There are some easy ways to market your company on Facebook, and creating a Facebook Page (not to be confused with a Facebook personal page) is one of them. There are a few glitches the company hasn’t fixed yet but knowing how to avoid them can prevent a lot of stress-filled workdays. Please note this blog will continue to be updated everytime Facebook creates a problems (er, I mean fixes a problem).
Problem 1, Types of Pages |
Updating an existing Facebook Page can wreak havoc if you don’t create the page correctly the first time.
For example, creating a Facebook Page includes choosing what type of page it will be. When creating a Facebook Page, you need to decide if it will be a page for a local automotive, café, museum/attraction company, if it will be a page for a brand/product/organization or if it will be a page for an artist/band/public figure (See Figure A). Your answer will affect the subject fields available in the ‘Info’ tab (See Figure B).
| Figure A |
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Figure B |
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If you choose a particular type of page, publish the page and attract fans you can only change the type of a page if you create an entirely new page. You will have to attract these fans to the new page all over again. We are hoping Facebook will solve this problem soon.
Problem 2, Creating Vanity URLs |
A vanity URL is when you specify the wording after the ‘.com’ section. A Facebook Page can create its own vanity URL after 25 Fans. So instead of a long URL like this, http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Bartlett-IL/Nicodinos-Pizza-Co-Cafe/366221028666?ref=search&sid=20312720.3487400559..1, the Facebook URL can be a simpler URL like this, http://www.facebook.com/Nicodinos-Pizza-Cafe. But be warned – you cannot update this vanity URL after it’s submitted.
To create your vanity URL, login and go here http://www.facebook.com/username. Choose the page you want to create the vanity URL for and press Submit. Presto!
Leave a comment on any other Facebook improvements you know about.
Problem 3, Directing users to a default landing tab |
In May 2010, Facebook made it harder for small businesses with small budgets to direct people to a default tab. The Facebook memo specified users can get around this problem only by working with a Facebook sales rep and asking for the Facebook page to be allowed to create default tabs or only if the page has over 10,000 Fans. But there are a few tricky ways to get around this. One is to use your left rail and the FBML application to direct people to click on a specific tab. Socialmediatoday published an excellent blog with graphics demonstrating this technique.
Another tip is to know what the unique URL each tab has and diret people to that URL instead of your basic Facebook URL. For example, WBC’s FB URL is www.facebook.com/webbusinessconsultants but we would direct people to http://www.facebook.com/webbusinessconsultants?v=app_4949752878 which points people to the Suggest To A Friend tab.
