How to Make a Facebook Landing Page

Earlier, I talked about Facebook Landing pages. Now it's time to give a quick tutorial. Remember that graphic designer I said you'll need? You're going to need them along with a little bit of technical savvy to get through this. I'll try to make it easy for you though.

Here's the step by step process:

To create a Facebook Landing page you need to add a Facebook application. First off, you'll need to navigate to your company page. Once logged into Facebook, click on Account at the top right of your screen and then click Manage Pages from the drop down menu. Then click the appropriate Go to Page button for the page you want to edit.

From your company page, click on Edit Page on the left side of the screen.

When you click on Edit Page, it should bring you to a page where you can edit your company info. If you look along the left side you should see a link for Apps. Click on that. 

This should then bring you to a list of the default Facebook applications you currently have on your page. Things like Photos, Videos, etc. We need to add something called Static FBML - by Facebook.  From this page, click on Browse more applications at the bottom of the list.

Don't worry, we're gettin' there.

From the Browse Applications screen type in Static FBML in the search box at the top left. It should then bring up a few results. The one you want is called Static FBML by Facebook. 

Clicking on Static FBML should bring you to the App homepage. From here on the left side of the screen click on Add to My Page and from the window that pops up click on Add to Page.

You've now added what is soon going to be your Facebook Landing page. If you go back to your company page you should now see a new tab called FBML 1

The easy part's done. Now we move on to how to use this FBML app thingy.

From your company page, click on Edit Page on the left side of the screen and then click Apps again. You should see your list of Facebook apps but this time, you should see one called FBML - FBML. This is the app we just added. Now click on Go to App just underneath it.

Here's where things start to get a little tricky. This is where you'll need to know a little bit of HTML. Depending on your level of skill programming HTML and other web languages you can do some pretty cool things.I'm going to explain how to create a simple landing page that will link to your website and I'll explain more complicated pages in future posts.  I'll keep it simple here though.

You should now come to a page that looks like this:

Box Title is going to be the name of the tab. You'll want to rename it to something like Welcome or What's New? It's up to you so use your imagination.

The empty box is where we need to put in a little bit of HTML code. We're going to keep it simple and make the tab display a graphic that links to your website. I'll provide a test image if you haven't created one yet.

If you are creating a landing page graphic I suggest creating an image in GIMP or Adobe Photoshop with the dimensions 490 x 651 (pixels). The maximum width is 520 pixels for a Facebook page and you can make them as long as you like. I recommend 490 x 651 to start with since it gives a nice and even look. Once you have your graphic, either upload it to your own webserver or use www.tinypic.com and upload it there to generate an image link.

In the FBML box copy and paste the following:

<a href="http://www.yourwebsite.com"><img src="http://i55.tinypic.com/r1y6c0.jpg"></a>

Replace http://www.yourwebsite.com with your website address or the link that you want your landing page to link to. Replace http://i55.tinypic.com/r1y6c0.jpg with your landing page graphic. Currently the image link goes to a sample graphic you can use until you make your own.

Once you've done that click on Save Changes at the bottom and you've now got your first landing page. Go back to your company page and click on the new tab (the one you renamed to Welcome or What's New?) You should now see something like this:

If you click on the page it should now take you to your own website. 

We're so close to being done! There's just one more step. We just need to make this the default page that comes up when someone visits your company Facebook page.

From your company page click on the tab for your Wall. Then click on the Settings button near the top of the wall. This will bring up the default setting for visitors coming to your page.  You should see a drop down menu next to Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else. From the menu select your landing page from the list.

Ta-da! Your first Facebook Landing page is done!

Everyone who visits your Facebook page for the first time will be greeted by your fancy landing tab. They'll then be so impressed with your skills that they will sing your praises and shower you with gold, frankincense, and myrrh!

There's a lot more to talk about with these landing pages including all the neat things you can and can't do with them. I'll post some tips and tricks in the future. 

What are QR Codes?

Looks like a bad abstract painting eh?

