Having some experience on the development and marketing of Facebook Fan Pages, I'm a sucker for interesting ways in which to enhance the appearance and functionality of pages. There is one standard capability of a Facebook Fan Page that seems to be underutilized but could be beneficial for those who wish to use it. First, I think it's in the best interest of this article to provide a quick synopsis of a few Facebook pages. After that, I'll outline the capability that seems to be the best kept secret of Facebook Fan Pages.
As opposed to MySpace, Facebook keeps a uniform design for various user pages, whether they be for groups, fan pages, profiles, or otherwise. I would argue that this is a good feature, but the design continuity of Facebook Fan Pages is an argument for another day.
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Over time, anybody who develops or markets Facebook Fan Pgaes is bound to pick up some tips and tricks for more effective design, development, and acceptance among potential fans.
Callan Green recently wrote the blog post "Killer Facebook Fan Pages: 5 Inspiring Case Studies." (For the record, I think better options could have been selected as the "Killer Facebook Fan Pages." ) The fan pages mentioned in Green's post are:
Before I go any further, I want to point out the ability to add applications to Facebook Fan Pages. Applications can be custom built within the Facebook platform to achieve nearly any functionality or design that a user needs to accomplish for a fan page. This means that the main area of a fan page can also be designed any way that a designer wants to design the page. The same header and footer exist on all Facebook pages, but an application can be designed any way that the designer chooses.
With this in mind, it would be beneficial for any fan page that uses a custom built application to use a custom design for the application s well. For example, if I work for Company-A, and Company-A has a great idea for a custom Facebook application, it should have a custom design as well.
Now, jumping back to "Killer Facebook Fan Pages: 5 Inspiring Case Studies," only two of them had applications on the fan page that seemed to be custom built for that company's presence on Facebook: Adidas and Red Bull. Not only that, but the Adidas seemed to spare no expense in the creation of its application, as it was built with dynamic, Flash functionality. The Red Bull "Athletes On Twitter" application seemed to be pretty cool as well. But all of these pages seemed to be missing on crucial step. I'll get to that step in a minute.
Of course, one of the main aspects of Facebook is the ability to nurture conversation. It's not necessarily a negative aspect that all of these pages default to the wall tab of the fan page. A custom application can also have conversational capabilities built into it.
Anybody who is on Facebook knows about the wall area of a profile or fan page. It's a given. Not everybody will know of a custom built Facebook application on a fan page, if such an application exists. Taking these two points into consideration, I think it would be quite beneficial for any custom-built application, or any application that should be highlighted, to be the default tab that is viewed when visiting a Facebook Fan Page. Since users are already familiar with the wall tab, they will know to go to this tab if they want to see the most recent conversation, but they will not always know, or be inclined to, visit other tabs on a fan page if they are not familiar with its content or existence.
But if a Facebook application is custom built for a Facebook Fan Page, shouldn't it be the highlight of the fan page? Of course!
The Best Kept Secret of Facebook Fan Pages is the ability to set the default landing tab that is viewed when visiting a Facebook Fan Page.
In order for the end user to automatically view the tab of a Facebook Fan Page that I want them to view, I have done this on a few fan pages that I have created. For example, take a look at the fan pages for Microsoft Developers and Microsoft IT Professionals.
You'll note that both of these fan pages default to a tab other than the normal wall tab. Setting a default landing tab on a fan page is quite a simple task.
How to Set the Default Landing Tab on a Facebook Fan Page
- Go to the Wall Tab
- Click on the "Settings" button
- Use the drop-down menu for "Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else" to select the default viewable tab
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