Well thought out. I'll be considering these points as we develop the Facebook presence of our company, FireHost.com.
Thanks!
Christos Winter
· 8 months ago
Excellent article again guys!
Glenn Batuyong
· 8 months ago
Thankfully, Mashable fixed its post pages so they're actually shareable via Facebook. This wasn't the case just a few weeks ago! :)
Peter Lamb
· 8 months ago
Thanks for the helpful tips
John Maver
· 8 months ago
That is a great article, Steve, and your About Face whitepaper is a must read.
Here are a few more tips I have found that complement yours: 1. The Profile picture can be up to 600px high. The thumbnail; however, will only use a 175px square area. So, when picking a profile picture, makes sure that it contains a section that will work well for the thumbnail.
2. If the your profile picture background is white, it may look a little strange against the Facebook background. Consider creating a background that blends into the Facebook background. Fill the top 67px with #eeeff4, then a 1 px bar of #d8dfea, then the remaining bottom part with #FFFFFF. Put your logo on top of that, and your picture will fit right in.
3. The <fb:visible-to-connection> tag will show a blank area to non-fans rather than hiding the content entirely. You can control the color of the blank area to match the rest of your FBML box by using the bgcolor tag like this <fb:visible-to-connection bgcolor="#FFFFFF">. Non-fans will also be able to see the content inside this tag by viewing the page source or by inspecting it with Firebug, so don't put any truly secret content in there.
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
John, great points. I was wondering whether to discuss matching the profile image to the FB background as you suggest in #2. However, in my tests, I found that not all browsers render the alignment in exactly the same way. I believe you'll find it's a couple of pixels off on the Mac for either Safari or Firefox (can't remember which).
Jared O'Toole
· 8 months ago
Never thought about making a share preview before. Also the URL redirect is so simple but again never thought of it. Makes sense until facebook opens up the custom domains.
Great post!
Jon Berry
· 8 months ago
Wow, thanks for the info. Excellent tips, and some hard to comeby info.
mollyfuller
· 8 months ago
How do I do #4? Is it through our website host?
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
Molly, my hosting provider allows me to redirect subdomains via a control panel, but that's probably not true for all. But it's a good place to ask.
Michelle Dommergue Forchetti
· 8 months ago
Great information! Is it better to have the new public fan page? Or better to have a regular facebook identity for your business? I've been testing out both. Originally the fan page came up in organic rankings. Then it disappeared. . .thoughts?
KyEk
· 8 months ago
Michelle that's a good question. I don't have the answer, but wanted to acknowledge the caliber of the question. I hope someone who is in the know will answer it, so we can all learn about it.
KyEk
· 8 months ago
Wow, these are great practical tips! Big thanks to Lisa Schenone for sending this article to me. Love the article, and we'll put to work right away for our facebook group at http://tinyurl.com/OfficeDivvy
Thanks for taking the time to share these tips and please, please keep these tips coming Steve...
Just thought I'd share with you an update, that we successfully implemented the Tip #4 (the vanity URL). In our case, thanks to the hosting provider it was as easy as 1-2-3, but I don't know if all can have the same experience. Proudly presenting our Vanity URL: http://facebook.OfficeDivvy.com
INFO
· 8 months ago
I agree with a lot that was said but unfortunately you have to face several trials to prioritize a few of the things that were said.
For example: If you are building a product that is meant to be "naturally viral" or "naturally good" but you are competing with someone else that is already existing in the market place, scaling down your product could actually hurt you. The reason for this is because many consumers will not change they habits if the difference is not substantially enhanced enough to change.
So in this sense, it can be harmful to release a "scaled back" product to the public if there are already direct competitors offering the same product with little differences.
The bottom line though is you must truly enjoy what you do to become successful and the more planning and infrastructure you implement prior to releasing a product, the better off you are.
The average time from "conception" to "market" is seven years for a successful national / international company and the first five years of that should be spent planning and building the infrastructure.
Its true that time is essential in the internet world because of how many new products are continuously being launched and how fast technology advances, but there is something to be said about the companies that take their time to pay attention to every detail of their company prior to revealing it to the consumers eye.