QR codes are a lot like the bar codes you'd find on the back of a can of soup. They can contain a ton of information but only if you know how to read that information. Luckily, anyone with a fancy smartphone like an iPhone or Blackberry has the ability to read them. 

So why should you care?

Well, these QR codes can be used to do some pretty neat things. When you scan a QR code with your smartphone it returns information back in the form of any of the following:

• a text message
• a calendar event
• a URL
• contact information
• an SMS
• a geo-location
• a phone number
• a wifi network

Imagine that a customer walks into a store, looks and the shelf and sees your product. They're not sure whether they want to buy it or not so they scan the QR code which then takes them to a webpage full of glorious reviews of your product. Or maybe they walk into a store only to find that they're all out of the style they want.  They then scan the QR code on a different style which then takes them to a website outlining which stores currently have that style in stock. There are a ton of possibilities. You just have to be creative. You could even use them just to send a secret messages to your friends, your boss, or the KGB. 

Now, you'll need to have a QR Code Scanner app on your smartphone to read them but most of these are free and easy to get (search for QR Code Scanner on your Blackberry App World of iPhone App Store). 
Once you have the app, it'll use your phone's camera feature to take a picture of the code. You click a button to take the picture and it'll instantly return something back to you.

Creating and using a QR code is super easy and best of all FREE! 

(no licensing required)

There are a few websites out there with QR code generators but I found this one to be the simplest: http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/ .   I recommend downloading a QR Scanner App and play around generating different codes to see they're effect. I think the most useful one though is the ability to have someone get directed right to your website or a specific page on your website.

QR Codes are definitely something to consider sticking on your packaging, advertisements, website, or wherever. They're a free and simple way to engage customers in a tech-savvy way.

Neat eh?

What is a Facebook Landing Page?

Well, essentially, it's the first page a new potential fan will see when they visit your company's Facebook page.

Here's a very simple example I made for a friend's craft business:

Facebook landing pages act as a sort of homepage for your business page. When someone who isn't a Fan or hasn't clicked on your Like button of your company visits your page this will be the first thing they'll see. 

Without a landing page, they will be directed to your page's Wall by default which isn't that bad but you miss out on a big opportunity. You can use this first point of contact to advertise recent news, sales, and new products. Also, you'd want a potential new customer to get a good first impression of your company by having a fancy looking landing page right?

Landing pages can also be used as a draw to get people to follow your Facebook page by becoming a Fan and clicking that Like button:

  (check out Red Bull's landing page for a good example)

Creating a landing page really isn't that hard. The really tricky part is creating a reason for someone to click that Like button.

So start thinking about what you want your page to look like and what reason you can give for people to become a fan. In the meantime, I'll work on a tutorial on how to create your first landing page...

How to Link Your Facebook Account to Twitter

Twitter is like Facebook-Lite. It's only used to make status updates in the form of 140 word messages that you can send out to your followers. It's very simple and it works in the same way Facebook status updates do except without the handy Like button.

Its usefulness is going to be in how you can broadcast a message to all of your followers to let them know about your product. The latest figure I could find puts Twitter at about 190 million users so again there's a huge potential audience there.

The great thing I found with Twitter is that once you set it up, you can easily link it to your Facebook account so you don't have to do double to work ensuring your updates are posted on both.

If you're wondering how to link your Facebook account to Twitter, log into Facebook and go to http://www.facebook.com/twitter Then click on Link to Twitter and follow the instructions (it'll ask you to log into Twitter if you aren't already).

(I came across a technical problem with this however. Sometimes when you click the Link to Twitter button, nothing happens. There's a simple fix for this though: Right click on the Link to Twitter button and click Copy Shortcut. Then paste the link into your internet browser or manually input the link into your address bar to get it to work.)

Once you've linked both accounts, any time you post a link, photo, video, etc. on Facebook it will automatically be posted on Twitter for you.

So if you're getting your company set up on Facebook I recommend getting set up on Twitter as well. Especially since it's so easy to set up the Twitter account and generate content for it from Facebook automatically.

However, much like with Facebook the tricky part is going to be getting an audience to follow your Twitter feed...

