ). It would surely go viral.

What I mean with this is that your content surely has to be good. But good content doesn’t have to be a purple cow. It might as well be a good offer, or an offer placed in a setting that makes it relevant.

But let’s get back to the billing relationship.

So how about that billing relationship?

Every week I hear social media prophets talk about remarkable content as though it was the easiest thing in the world to create. Most of them are talking about creative content. Such that make people go wild. But think about it. How many times a week do you do something just because you think wow? How many times per month do you buy something because you think wow? How many times a week do you connect with a new person because you think wow?

Most of the times you don’t. Most of the times you do stuff that you normally do, buy stuff that you feel you need, and connect with people that you think might be able to benefit your social or work needs in some way. Of the three things stated above, I would say it is the connection phase that has the greatest need for a wow-factor. But it is not to say that you have to create that remarkable sensation of storytelling success every time you share some kind of content. Especially not if you have been transparent with your intentions from the beginning.

But let’s get down to the tactics.

Facebook page conversion funnel

When I think of launching a new Facebook page I think of three steps. I will only go through one tactic in each step of the process.

• Persuasion to join
• Persuasion to share
• Persuasion to buy

These steps can be taken on site or on Facebook. Why I split it into these three stages is because it gives me clarity when I work and helps the client understand at what stage they are in the process.

If you need some insights into persuasion it basically states that you set up a goal, then you think of three or more reasons as to why a person shall want to walk the line to your goal. Then you find three facts that support each reason. Almost like building an essay. Each paragraph has a statement and at least three facts to support the statement. Here is a pdf that gives you a good matrix for when you work with this.

Now, this is what social media allows. Especially when working in social network environments. It allows dialogue, and thus you can make a statement and then use the facts in the dialogue to support it. Don’t give it all away at once. By doing that you will induce more dialogue, debate and be able to tell who is ready to move onto the next step in your conversion funnel.

Persuasion to join

Let’s do this with an example. I create a Facebook page and my primary goal is to get fans. I decide that I should buy a social ad from Facebook in order to grow quickly.

What’s great with the social ad is that it includes the facts you need in order to convince people that your page is the right choice. First of all you have the headline where you can make the statement of your goal. Then you have the text where you can make the statement of reason. Then you have the “social circle” that gives the user the final persuasion to join in compliance with theories of conformity. If some of my friends have joined, then why am I not in it already?

Perhaps a simple tactic, and there are much more sophisticated ones such as building a challenge or charisma app, but I’ll save those examples for my book… hehe..

Persuasion to share

Secondly, you need to get them to share some information about themselves. You do this through an application where the user grants you special permissions to your Facebook data. Now, this is more tricky than it sounds as you have to provide them with quite a persuasive argument in order to make them join. Either you can do it like Amazon did it:

• Goal: Connect your Amazon account to Facebook
• Reason: Improve your amazon shopping experience
• Facts that support the reason: See what your friends buy, get suggestions related to your network, ie. more relevant shopping experience.

In their case they put some security stuff in there as well. That’s natural as they are the first to do this kind of advanced integration, but the sense of security can be accomplished with some symbols as well (such as https or verisign).

If you do not wish to do it like Amazon and utilize the user data on your website outside of Facebook then you should probably have a look at some of the more fun and creative applications. Here you can have a look at what Burger King did with the defriend campaign or perhaps what FarmVille is doing. Two really strong ways to get special permissions from people. I strongly recommend you have a look at what Amazon has done though as I believe it will be the future of online business. It is highly persuasive in the phase of creating buyers to actually have an integration set up on your website. Otherwise you might loose the social stimulus and guarantees for your shop visitor when they are IN your online store choosing between several goods.

Persuasion to buy

Last but not least you have the persuasion to buy. Now this is what people forget about social media. Building value and equity is only half way there. You need to get the billing relationship going as soon as you can. You need to start giving offers, news and such information related to your business goals – making more money – as soon as you connect with the person. I do not agree with people who say you cannot sell through social media. I’ve seen the contrary several times and so, I believe it is a matter of poor tactics rather than lack of possibilities.

Anyhow, once you have the user data, the rest is a matter of fishing. Put on a fat worm on the hook and kick back and relax. If you get one person to bite, you will get the rest to follow. I am going to introduce something called aggregated conversion rates in my book about viral marketing. This concept builds on that you only need a very low conversion rate in big networks such as e-mail or Facebook in order to get great results. A conversion rate of 1% in a network where people have an average of 100 people makes your viral campaign infinite. It will go from one person to the next, to the next and then to the next.

Anyhow. Again… Once you have the user data you can choose between running your buyers persuasion on Facebook or off Facebook. Either you do like Amazon and use gift/birthday notifications via e-mail, together with social circle persuasion once on the website.

