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.
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.
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