What is a Facebook 'Like' and why should you care?

The Facebook Like button could possibly be one of the most important features to anyone trying to get the word out about their brand/product on the internet.  It's a simple little feature but getting people to click that little button can be the difference between your message being seen by 3000 people instead of 30. 

Everyone on Facebook is going to have a network of friends and family (unless you're very unpopular). This is whole purpose of Facebook; to connect with people to see what they're up to and communicate with them. 

Any time someone posts a picture, becomes friends with someone, or writes a status update, that news is shared with everyone on their network. All your friends are given an update to know that you just posted pictures of your last trip to the Galapagos Islands. The great allure of Facebook is the ease in which you can keep up to date with what's going on in your friends' lives.

So why is this important to online advertisers?

Well, when something is posted on Facebook like a picture, a funny video, a status update, everyone has the option of clicking that little Like button. It's a way of saying to all your friends "My best friend just posted a funny video of a cat jumping into a mirror and I think it's hilarious". News of that video then gets sent to all of your friends and if they then click the Like button, then that news goes out to all of their friends and so on.

Why this matters is because your message can get passed on to tons of people as a result of this sharing process. When you create your Facebook business page, if one person 'Likes' your company, their approval of your brand is then posted for all their friends to see.

The other big  benefit is that if you can get someone to Like your brand on Facebook, any message you send out is going to go to that person. If you want to advertise that your company is having a 50% off sale on sweaters, everyone who Likes your brand is going to get that message and then they can pass it on to their friends.

It's the most useful tool to anyone trying to promote a brand/product on Facebook. The tricky part though, is getting people to click that simple little button...

Who cares that your company has a Twitter feed?

One link I found that I think everyone involved in online marketing should see is this:

http://tpdsaa.tumblr.com/

It's hilarious but it also raises a ton of good questions about creating relevant online content.

Why should I care that a toilet roll company has a Twitter feed?

Facebook Insights

One neat thing about having a Facebook company page is that you can track how your social media campaign is doing and collect information about who's visiting your page and where they're coming from. Facebook calls this tracking Insights.

If you just set up your page you won't see any figures yet. However, I'll outline some of the info you'll be able to find so you can get an idea of how useful these Insights are.

Once you've set up your company page you'll see a box on the left that looks like this:

(Click on 'See All' to get to your Insights page) 

The first page will look something like this:

Here you'll get a monthly report which might not make a whole lot of sense yet. I'll go into greater detail on what all the figures mean in future posts but in the mean time here's a general description:

• New Likes is how many people visit your Facebook page and click on your 'Like' button in the last month.

• Lifetime Likes is the total people that have clicked on your 'Like' button during your page's lifetime

• Monthly Active Users are people who have visited your Facebook company page to view a post, photo, your wall, etc.

• Post Views is how many times your Facebook posts have been seen on other people's Facebook pages.

Under the Users tab on the left you can also find out information about where your Facebook visitors are coming from and their ages:

You'll even find information on where your visitors are coming from and what content they're viewing:

You'll definitely find this stuff useful once you get going and want to evaluate what's working and what's not in your social media campaign.

How to Create a Facebook Page for Your Business

So you've got yourself a personal Facebook account and now you want to get your company page on Facebook too. There's a ton of websites out there with instructions on how to do this but I'll outline the basics since it's quite simple.

1. Once you're logged into Facebook from your 'Home' page you should some tabs along the left hand side (you might need to click on 'More' underneath Marketplace in order to get them all to show up). 

Now, once you've done that, click on 'Ads and Pages'.

2. The next step will bring you to a screen with the following:

You'll need to click on pages at the top (if you're not already there) and then the '+ Create Page' button on the right.

3. The next page will give you some options. You'll want to look at the right-hand side under 'Official Page'. Here is where you need to select between a Brand or a Local Business:

The difference is going to be in the 'Info' tab along the top of your company page. If you choose Brand you get more options for putting in details and info about the company. If you go with Local Business you won't get as many options but you will get the option of putting in your store hours and location. I recommend Brand since you can always put in store hours into one of the info boxes if you need to. Really it's a matter of personal preference.