• Goal: buy a book (or several)
• Reason: This book is probably something you like
• Fact: So many of your friends rated the book top notch!

Another way of building a persuasion to buy, getting back to the coupon, is to create a survey on your Facebook page where you poll what people want to buy from you, or what they are interested in knowing more about. Then you base your weekly coupon on the findings you get from the survey.

• Goal: Buy my stuff
• Reason: Because this specific thing is the hottest stuff right now
• Facts: Because 90% of the Facebook page fans says so

Conclusion & disclaimer

So these are some tactics on how to build a buying customer out of a Facebook user. Think of persuasion and what type of way you can persuade your fans into moving along the ladder towards becoming a returning customer. If you happen o be at Dialogkonferansen in Strömstad next week I will elaborate on this in my session. Getting nervous as I usually speak in front of specialists and not marketing directors.

Naturally there are a million ways to build your customer base through Facebook. The above statements should be seen as inspiration and are not guaranteed to work for each and every business. I take no responsibility for what you do with my advice and if you decide to invest in any of the above be sure to consult me or someone else first so that you don’t make a mess of things. Add me to Skype: jesperastrom or just give me a call if you need clarification.

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If you haven’t added Google Analytics to your Facebook Page yet, then you probably should start out here. Google Analytics is the king and queen of flexible traffic analysis right now. Most organizations do not need more than what Google has to offer. If you’re running high volume e-commerce, then yes, you probably should get one of those expensive things, but if you’re not, then Google Analytics is way sufficient to use your analysis tool for you to be able to continuously improve your website.

New analytics coming for Facebook Insights

I know I am taking a big risk right now as I am writing how to interpret the different options in Facebook Insights the day they published images from the new release. However, as I have it here in my todo-list, then I might as well just post it right? Anyhow, here are the images posted by Facebook Developer Page today.

Old Facebook Page Insights

But this post was about the Facebook Insights and what they actually can offer you when analyzing your Facebook engagements. First off you need to find them. To do this you need:

1. A Facebook page
2. The admin rights for that page

If you’ve gotten this far, then you should probably focus on trying to get some fans to come along and engage with you. I have written some tactics for that in previous posts. You can find all my Facebook blog posts from my Facebook category.

Now, go to your Facebook page and have a look just underneath the logo you’re using for your page. You’ll find the link “Edit page” there. Click that link and you’ll have a view that looks a bit like this:

On the right hand side you’ll find the option Insights and a link in the module that says “All Page Insights”. Click that link and you’ll arrive at the Insights section of the page you’re currently analyzing.

Now, this view doesn’t tell you much. Actually it tells you nothing but some nominal values giving you an indication on user demographics and page growth. This might be important for some, but it doesn’t tell you much of how you can improve your work on Facebook. As you know by now, we NEVER look at data to get a warm feeling in our stomach. We look at data to improve on the current situation.

What kind of Facebook insights are important for improvement

I guess this is a matter for the taste squad. However, for me, the most important metric of the Facebook Insights is that of “Interactions per post”. This metric can really tell you what engages your page “likers”. You can find this metric by clicking the drop down on the upper graph and selecting the second option.

1. Interactions per post

This is for my own blog, and I don’t have that much interaction. If you have regular interactions on your page however and you post quite frequently, this metric gives you an indication on whether or not you are growing the engagement with what you are doing or if you are boring peeps to death with your spammy posts.

For example. You might post 100 updates one day and get 100 interactions. The 100 interactions does not tell you anything about quality or engagement levels. Another day you might post 1 update and get 35 interactions. In my point of view 35 is actually greater than 100 in this case as it showed that you posted something highly relevant the day you only posted 1 update whilst you didn’t get the same kind of engagement the day you posted 100.

Take the data, look at what caused the fuzz, adapt it to a new setting, and see if you can regenerate the same kind of interest. Was it what you wrote, how you wrote it, or just external circumstances that made your “likers” go bananas?

2. Post quality

Please do not give a damn crap about this metric. I have managed highly successful pages with an extremely low post quality and managed extremely bad pages with an extremely high post quality. I haven’t even bothered exploring what Facebook really means. I have just seen that there is no correlation between success and post quality and thus I don’t give a crap about it.

3. Posts

The post metric might be useful if you want to govern the activity of a page. Let’s say you want to analyze why you got an increase in 6000% new fans one day but you cannot explain it by the standard options on selection. Perhaps you should have a look at your own activity that day, week or month. Did you post more than usual, did you post less?

If you have a tactical target to post at least one update per day you might want to be able to report this in or govern this in some way. Well, here you go, that’s the Posts option for you.