You might get a consumer base quickly on the internet because the techies are curious but you wont retain them because typically they are not your standard "web consumer". Believe it our not, but half of the population still is technology ignorant so when they get online they are looking for specifics and most of the time its a site that a friend told them about or they saw in traditional media that caught their attention based on a current "need".
So if you can fill a market need, appeal to the masses, dumb down you product, pick up the slack of a competitor and believe in your product, you will be in great shape for success.
YourNight.com "Your Night's On Us!" Shop, Work, Play & Plan -Coming in 2009!
DJNightLife
· 8 months ago
<fb:visible-to-connection>
Is this visible to FANS only or people logged into facebook ?
Are there other tags to show exclusively to non-fans ? (example: in order to display a become a fan banner, but then remove it if the user is a fan)
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
DJ, that tag will do what you want - visible-to-connection in the context of a Public Profile only displays to logged in fans.
DJNightLife
· 8 months ago
logged in FANS? or just logged in USERS (considering a logged in user can visit a page without being fan) ? That's different !
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
Visible-to-connection shows the enclosed content to logged-in fans, not to logged in users who are not fans.
Some good advise in this post. I've still not really gotten to grips with Facebook so I'll be sure to try out some of these ideas. Thanks David
Newbie Designer
· 8 months ago
Can someone please explain how to do point 4 "Creating your own vanity URLCreating your own vanity URL"
Its a good idea but no idea how its done
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
Talk to the hosting provider who hosts the domain, and see if they allow subdomains to be redirected. For example, http://facebook.theadvanceguard.com redirects to my Company's Facebook Public profile.
Edward Snyder
· 8 months ago
Most helpful and resourceful place on the www; I appreciate all I learn from you and every tip and advise is right on. Thank you
artikel kesehatan
· 8 months ago
nice tips, i'll try to optimize my profile picture
Reena Dhiman
· 8 months ago
Good work is done by you with a pinch of uniqueness. Iam really looking forward to read such more articles from you. All the Best.
watzabatza
· 8 months ago
Good Day! Excellent work. Thanks for sharing this article.
diekman
· 8 months ago
I thougt no 4 is illegal!!!
tiphereth
· 8 months ago
this is really useful & practical, thank you
Arry
· 8 months ago
I'll try it...
Yuuguu - Neil Kay-Jones
· 8 months ago
Wicked. i will be doing this at the weekend so just in time, thanks!
Mat Maven
· 8 months ago
Brilliant!
Laurent Stanevich
· 8 months ago
Really nice article, Steve. Very useful.
theMezz
· 8 months ago
Good idea re vanity URL .. BUT ... how does one determine the public URL for our facebook account??
seosurvivor
· 8 months ago
I would also add that you should grow a mustache for the profile picture, whether you're a boy or a girl... :)
Luna
· 8 months ago
Thanks so much for this post! Tips 3 and 4 alone are worth their weight in gold! (I had a major V8 slap-to-the-head moment when I read about the domain redirect as Facebook vanity URL. Doh!)
thanks again for sharing the tips :)
homepage
· 8 months ago
Very useful!
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
Yes! thank you for getting down to the specifications.
Lou Qing
· 8 months ago
so good !
Geeee
· 8 months ago
mmm very nice I was looking for these specs .. thanks for sharing this .. good post as usual ;D
Gena Riede
· 8 months ago
Steve, Thank you for all the good info. found it useful. Have a question though (pardon my lack of knowledge) are you saying that on item #4 if a url is with GoDaddy, to see if the domain can be redirected to the facebook URL? Do I have that right?
Excellent tips, but one thing, can i make a page on Face book for my website? its not a company nor i am a celebrity.
SteveCoulson
· 8 months ago
Yes, when you set up a Page on Facebook, you'll be asked what it's for - one of the options you can choose is "Website".
froggertv
· 8 months ago
Thanks for the information. I am going to create a page on facebook for my website.