Next, enter the name of the Company/Brand, check off the box to confirm you're a representative, and click Create Official Page. It may pop up with another verification box but just follow the instructions.

Job done. You've created your first company page!

The Social Networks

What are these social networks? Where are they? Who's on them? Why do I care?

A social network is a platform used by internet users to communicate with each other and let me tell ya, there's a lot of them out there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

(Click here for a good webpage explaining each network)

Nowadays, it's hard to find a company webpage that doesn't have a social network badge on their homepage:

There's a reason for all this social networking/social media hoopla. 

There's a lot of people on there and these networks make up a huge audience for anyone trying to get the word out about their brand. Not only are they a potential audience, but they're also a way to connect with your customers directly.  I've seen some companies tackle customer service inquiries right on their company Facebook page for all to see. People love knowing that the companies they deal with actually care.

Pretty awesome eh? 

The big two you should care about right now are Facbook and Twitter. Facebook alone claims to have upwards of 500 million users.
I'm going to focus on these two since they're the most popular ones right now. I'll talk about a few other important networks later.

So, if you're not at least signed up for these two already then grab a cup of coffee and take the 5 minutes it takes to get your personal profile signed up. I'll go into detail on getting your company page set up in a later post.

Do you need a fancy flash website?

Hopefully you've got a website for the company or brand that you're working with already. Creating a fancy website can be very difficult and time consuming. You need to design how it will work, then you need to work out content for the site, then you need to make the graphics for it, then you have to program the code for it. Big marketing agencies will have whole teams devoted to each of these components and it's a lot for just one person to deal with (unless you're The Little Red Hen of course).

Luckily I haven't had to make a whole website myself, just edit already existing content. But what I learned while looking into how to make fancy website for myself is that you can cheat:

http://www.wix.com/

Wix is a free Flash website creator. You pick a template and then you change some of the pictures around to suit your needs. If you're starting from scratch, I think it'd be a good place to start.

I used to think I was behind and that everybody knew how to design flash websites except me.  But then I realized everyone was just cheating and using free flash website builders. But hey, if it works and looks good who cares?

First thing's first: You need a graphic designer!

The very first thing I realized was that in order to do any marketing or advertisements, I needed some artwork. Luckily, I happen to have very rudimentary artistic ability (enough to make the cheap logo for this blog). So before you even think of creating ads or advertising your product on the interwebs, you better be able to create some good looking designs or know someone who'll do it for you. Nobody wants to look at an ugly ad or web page. If you want your company to be taken seriously, you need something that'll stand out and look pretty.

To begin I started off using an image editing/creating program called GIMP.
Basically, it's the poor man's Adobe Photoshop.

http://www.gimp.org/

It doesn't have as many features as Adobe Photoshop CS5 but guess what? IT'S FREE! And, it should do the trick to get you started.

I won't give a whole lesson on how to use the program since there's tons of websites out there that give you the basics: http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/The_Basics/

The bottom line is that to market on the internet and be taken seriously, it's going to take some artistic ability. If you're like me and you're going it alone, get your hands on a copy of Adobe Photoshop or GIMP and learn how to use them. You're gonna need it.

Marketing for Internerds

Hi. 

I'm a first time blogger and marketing guy. Specifically online marketing. And I have no idea what I'm doing.

But hey, you've gotta start somewhere right?

Sure, there's marketing agencies charging thousands of dollars to market your product on the internet for you but that might not be in the budget for you. You might have to go it alone. Ridin' solo. You have no idea what you're doing or where to start either.

How do you sell a product to people on the internet? How do you connect with your customers? How do you find new customers?  How do you avoid becoming a spam? How do you get people to know your product even exists? This is what I hope to find out.

I've set up this blog to document my experiences in online marketing and to find out what works and what doesn't. I'll take a look at the different social media networks, how to advertise on them, how to create online advertisements, how to find new customers, and how to get your brand out there. I plan to post anything I learn along the way and pass on any useful tips for marketing on the internet.

 Can't be that hard right?