4. Discussion posts & Reviews

The discussion posts is if you have activated the forum/discussions tab on your page and want to monitor the activity in the forum without actually manually counting the new posts. The Reviews option is for those of you who have a facebook application or have a Facebook Page review tab operational.

5. Mentions

For me this is the most fun option as it actually tells you how many people have shared your page in an status update during the day. This is a highly intriguing metric as it doesn’t offer the opportunity to dig deeper. I want to know who mentions me, not only know that they have.

6. Total Fans / Unsubscribed Fans (or “likers”)

The second graph actually gives you better insights to some deeper demographics. Here you can find out how people engage with your resources posted on the page over time. The total fans vs unsubscribed fans show you an aggreagate over time.

7. New / Removed Fans (or “likers”)

Show you if you increase or decrease your total over time. This metric is interesting as you can use it together with the ones I’ve mentioned above to clarify if your post was engaging or not, and if you are doing a good job or not. Sometimes an update leads to a lot of interaction, but your number of likers drop of drastically. This might mean that you posted something that caused a lot of the wrong kind of engagement.

If you’ve ever had to deal with an online crisis, I am sure you’ve seen the funny looking sine-curve shape on this graph. First a lot of fans drop off, then a lot of new ones add themselves as they want to follow the debacle. Most amusing from a purely academic standpoint.

8. Top countries & demographics

Well these graphs basically show you what you see on the right. The only thing that makes them different is that you can study a region separately from the other. You get the check boxes to select or deselect in order to get a better view. Let’s say you’re running a campaign in Botswana and you want to know the development in that specific country. Well, then these are the two options where you should have more than just a sneak peak.

9. Page views

It is as simple as it says. It is the number of views you’ve had on your page. However, this number sometimes seem a bit to high even for the worst stalkable objects out there. I would look at this metric as a relativity number rather than something else. Do you get more page views when employing one kind of tactic than when using a different one? That’s the kind of question you should be asking yourself.

10. Unsubscribe / Resubscribers

Let’s just say that these people need help with making up their god damn mind… this is not a “dating website” for gods sake. (Yes link buyers out there… that one could be turned into a link… haha… just joking… unless you pay me a lot… like a sick amount…)

11. Media Consumption

This metric basically shows you how many times a user has clicked a play button or viewed an image in your image gallery.

Conclusion

I guess that’s it. I am really looking forward to the new facebook insights. I will write you another post on that when it comes available. It looks truly promising. My guess however is that they will charge for it…. so I guess this post will have some kind of relevance in the future as well.

All the best

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Yesterday I wrote a piece which publicly showed a fraction of the anger I have towards Facebook right now. Not the community of people but at the rules being imposed on us that work with the platform. The post was not at all constructive, but I had to give space for my anger in some way. This post is more of the constructive how to kind. Although I cannot hide my satire in some places…

As you can understand, it wasn’t only the most recent changes that sparked my anger. Ever since the new Promotional Guidelines were released on the 5th of November of last year, there have been a series of bad changes for us who use Facebook for promotions.

As I hate reading stuff before testing, I have run into some hurdles along the way. I write this post so that you might not.

There are basically four major documents governing your advertising and promotions on Facebook:

1. The statement of rights and responsibilities
2. The Facebook Advertising guidelines
3. The Facebook Promotion guidelines
4. Developers Guidelines

I don’t know why they haven’t made these one and the same document as much of the mumbojumbo is overlapping in the documents, but I guess they have some reason for this.

1. Planning your Facebook promotion

First of all you need to contact Facebook as soon as you get the idea of your promotion. Especially if you are working as a consultant for a company and you are going to run it on the platform. The reason for this being that you need to get ok from Facebook to run the promotion if you want to promote it in any other ways then through:

1. Facebook Ads
2. On a tab of the page where the application/promotion is located
3. On an application box (which still, but for how long, can be moved to the front page)

2. Copy & Legal for your promotion

You can in no way mention the word “facebook” in your promotion. Neither on your website or on your application. Actually there are two ways in which you are allowed to talk about facebook.

“This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to [recipient(s) of information] and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for [disclose any way that you plan to use the user's information].”

and

“You can enter the Promotion through the [application name] application on the Facebook Platform. You can also find the application on the [tab name] tab on the [Page name] Page on Facebook.”

However, you aren’t allowed to say that anyone has to become a member on Facebook in order to enter your competition, but you have to reference that your competition is available on Facebook and provide a link.

I am sure there is some kind of legal stuff behind this.

1. They want the membership process to be a legally separate event from your application so that you can never claim rights to the user if you were to become… hmm… let’s say… a new FarmVille
2. They need to have no affiliation with you or your service if you get sued by a user

Still, Facebook claims they own your stuff if they want too. Ie. they are working like a terrible boss. If you succeed, they claim all the credit and if you fail then they make you the one to blame. Good ehy?