Matthew Loop
· 8 months ago
All good strategies :)
Kate
· 8 months ago
I've officially scoured the interwebs looking for an answer to this question: How can I share my Facebook Page with non-Facebook users? I just started our corporate page (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Chicago...) but I can't figure out how to share it with people who are not logged-in fb users. Halp! Please! Anyone? I've messaged Facebook, but no word back yet.
SteveCoulson
· 8 months ago
Kate, all the tabs of your Facebook page are now viewable bu non-FB members. They just won't be able to interact with the content. Just give them the URL of the tab you want them to see.
Jim Fawcett
· 8 months ago
Great article, well done and thank you.
Jonah Price
· 8 months ago
What determines a 'preferred partner' in the context of a vanity URL?
Niclas Kingston
· 8 months ago
Hi thank you for the great tips. I´m struggling a bit to promote my website www.alltv4u.co.uk so I need all the help I can get. If you have any more good advise feel free to spread the word :).
/ Niclas
Jessica Routier, IAC-EZ
· 7 months ago
Great article! I know that a lot of businesses are unclear as to exactly what they should do on FaceBook, and this post has 5 great tips! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for all your great suggestions. I am hoping you can help with a facebook dilemma I have. I run my school's facebook presence. We started off with a personal profile, "Asbury T. Seminary" and a group. The group was good for info and the personal profile could do status updates and allow a conversation. However, when the page feature launched we jumped on it, and deleted the group. Now, with the latest upgrade, the Asbury Theological Seminary group can work like a personal profile with status feeds and more. I like this. However, someone has to become a fan to follow updates in their status feed. We use the page a tool to connect with people who may be considering Asbury for education, i.e. a recruiting tool. Many potential students are reluctant to "Fan" us but will add the personal profile "Asbury T. Seminary" as it seems to be less commitment as they are considering various schools, but still want to stay in the loop. How can I merge this into one presence? Is this even possible?
This article was extremely useful. Thank you for finally giving me the dimensions for an optimized facebook photo! I found you on http://www.squidoo.com/business-facebook an extremely useful page as well.
Poets Design
· 7 months ago
Thanks for your tips. I will try what are you have been done I hope my business will get more visitor http://www.poetsdesign.com.sg
djerba
· 6 months ago
Graet Aticle :) Thanks for the FBML hack !
Megan
· 6 months ago
I tried the non-fan's code and the <fb:visible-to-connection> is leaving a whiteout space over top of the td background so you can't see it. Has facebook developed an fb tag for non-fans yet?
I went to your fb page and it looks fine. I'm not a fan and there wasn't any whitespace for me.
Samantha Ferguson
· 6 months ago
This is very helpful information! I'm lookinig to start a fan page on facebook, but I was wondering about landing pages. I am aware I can control the landing pages of fans versus non-fans, but waht if my business has has a few different market segments? I want to know if I can control the landing pages for different segments of my market???
Aja
· 6 months ago
Hi Steve,
Tip #3 I had implemented and working well for my page in both IE and Firefox. It suddenly stopped working in IE last week, but still works in Firefox. The IE page no longer generates the HTML for that block, Firefox does. Anyone else having this issue, or has Facebook changed their code to reject background images on TDs?
Thanks
Virtual Miss Friday
· 4 months ago
Very informative post. Thanks for sharing this with your readers.
Virtual Miss Friday
· 4 months ago
Very informative post. Thanks for sharing this with your readers.
Savannah Brentnall
· 3 months ago
Thanks so much for tip #3. I've spent days trying to figure out a way to display one graphic for fans and another for non-fans. It never occurred to me to overlay them on top of one another!
Note to facebook staff: how about letting <fb:visible-to-connection> work with <fb:if> and <fb:else>?
alisonjuli23
· 2 months ago
We offer articles that will help you develop your readership base. www.contentunltd.com
All Comments
Thanks!
Here are a few more tips I have found that complement yours:
1. The Profile picture can be up to 600px high. The thumbnail; however, will only use a 175px square area. So, when picking a profile picture, makes sure that it contains a section that will work well for the thumbnail.
