I was always impressed with the fan page of Chris Guillebeau’s The Art of Nonconformity [his blog]. It was one of the first few fan pages that used the power of Custom tabs in Facebook Pages. What I loved about this fan page was that it first loads the Welcome Page for those users who aren’t fan at the moment. Check out the page (link mentioned above) and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Lets find out that how one can add Custom Tabs on Facebook Fan page.
1. Go to Static FBML application
This is the application that helps in creating the custom tabs. This application renders HTML & FBML (Facebook markup language), so pretty much gives enough control to the user to customize the page the way they want. We’ll learn about the customization in upcoming posts.
2. Click on Add to my Page
As soon as you click on this, it’ll give you the option of selecting the page where you would like to add this application. Just select the right page and click on Add to page. Nothing much will happen, click on Close.
3. Edit your tab page
At this point, you should continue editing your fan page. You’ll notice there will be a new application that you would need to edit. This application comes from “Static FBML” and once we click on “Edit” (as shown in screenshot) – we’ll get the ability to customize the tab page.
4. Customize the tab page
As you can see that I’ve used the HTML tags to create a “test” Welcome Page. Of course, you’d need to know HTML or FBML in order to publish anything on these pages. Either you can use a free WYSIWYG web page editor or if you are comfortable with WordPress editor, then simply write your message and then go to HTML editor section and use the code.
5. Adding the tab on the Fan Page
Once you are done with designing your custom facebook tab page. You would want to show it on your fan page. You will need to visit the page as administrator and click on the “+” icon at the right hand side of all the tabs. You’ll see your custom developed page in the list, just select it and you are good to go!
Note : You can always drag and drop the tab to change its position. For e.g. you may want to have this tab as the 3rd tab instead of 7th, then you just need to drag it on the left hand side till it comes to the third position.
6. Loading the custom tab at first
Again edit the page and in that edit the “Wall Settings”. This will give the option of selecting your custom tab page as the “Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else“
Just save the settings and everything should work the way you always wanted. Custom Tabs on Facebook Fan pages is a wonderful feature as its a quick way to introduce about who you are and what services do you offer. If optimized properly, it can be a great resource in your “Social Media Marketing strategy“. I’ll come up with optimization tricks in the next post and to ensure that you don’t miss it – you can subscribe to our newsletter.