Thus when you plan your activity you have to make sure that you don’t create a value proposition to the user that includes the word Facebook otherwise you might get in trouble.

3. Interaction with users

a. No more notifications
From now on you cannot use the notifications for applications which was an extremely neat feature if you are targeting audiences that aren’t at their computer all the time looking at the news feed. This means that any type of challenge application becomes about 100 times less effective as a person has to see in their news flow when the challenge appears.

I am sure some users say YEY to this, but why the heck did you accept the application in the first place if you cannot handle the notifications? Anyhow… enough of the anger.

b. Become a fan to enter – no no
You cannot say that it is a demand that the user becomes a fan of your page to join the competition or promotion. You cannot make it so that they enter the competition or promotion by simply becoming a fan either. However, you can hide the application tab and only make it visible for those who are fans of your page.

I wonder how Facebook thought when they came up with that one. *sigh*… What if the FBML application is the front page.. hmm..

c. Collect e-mails or have no way to contact winners
You are not allowed to tell the users who won the promotion or competition through Facebook. You can however ask them to enter their e-mail address so you can contact them that way. Considering a natural number of approximately 25% type their e-mail address wrong or the conversion rates fall drastically if you require people to enter it twice… well… let’s say that the fantastic communication platform, became dependent on the very communication form sooooo many people say it will replace (for those of you who cannot read jesperian – I’m talking about e-mail).

d. Entries must be stored outside of facebook
If you want people to upload images, write texts or enter the competition by any kind of own effort you have to make them do this through a third party application. This means that you cannot tell someone to upload an image to the image gallery of your page, but you have to tell them to upload it through an application provided by a third party.

I am really unsure whether or not Facebook actually understands what they say when they make this demand, but I am sure they mean that you have to store the competition entries outside of facebook. This means you can create a Facebook application and then have people submit stuff to a system outside of facebook (such as a database or similar).

4. Don’t forget your own set of policies

You need to add another set of policies such as privacy policy, legal disclaimer etc etc. to your application. This is important as you are liable if something goes bad. Facebook will not take any responsibility for anything happening on their terth.

If you are like me and read the documents linked to above, please complete this post with your favorite Facebook guideline moment in the comment field.

Best,

Jesper

I read this article in OpenForum that @peter_einarsson tweeted. It was about Facebook Landing pages for business. It was a fairly good article but it didn’t tell the full story on how you should create a landing page for you own Facebook Fan page. I am a bit sick today so bare with me. However, I decided to write the Ultimate Facebook Page Resource Page instead.

Or at least begin to write it… more on that in the last point of this post…

1. Main Setup of your Facebook Page

I have devoted a full post on this topic that gives you images and explanations to each step on the way. Please have a look at it before reading further.

• How to create a Facebook Fan Page in 11 steps

2. Create a HTML document

First off you need to start by creating a HTML document. If you are an e-mail programmer then you’ll become an expert in Facebook landing pages in no time. Basically the thumb rule is to NOT use div’s but use tables. I know some of you out there got some allergic reaction to what I just said, but I promise you that you don’t want some browser versions to come frigg with your classes which can be the case.

Good dimensions:

• Width: 760 pixels (edit: 520 in the future as is said in the comment field)
• Height: 400 pixels (usually above the fold) + x amount of pixels (below the fold)

What you should know before you start is that you cannot execute any javascript or insert external css if you do not make it into an application of its own. I have in an earlier blog post created a hack if you want to put an iframe on your Facebook page. Remember that it is better to build it in FBML/HTML as there has to be a loader image if you create an app, plus user privileges plus a bunch of other things.

3. Create an FBML-tab

I guess it all has it’s purpose. Create and FBML-tab for the simple stuff (or learn how to create several FBML-tabs here + video on how to make a tab the start page of your Facebook page) and use the apps for the complicated competition thingies .

Since I am a decent guy I have created a simple html-template for you.

• Download template for Facebook Landing page

This template is blank and extremely simple. Please send me a link to a page you need a template for and I’ll code it for you. (Keep it simple guys… otherwise I’ll have to charge you.)

This is the structure of it:

Dimensions & usage:

• Top box: 760/520×200 – perfect for a top promo or an image
• Small boxes: 375×150 – perfect for some newsletter subscription of article feed
• Bottom box: 760/520x* – perfect if you want to put your wall feed in there

Just copy and paste the code into your FBML-box and start experimenting.

4. Add a Newsletter Subscription

If you have a newsletter it is good to add a sign-up box to your newsletter on Facebook. This works perfectly as it only runs the JavaScript after the user clicks the submit button.