2. If the your profile picture background is white, it may look a little strange against the Facebook background. Consider creating a background that blends into the Facebook background. Fill the top 67px with #eeeff4, then a 1 px bar of #d8dfea, then the remaining bottom part with #FFFFFF. Put your logo on top of that, and your picture will fit right in.
3. The <fb:visible-to-connection> tag will show a blank area to non-fans rather than hiding the content entirely. You can control the color of the blank area to match the rest of your FBML box by using the bgcolor tag like this <fb:visible-to-connection bgcolor="#FFFFFF">. Non-fans will also be able to see the content inside this tag by viewing the page source or by inspecting it with Firebug, so don't put any truly secret content in there.
Great post!
Thanks for taking the time to share these tips and please, please keep these tips coming Steve...
Ky Ekinci @ Office Divvy
http://www.OfficeDivvy.com
For example: If you are building a product that is meant to be "naturally viral" or "naturally good" but you are competing with someone else that is already existing in the market place, scaling down your product could actually hurt you. The reason for this is because many consumers will not change they habits if the difference is not substantially enhanced enough to change.
So in this sense, it can be harmful to release a "scaled back" product to the public if there are already direct competitors offering the same product with little differences.
The bottom line though is you must truly enjoy what you do to become successful and the more planning and infrastructure you implement prior to releasing a product, the better off you are.
The average time from "conception" to "market" is seven years for a successful national / international company and the first five years of that should be spent planning and building the infrastructure.
Its true that time is essential in the internet world because of how many new products are continuously being launched and how fast technology advances, but there is something to be said about the companies that take their time to pay attention to every detail of their company prior to revealing it to the consumers eye.
You might get a consumer base quickly on the internet because the techies are curious but you wont retain them because typically they are not your standard "web consumer". Believe it our not, but half of the population still is technology ignorant so when they get online they are looking for specifics and most of the time its a site that a friend told them about or they saw in traditional media that caught their attention based on a current "need".
So if you can fill a market need, appeal to the masses, dumb down you product, pick up the slack of a competitor and believe in your product, you will be in great shape for success.
YourNight.com "Your Night's On Us!" Shop, Work, Play & Plan -Coming in 2009!
Is this visible to FANS only or people logged into facebook ?
Are there other tags to show exclusively to non-fans ? (example: in order to display a become a fan banner, but then remove it if the user is a fan)
http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/F...
[image: DJ NightLife - www.djnightlife.com]
2009/4/1 Disqus <>
Thanks
David
Its a good idea but no idea how its done
Excellent work.
Thanks for sharing this article.
(I had a major V8 slap-to-the-head moment when I read about the domain redirect as Facebook vanity URL. Doh!)
thanks again for sharing the tips :)
Thank you for all the good info. found it useful. Have a question though (pardon my lack of knowledge) are you saying that on item #4 if a url is with GoDaddy, to see if the domain can be redirected to the facebook URL? Do I have that right?
I just started our corporate page (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Chicago...) but I can't figure out how to share it with people who are not logged-in fb users. Halp! Please! Anyone?
I've messaged Facebook, but no word back yet.
If you have any more good advise feel free to spread the word :).
/ Niclas
----------------
Jessica Routier
Bookkeeping Made "EZ": http://www.IACEZ.com
I hope this makes sense, anyone have any suggestions? Reply here or email me at recruiting@asburyseminary.edu
I hope my business will get more visitor
http://www.poetsdesign.com.sg
Thanks for the FBML hack !
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Simply-Sarah/1064...
See - Deal of the week - box.
I am aware I can control the landing pages of fans versus non-fans, but waht if my business has has a few different market segments?
I want to know if I can control the landing pages for different segments of my market???
Tip #3 I had implemented and working well for my page in both IE and Firefox. It suddenly stopped working in IE last week, but still works in Firefox. The IE page no longer generates the HTML for that block, Firefox does. Anyone else having this issue, or has Facebook changed their code to reject background images on TDs?
Thanks
Note to facebook staff: how about letting <fb:visible-to-connection> work with <fb:if> and <fb:else>?
www.contentunltd.com