Say Farewell to Custom Landing Pages on Facebook
May 19, 2010
One of the greatest things about owning your very own Facebook Fan page was the flexibility and options you had to customize your page and turn it into your very own mini community portion of your website. Using apps like Static FBML gave you the ability to create your own Welcome tab and make it as your default landing page. This was until they announced today in the Facebook Developers Forum that they are no longer offering this option to make custom landing pages to users UNLESS you have a minimum of 10,000 fans or have an account rep at Facebook.
As a small business owner and a ginormous fan of using pages for business I am a tad peeved with the new changes mainly because it was nice to go that extra mile and make sure people got the proper welcome when they visited the pages rather then being taken directly to the wall or info tab. The good news is custom tabs are still allowed and you can direct people to your welcome page using it’s very own unique URL and shortening it with bit.ly.
For more information check out the Queen of Facebook, Mari Smith’s post about the implemented changes.
Yes, inconvenient news! New strategies though…
1. Link directly to your welcome page url and not your wall url from your site/blog.
Yes, they are different urls.
2. Set up a proper bit.ly link and use it for social media (allows you to track results)
3. Change all your links to your Facebook page to new bit.ly link.
4. Set up redirect links from your Wordpress. ( exp… http://www.yoursite.com/facebook )
which then redirects to your welcome page url or bit.ly url.
5. Add the Like button to your site. Plugin Wordpress
6. Use the bit.ly link in all your Twitter posts.
7. Add more features on your Facebook Fan Page wall.
Welcome pages still RULE!!
~ Brian Hanson ~
CustomTwit.com
Sica:
Thanks so much for this post. I already sent it to three of my clients that also do pages for their fans. 10,000 fans is pretty steep for small businesses. Not impossible but def. will take some time to get there.
So if you currently have a custom tab will they take it away? Do you know when?
You are most welcome Michelle
I agree, nothing is impossible! Especially when it comes to social networking and the ability a business owner has to expand their message using different platforms.
The change as already been made so any time you go to a fan page you will be directed to their walls vs whatever they have set as their landing page. The way to “get around” this would be to take the URL from your welcome page, enter it into bit.ly (or the link shrinker of your choice) and link that with all of your Connect with Me buttons on your emails, newsletters, websites, etc. Therefore even with the Facebook Changes, your newcomers will still be directed to the page of your choice.
This has to be one of the saddest days to see Facebook put limits for Small Biz on this. The only advantage Small Biz has. This has to be the dumbest thing I have seen yet from Facebook.
So sad, who took over the strategy?
[...] normal. In the event they do decide to go forward with their original plan make sure to check out yesterday’s post and see ways you can go around not having your Welcome Page seen [...]