You can create a submit script in most of the e-mail service providers out there on the market. I cannot share mine as it would expose me to a lot of spam injections in my DB. But if you need help with this, please ask here in the comments or by e-mailing me.

5. Run Google Analytics on your Facebook Page

Sometimes I just love the Internet a bit to much. I have been trying for quite some time to run Google Analytics on Facebook but I haven’t been able to get my hack fully working and thus no post has been written about it from me. Well, in this case I received an e-mail with a post that Christian Rudolf had found with a solution to my problem.

6. Integrating YouTube with your Facebook Channel

The best YouTube integration I have found that is out of the box is the YouTube Channels application. You can make all kinds of freaky things if you work with your own applications, but the YouTube Channels is the best I’ve found so far that is just a plug and play thing.

1. Go to your Facebook Page
2. Click Edit Page
3. Go to the very bottom of the Edit Page View
4. Click Browse More in the bottom box “More Applications”
5. Search for YouTube Channels
6. Go to the application page by clicking the link
7. Click the link “Add to my Page” (do not click Add Application – important as doing this will add it to your FB profile instead of your page)
8. Select the page you want to add it to
9. Go back to your edit mode of your page
10. Find the Application and click Application settings
11. Click “Add” next to Tab
12. Go to the front page of your Facebook Page
13. Find the tab and drag it to the place order where you’d like it

7. Examples of Custom Facebook Page designs

There are plenty of Facebook Page designs coming up. Here are a couple of pages that I like and that you can have a look at for some inspiration.

• McDonald’s – Nice look and feel
• Victoria’s Secret – Always make good use of the tabs
• Starbucks – Impressive use of customized tabs and apps
• Ladbroke’s Casino – Nice use of a tab as a start page and good gambling example
• Massive Attack – Good integration of fb:comments and music player

8. Building your Fan base through Ads

I really like Facebook Ads as a way to build fans to your page. It is fast and it works miracles if you know who your target audience usually is. The first couple of times you will fail when you set up an ad campaign. Especially if you work in shady businesses. The most common reason a ad is rejected is because of the image you use or because of some excessive use of bad language or exclamation marks.

I wrote a post a while ago about a strategy for Facebook Ads.

x. You tell me

The above four are questions I usually get on this topic. I want to write more, but I have no inspiration cause I simply don’t have the questions any longer. I simply don’t find it difficult to do stuff on Facebook anymore and thus I want you to tell me what I should write about. You can either e-mail me or write a question in the comments. If you want to remain anonymous to the readers that’s fine.

Possibly related posts:

• Related posts on Facebook page tab
• Google Map / Facebook Page Tab to allow user entry …
• Win a Free Facebook FBML Application Tab!

• Related posts on Facebook Pages
• Why is Social Media Important?

Yesterday I launched a video on YouTube where I described how you can add several FBML boxes to your Facebook Page. I have previously written about how to extend your Facebook Page with applications. Today I decided to write a post about it. For those of you who want to watch the video, here it is:

Basically this is how it goes:

1. Find an already existing FBML box
2. Find the link in the bottom left corner that says “Add another FBML box”
3. Click the link
4. A new text appears above the “Add…” link
5. Click edit next to the FBML text that appears
6. The new FBML editor opens in a new tab/window
7. Edit your FBML box and save it
8. Go back to your Page Edit mode and find your recently created box
9. Change “Application settings” so that you add a tab but remove the box (otherwise your Box tab will look freaky)
10. Check your tab on your page and move the tab to the place where you want it
11. Done

Does it sound simple? Well it is really simple. The biggest problem most people have is to find the actual link where you add the next FBML box.

For more useful Facebook tutorials you can go to either the Facebook tab on this blog or click the Facebook category.

Possibly related posts:

• Related posts on Facebook Pages
• Kevin Smith and Southwest Airlines | MikeBoylan.com
• Wishlist for iPhone OS 4.0 – Sequence Omega

There are a couple of ways in which you can and should extend your Facebook Page. Especially when you’re working with driving business through you engagement in the social web. Remember that most of your business/sales are conducted through an opt-in scenario where you should keep your target person entertained, happy or inspired until they are in the mood of buying. That way you’ll make sure you’re top of mind in talks about your sector or when the person him-/herself is in the mood for buying.

Adding the FBML-control to your page

The first thing you should add to your Facebook Page is the FBML possibility. That way you can add links back to your website. What you do is you click the Edit page option on the left hand side of your page view. Then you go all the way to the bottom of the Edit page view. The very last box says “More Applications”. If you didn’t add the FBML option in the last tutorial, then it is time for you to do that now. It should be readily available for you as one of three options. Otherwise just hit the “Browse More” option of that box.

