One question I often get from Facebook Page owners is how to create custom tabs for Business Pages.
In case you didn't know, custom tabs can be added to your Facebook Business Page to run contests or promotions, add contact forms, create sales pages, landing pages, about us pages, showcase products, share Twitter feeds, showcase Pinterest boards, and more. There are a large number of companies that offer apps which you can install on your Page with different functionality and at a wide range of different prices.
How to decide which app is best for your Facebook Page
To decide which app will work best for you, take a look at:
- Your budget
- The number of Fans (Likes) you have
- The number of Pages you manage
- Your goals
- Your technical knowledge (e.g., can you use html coding?)
- Whether you need templates or you can create images from scratch
- Which features are important to you and which are not necessary
Some stuff you should know
- Like Gate allows your custom tab to display different content to those who are not fans and to those who are fans.
- Contest rewards skill; winners are determined based on skill, popularity or judging.
- Sweepstakes awards winners at random; winners are determined based purely on chance.
- Tab App icons: You have a total of 12 visible tabs on your Page which are located right under your Cover image. The first tab is always the picture tab and you can't customize it or move it around. You can change the images (icons) for the other 11 tabs by clicking on the pencil icon and uploading an image (111 x 74 pixels). You can move the order of those tabs as well.
- Width of Page tabs for the new Facebook Timeline is 810 pixels. Depending on which app you use, if you want to create an image (for a header as an example) you should keep it under 810 pixels wide.
- REMEMBER: If you're going to run contests, sweepstakes or promotions on your Page, please make sure to follow Facebook terms and respect the laws governing social media promotions.
Here are some companies which offer apps you can use to create contests and/or custom tabs. These companies may offer additional services but for the purpose of this article, I will focus mainly on their custom tab features.
1. Pagemodo
Contests options:
No, but they offer templates for the creation of Coupon tabs with a Pro Package.
Like Gate:
Yes, but this feature requires a Pro Package.
Templates:
Yes, there's a really nice selection of templates.
Ease of use:
Really easy to use.
Flexibility:
Although the templates provided will probably satisfy most users, there's not that much flexibility in terms of customizing the layout of a template. You can start from scratch if you're able to use html coding and create your own custom tab and layout.
Pricing:
Free
Some features included:
- 1 Fan Page
- 1 Tab
- Cover Photos
- Builder & Hosting
Most Popular $13.25/month
Some features included:
- 3 Fan Pages
- Unlimited Tabs
- Cover Photos
- Builder & Hosting
- No Pagemodo Footer/Watermark
- Pro Templates
- Like Gates
- Google Analytics
- No Powered By
- 2 Team Members
- Forum + Premium Email
Other packages: $6/month, $33/month
2. Tabsite
Contests options:
Yes, for Gold and Platinum members.
Like Gate:
Yes, available for premium memberships.
Templates:
Yes.
Ease of use:
I found Tabsite a little confusing to use at first. There's a lot going on a page with no clear direction on how to create your tabs. I suggest you first visit the help page to learn how to use these tools.
Flexibility:
The layout is very flexible, simply drag and drop your widgets or images. Since the free version only includes 4 widgets, the premium versions will give much more flexibility on what you can do with your Tabs.
The Powered by Tabsite will show on the top right corner with the free version which I find pretty intrusive. If you don't want to have it on your tab, you'll have to get the paid version.
Pricing:
Free
Some features included:
- 2 tabs with ads
- Friendshare app
- Unlimited likes
- 4 widgets (Content text editor, Image, Map and email sign-up form widgets)
- 2MB storage space for your images and content
Most popular Gold Plan $19/month or $190/year
Some features included:
- 11 Tabs
- No ads
- Unlimited likes
- 21 widgets
- 9 engagement apps
- 250MB storage space for your images and content
Other packages: $10/month, $30/month
3. Shortstack
Contests options:
Yes, contests features are available for paying members. Free accounts have access to the Sweepstakes feature.
Like Gate:
Yes.
Templates:
Yes.
Ease of use:
This is one of my favorite app from this list. Straightforward with clear and easy to use instructions.
Flexibility:
Shortstack has enough flexibility in design, layout and options to achieve most of your needs.
Pricing:
Free
Some features included:
- 2000 Likes
- Unlimited pages
- Sweepstakes
- Fan gating
- Access to all widgets
- Photo galleries
- Videos
- Theme and template galleries
- Viewable on mobile
- Share function
Most Popular $30/month or $300/year
Same as Free plus...
- 25,000 Likes
- No footer logo
- Contests
- Entry storage/data collection
- Export contest entries
- Custom app icons
- Form integrations
- White labels
- Priority support
- Add more than 10 apps to any page
- Multiple user collaboration
Other packages: $75/month, $150/month, $300/month
4. Woobox
Contests options:
Wide variety of contest, sweepstake and promotion features with paid membership.
Like Gate:
Yes.
Templates:
No.
Ease of use:
This is fairly easy to use with plenty of options to help make your life easier but it includes a lot of steps to setup your tabs. The help guide is nicely done using Sliderocket presentation slides which is great for visual people like me. There's also help features directly within the dashboard.
Since there are no templates to get you started, you'll have to make sure to plan your tabs visually before creating them. This means that you'll need a photo editor as well to create your tabs.
Flexibility:
There are a lot of options but the layout is pretty restrictive in terms of customization unless you create your own tabs using HTML coding. You can preview what your tab will look like before you upgrade your account which I found to be a nice feature.
Pricing:
Free
APPS included
- HTML Fangate
- Twitter Tab
- Instagram Tab
- Pinterest Tab
- YouTube Tab
$29 per month or $299/year for one Business Page
- 20,000 likes
- Unlimited promotions
Apps included
- Sweepstakes
- Coupons
- Photo Contests
- Video Contests
- Instant Win
- Polls
- Pin To Win
- Deals
- Group Deals
- Rewards
Other packages: $15/month, $49/month, $99/month, $249/month
Other Apps you may want to check out
Wildfire Basic Promotions $5 + .99 cents per day
Appbistro Various prices
Rafflecopter Free-$59/month
Since Facebook removed the option to choose where visitors could land on your Page when they launched the new Timeline, it's much harder to get traffic to visit custom tabs unless you have a worthwhile incentive or a catchy app icon.
Also, keep in mind that very few people (fewer than 2 percent) return to a Page after Liking it. They will usually consume your content directly from their own newsfeed and not from your Page.
Unless you promote your custom tabs, most users will never see them so make sure that you take that into consideration when deciding how much you should invest on your custom tabs.
Note: One of the most effective ways to send visitors to your tabs is probably to invest in Facebook ads since it allows you to direct people who click on your ad to any URL of your choice including your custom tabs.
Image Source: peasap via Compfight