How to get more Facebook Fans (2.0)
Telling visitors what to do through calls to action is the single best way to get them to interact with your site. This may mean signing up for an email newsletter, contacting you for pricing/availability information or just leaving a comment on a blog post.
This same technique can be used to get more Facebook fans (likes) for your business.
Do you have a Facebook landing page?
When someone comes to your Facebook page what do they see? Are they presented with a page of random posts about new photos, a conference you recently attended, or how great Jasmine Star’s latest workshop was?
By controlling their first view of your page, you can give them a more favorable and branded view of your business.
This is accomplished through a landing page. A landing page is a page of a website (or Facebook) that is created for the sole purpose of getting a visitor to do something. In this case, we want them to click that Like button so that you can reach them later on through the content you post on your page (which will then wind up in their feed). If they visit your page and don’t click like, then you have lost them forever.
How to create your Facebook page welcome tab
Previously, I showed you how to create a landing page using Facebook’s programming language – FBML. On March 11, 2011 Facebook removed FBML from the options for pages. If you already have a landing page created using FBML it will continue to work. New landing pages, however, cannot use FMBL.
As a replacement, Facebook is finally allowing iFrame tabs for pages. Personally, I am stoked. iFrames allow you to basically “import” a webpage from anywhere. You can do essentially anything with iFrames that you could do on your own site. For code-nuts such as myself, this is an awesome thing. For everyone else, it can seem a little intimidating.
Not to worry! There’s an app for that. (Ugg, I couldn’t resist).
The Static Html: Iframe Tabs Facebook App
Soon after Facebook rolled out these changes, a new app emerged on the scene. The Static Html: Iframe Tabs App makes it incredibly easy to add a welcome page to your Facebook business page.
To begin, go to your search bar in Facebook and search for iframe tab – look for the star thumbnail. Go to the page and look in the bottom of the left hand column. Choose Add to My Page and choose the appropriate Facebook page from your list of pages.
Now, go to your page and look in your menu. (Under the profile picture). Click on the Welcome tab with the star icon. You will be taken to the editor.
The top box is where you will enter the information for your non-fans landing page. This means that anyone who comes to your page that hasn’t already clicked “like” will see this page. You should focus your efforts on getting them to do so. Do not dilute the power of this page by linking to your site or trying to get them to take any other action.
The bottom box is the page people will see after they have liked your page. This is a great place to provide them with other options for getting to know your business. Links to your website, photo slideshows, etc can be posted here.
For a simple solution, create an image in Photoshop (or other editor) to use for each page. Upload it to your server or photobucket (use the “html” linking option) and display it on the page. Use this code for a server-uploaded image:
<img src="http://mysite.com/folder/myimage.jpg" />
If you are a little more comfortable with html, you can add links and anything else you can come up with to your landing pages.
When you are finished click Save and View Tab to check out your new landing pages.
That’s it! The iframe app definitely makes it easier to add Facebook landing pages to your business pages which can result in more Facebook fans.
Extra Credit: To get more bang for your buck create an incentive for them to click your like button. Tell them that they will get a free wedding planning booklet or a discount for portraits. Give them the booklet download or discount instructions on the second page.
Please post a link to your Facebook page so we can see your landing pages.
Great post .. It is interesting and informative .. great job :) I'd like to see more interesting content like this .. :)
Absolutely love the new layout. I really enjoyed the content. Thanks a lot for a brilliant write.
Great site. A lot of useful information here. I’m sending it to some friends!
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[...] menu is much less prominent and likely to be ignored by most users. Offset this by creating a i-frame Facebook welcome tab and by creating conversation about your discussion boards or review [...]
[...] How to Get More Facebook Fans February 2, 2010 35 Comments by Bethany Gilbert In early 2011 Facebook removed FBML as an option for all pages. FBML has been replaced by IFRAME pages. See this post for how to create custom iFrame Facebook welcome tabs. [...]