When you click the Static FBML option you’ll be taken to the application page view. In the top left hand pane, just under the application logo you have two options.

You can either choose to “Add to my Page” or “Add to My Page’s Favorites”. If you want to add this functionality to your Facebook Page, then you’ll have to click the Add to my Page option. If you want to add a link to this application from your Facebook Page then you’ll have to click the Add to My Page’s Favorites option. You can also choose to become a Fan of this application which will guarantee that you’ll get any updates this application releases into you news feed of your user account.

I generally chosse to Become a fan and Add to my Page in order to add the functionality yet never miss out on any updates.

Once you click the Add to my Page option a pop up dialogue will become visible. This is for those of you who run several pages on Facebook. You’ll be able to select one or several pages to which you can add the application from this view.

After clicking Add to Page you’ll just have to close the window and return to the Edit page view of your Facebook Page.

There you’ll find the FBML box added as one of your applications and you should now activate it in order to start using it. In the Edit option for the FBML control you’ll be able to run html-code or fbml code. Choose a title of your liking and then start out by entering some links back to one of your websites outside of facebook.

Then go to the very bottom of your FBML edit page and click to Save. If you want to add more than one FBML boxes to your page then use the link at the bottom left of your edit screen to choose or add more FBML editor elements.

You should now go into your Application settings and activate your FBML box as a tab and then choose whether or not you want it to be able to post to your wall. That way you’ll cover all activities you might want to achieve with the standard settings of a non-sponsored Facebook Page.

Now you’ll get the all so important “Link to this Tab” option available from the Edit page view. That way you’ll be able to attract interaction with this tab from other places on the web where it might seem suitable. This is one of the strongest ways to promote your facebook page towards different audiences. Create a Tab, then get the traffic that might be suitable for that tab onto there in order to increase the chances of them becoming a fan of yours.

Moving the Applications box to the left hand pane

Now i know some of you are thinking that you want to add your applications and link box to your left hand pane of your Facebook Page. This is not difficult at all. Your FBML application created a box that can be found under the Box tab in the top tab navigation of your Facebook Page.

If the Boxes tab is not available it is probably because it is hidden to you. You should easily be able to access it by clicking the >> sign and selecting it from the drop down list that will appear.

In your Boxes tab you’ll now be able to find a a Link to my website box which was the name I gave my FBML box. Just click the little “pen” in the upper right hand corner of the box and select the option “Move to wall tab”. That way you’ll move your box to the front page’s left hand pane and the user can reach it as though it was the left hand navigation of your website.

Now browse to the wall page of your Facebook Page and you’ll see the box with the link available to you on the left hand side. If you want to move it up or down just drag and drop and you’ll see the boundaries of this box settings.

Adding another Admin to your page

This is pretty simple. After adding some more boxes and applications to your Page then you should start out recruiting some more admins. Perhaps start out with your girlfirend/boyfriend and then continuing with some other people you find suitable to manage, update and have fun with your page.

Simply click the add button in the top right of the Admins box and search to select the user you want to become admin of the page.

Rember that the biggest difference between a group and a page lies within the fact that you can update your Page as your Page and not as an individual which is the case in the group. Since the new Groups became available this is the biggest difference on a usage side. As well as the applications, but I am sure FB will do something about that in a while. And offcourse the Sending InMail to the group members which sucks that you cannot do from a Facebook Page. Would be such a good thing. Sigh… however… Facebook continues to separate the pages from the groups and I am sure they have some reason to do it. Or dont… either way, they decide and I should really use another article to talk about the differences between the two.

Continuing as many times you want

Now you can extend your Facebook Page with mostly any kind of application out there. I would recommend that you add a couple that integrate what you do on Facebook with other platforms such as Twitter, tumblr, digg and where ever you are highly active. That way users are able to follow you on facebook whilst you’re active on several different platforms. That way you’ll also be able to “rally your troops” when you need to.

Please suggest some Applications that you feel a Page owner cannot live with out in the comments field.

//Jesper

Facebook pages are one of the key features when engaging your company in social media. It is a simple way to get up and running in a very limited time. This post is the first in a series about Facebook Fan Pages. The index for this tutorial will be listed under the Social Media option in the top navigation.

First Create your Facebook page, then think what to do with it

The first lesson of social media is to never think about what you do in social media. Just do it, test it, and obide to the general rules of being nice and transparent with your intentions. No one know what fans you will get before you actually take the first step. You do get the fans you deserve. If you have a successful business online and/or offline, you will find loads of similarities in the social web. It is a lot more like traditional business than what you are used to from the static web.

1. Fist step: Page creation and account setup

Start out by visiting the advertising entry page of Facebook.  Make sure you have logged out from your private, personal account first. Otherwise your private account will have a never ending relationship with the Facebook page you’re creating. All though that might be a good thing in a couple of years, if you’re successful, as it can serve as a good card to pull when negotiating salaries. I would however not recommend it as it might be so that the legal process will determine that you have to leave your private account to the company rather than the company leaving its page to you. It all depends on jurisdiction though. So you check the laws and decide – ok?

In this tutorial I expect that you work with the best interest of your company in your mind, and thus make sure you are logged out of Facebook before continuing.

First thing you should do now is to click the green option button “Create Page”. You’ll reach a page where you will be asked to choose what type of business you are.

The drop downs are pretty long. But start out by selecting what best describes your Pages purpose on Facebook. They provide you with three options:

• Local
• Brand/Product/Organization
• Artist/Band/Public Figure

If you are just starting out you should probably just register your brand. Select the brand option and then select the vertical that suits you the best.

Later on you might create a page for your CEO, for a certain local store or for some other purpose that fits the other categories. For now however, settle with one page as this will be the hub for your communication on Facebook and I am guessing you don’t have the organization to support anything more extensive. (wow that was a long sentence)

Below this option there is a field where you select the page name. This is actually the only thing you have to think carefully of as it is quite difficult to edit once it has been choosen.

REMEMBER to check the option “Do not make Page publicly visible at this time”. It is no biggie, but you should be aware of this option as your page will go public if you don’t check it and you might want to test some things out first.

2. Create your Facebook Page – Then your Page profile

This is where many people go wrong. Pay attention to this part. You will eventually have to create a normal Facebook account that is connected to your Facebook Page. This profile should be a real person, it doesn’t have to be you, but according to Facebook’s rules, this person has to exist.

Now you’re thinking… but who should I be then? Everyone on my working place already has a Facebook account? Well, the way to do this is to create your work persona. It is still you, but it is you at work. You use your own name, your own picture, your own birth date and other information, but it is NOT your private account. The account is owned by your job. You could give the person your first name and then the brand as a second name. However… the important thing here is that you make it a person.

Just lie at the first option saying that you don’t yet have a Facebook account. And DO not let your Agency do this for you. They will make themselves stick by connecting one profile to your page.

Check the option for having read the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy and then Click Sign up now. As you will notice you will have to confirm your e-mail address. This means that an e-mail has been sent to your inbox and you will have to click a link in that e-mail to continue. If you do not receive an e-mail within one hour. Check your spam e-mail inbox or your junk e-mail inbox. These types of messages might end up there if you have a strict IT-department. Once it arrives it should look something like this:

3. Your Facebook Page is created, Now you have to give it some flare

Now you’ve set up the basic account information for your Facebook Page and you are on the verge of taking your first step into social media mania. YEY!! But we still have a lot to do before we are done with the setup.

4. Setting up your Facebook Profile for your Page

Your Facebook Page pretty much looks like this once you’ve clicked the link in your e-mail and reached the page of your choice. First thing to do now is to click the option in the top left hand corner to create a Facebook Profile. That is a normal signup procedure. Nothing fancy with that. The only thing is that I would recommend you use a picture of yourself with the icon of your company in the bottom right hand, or in the bottom third of your image. That way people will understand that this is your work account if let’s say two accounts that are both you would show up in a search, when your lost friend from kindergarden is searching for you. (you know the one who had a crush on you and still haven’t got over you… sick person… reject… )

Oh yeah.. they will ask you to add your first friend during the profile registration. Just skip that section for now. This profile will not be visible to anyone if you don’t gain any friends or if you aren’t active with it. Don’t add anyone just yet. You will in the future where I describe the use of a Facebook Profile. But for now keep this as is. On the bottom right hand side of the squares with forms, you’ll find the option “Skip this step”. Use that option!!

5. Returning to your Facebook Page to Edit it

Once you’ve created your profile you will be redirected to your Profile Page. THIS IS NOT your company Facebook Page. Many people don’t get this and start editing the profile as though it was the corporate page. NO NO…

What you should do now is to either use the option to see all your pages in the bottom left of your screen window.

Or you can use the top right search field and start typing the name of your page. What ever you prefer will do the trick. Just remember not to press enter when you see your page appear as below. Use your pointer to click the page that appears. Otherwise you will come to a search result where your page will not be visible as it is not visible yet. (Remember the visibility setting)

6. Editing your Facebook Page – Main settings

Once you return to your Facebook Page it will look like the one displayed above. Now you’ll have to start editing it or people will highly dislike it simply because it’s UUUGLY. The Edit Page option can be found on your left hand side just under your Page logo or Page image.

Once you reach the Edit Page mode you’ll see many panes in front of you. Just click the option “Edit” on each one of them to make them unfold what they have inside .

7. Selecting where your Brand Facebook Page is from

Now you will reach a page with a lot of settings. For now however you’ll just have to take care of a couple of them.

You can choose to publish your page at this time. But I just wouldn’t. You’re not done. For now, I would just enter the country where you want your page to be most visible and then select the age a person has to be to view your page. If you’re doing anything that might be considered illegal for kids in some country, then I suggest you make the allowed age for your Facebook Page older than PG13. Once you’re done, then click “Save changes”.

8. Selecting your Facebook Page Wall settings

Now it is time to set your Facebook Page Wall settings. Important to note here is that some companies only let themselves post material on their wall. Others let the users post material. One thing to keep in mind is that it is only the things YOU post on the wall that is shared on the walls of your Page’s Fans. This means that if a user posts something, it is only seen on the wall. Since most interaction happens on the News flow of a users home page, and NOT on your wall, you will have plenty of time to take away bad posts or spammy posts put up there by users.

I like transparency and thus I select the option “Posts by Page and Fans”. Remember to teach your fans what kind of comments you remove and what kind of comments you let be. A good thing is to remove curse words, but keep bad stuff about you. Your protectors will protect you. Trust in your fans baby… trust in your fans… If someone posts something nasty, then your fans will make sure that user is taught a lesson. That is ofcourse if you don’t beat them to it and you school that person back to prehistoric ages. Unless you’ve actually done something bad, in which case you apologize and do better next time. If not, all hell will rain on you.

Second option is easier. Always choose wall here. People want to see activity and interaction. If they didn’t they would go to your boring website instead. I mean.. DUUDE this is Facebook… the ultimate heaven of interaction. Thus you should stay with the pre set Wall option here.

Next options are more difficult to say. I would probably allow them all to start with. If there is a lot of abuse, then I would remove the option where the abuse takes place.

I generally tend not to edit my page any more than this. It is enough to have these settings to start with. Later I will write a post on How to Extend your page. Come to think of it that should be my next post. I will list what applications you should add to the page in order to customize it and make the most of your business on Facebook. One thing to have a look at in the bottom of the Edit page view are the suggested applications. I would add them all to the page.

The instructions on how to do this are pretty clear. I will describe it in the next post if it would be any problem for you. So just keep in touch and we’ll get that sorted.

Browse through the other options available but you can leave them as they are by default.

9. Moving on to the visual stuff

Now it is time to change the logo of your Facebook Page. Go back to your Page’s main page by clicking the link in the top of your Edit page view. Click the View Page option and you’re set to go.

Now it is time to add your page’s logo. This is done by hovering the empty image displayed as default.

Click the option Change Picture and select if you want to upload, take a picture or select one from the image gallery. The upload might not display your logo at once. Give it approximately 5 minutes in it will have put the logo you wanted in there.

10. Editing the Info Tab of the Facebook Page

You will see that the Info Tab of the Facebook Page is selected by default right now. Not the Wall setting as you had put it in the edit page view. This is Facebook’s way of telling you that you need to edit this informaion. Just click the Edit option available on the left hand side and write what your page is all about. Remember to write any rules you have for your page such as; “Be kind or be dead” or perhaps “We expect you to be 18+, if your not, please leave”. Anything that set the terms of your page as well as writes the goals of your engagement in social media.

Remember!! Transparency doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to tell everyone what everything. Just tell them what your intentions are and you’ll be fine with that.

If you find any of the options as difficult to fill in. Just don’t. You’ll be able to edit this a thousand times in the future and you will find a purpose for each field. Campaigns, cupons, offers, yada yada… anything goes as long as you tell people why you’re doing it. The options presented to you are there as a result of what vertical you said you were in. As I said I was a TV Show I get quite funny options to select from. As you can see below you don’t have to “follow the rules”.

11. Making your first Facebook Page update

Once this is done. You press “Save Changes” and you are DONE!! Now click the Wall tab of your page’s top navigation and go back to the wall page to write your first update. Remember to try out and post a link, a photo and all the other things before you go ahead and publish the page. You don’t want to end up looking like a fool because you did it the wrong way later on.

To post other things than a status update you simply click one of the icons below the status update field. If you want to know what the different options mean, just hover one of them with your screen pointer.

Publishing your Facebook Page
Once this is done you go ahead and publish the Page by clicking the link visible in the top of the page. You’ll probably also have to go back to the option in the Edit Page view and change that to a published state. (Remember the image from above.)

SOO.. Congratulations to you!! You’ve just created your first Facebook Page. You can now play around with all the options and have some fun. In the next blog post on this topic I’ll dig into how you can extend your Facebook Page.

//Jesper