New Facebook Fan Pages Easier for Social Media Marketing

If you are an owner or admin of a Facebook page, you would certainly have noticed the significant changes that the social networks are about to introduce regarding Fan Pages. The change is going to take effect from the 11th of March but business and page owners have been invited to introduce is and use it since mid-February. In essence, this change makes Fan Pages very similar to personal profiles which in turn allows for a much easier use for any company or level of Facebook expertise.

Facebook’s official release describing the general functionality is great and allows people a quick and comprehensive insight into the new possibilities.

As this is a rather long post, you will also be able to download it from here: New Facebook Fan Pages Easier for Social Media Marketing.

FBML (Facebook Markup Language) is gone. Now developers can use iFrames. This means, that people would be much more flexible when creating and coding their personalized “tabs”. This allows programmers to play around in Facebook like never before.

We will be using Social Media Experts: Explicata Facebook page as an example (check it out and Like us on the way)

Here is what a new Facebook Fan Page looks like:

There are two things which are different. There are no more tabs on the top of the page. They have been moved on the left hand side of your page. And second, there’s a trip of photos on the top of the page.

This will be challenging for some owners, however, as we already said, the layout is quite similar to that of personal profiles, so the transition would be rather simple.

Page admins can change the order of the links by clicking “More” and then “Edit” on the bottom of the drop down list. You can reorder by drag and drop or you can even remove links. Make sure that the ones you use most are conveniently located where you would be able to find them.

There is also a new header with pictures on the top of the page. It resembles that of personal pages. Further, if you tag 5 photos with the page they will be the one showing up on the strip. This will allow you to do what you were able to do in personal profiles, ie ordering pictures through tagging to form different collages(see some example here). You can also determine whether or not you want a certain picture up there and you can click the X at the top right-hand corner of the photo to remove it from the strip. The picture, however will remain in the photo album. If you want to bring the picture back, you can do so by going to “Edit Page”, select “Profile Picture” and chose “Unhide All” from the bottom of the window.

Further, on the left you will see that the fan base will just be displayed as a number, followed by the “Featured Likes”, which are 5 other Fanpages that you, as an admin of the page, have identified as “Favorites”. You can include the pages of other brands or corporate accounts that you favor. You can order these ones as well by going to the “Edit Page”, select “Featured” and then click “Featured Likes”. The easiest way to do so is to go on the page you would like to include and search for (ctrl + F) the button called “Add to my Page’s Favorites”. A pop up will allow you to chose the pages you are interested in. As for the followers’ pictures, they have been moved to the right hand side showing not only the users but also their relationship with the page. If friends like your Fan Page, that will be noted there along with the pages that your Page shares with your fans.

Finally, the size of the Fan Page Profile picture has changed to 180×540 px (w x h). This allows you to include a much bigger picture (similar to a banner) and thus, control (ie be present) on a much larger area of the page. You can change it whenever you want, to promote promotions for example.

This is as far as appearance goes. But there are more functional changes ahead.

Wall posts are shown differently. Before you could sort information based on who posted it (users only; users + admins; admins only).

Now, you can only choose between two: Everyone or Explicata

You can change the default settings on this feature by going to “Edit Page” and chosing “Manage permissions”. You will see this:

Whatever you select here will be what users will see when they enter in your Fan Page. If you chose “Only Posts by Page” your posts will appear in chronological order. If you chose “Everyone” however, post by visitors will also be visible. Those will further be arranged not by chronological order but in order of popularity, making the most recently commented one appear first.

Although this might be a bit of a hustle at first in reality it will provide you and your readers a clear insight as to “what is hot” right now. Take advantage of this feature to follow trends and preferences, in a way you were not able to do before. Nevertheless it might be a bit chaotic at first. However, as an admin, if you go to “Admin View” on the left you will be able to see this:

You can choose between “Most recent” (both with respect to the Page publication and those of users). This will help you respond and moderate conversations and making sure you have not missed something important. If you go to “Hidden posts” you will see posts which are NOT visible on your wall. This would be a place where flagged messages (either spam or any which do not comply with the Moderation Blocklist) will appear so that you can decide how to deal with them. You can restore any messages that have been misplaced there by clicking X next to the post and select “Unhide post”

Go to “Edit Page” and then “Manage Permissions”.

This is a very Fan Page focused feature which allows admins to automatically pre moderate user posts, ie it provides a tool to review content prior to publication. Thus, you can avoid abusive, insulting or unrelated post being posted on your wall. When you do include words in the Block List keep in mind that you do not want to completely forbid users of posting by making your list too elaborate. Further, users can write in any language they see fit making it a challenge to be prepared for all.

If you go to Edit Page and “Your Settings” you can see two new long-waited for features.

Under Edit Page and “Your Settings”, you can now do two things that many people have been asking for for a long time.

Email notifications can now be sent to you when comments and posts are introduced to your Fan Page. The second new feature allows you to switch around the way you like things on Facebook. You would, by default, act on your own Fan Page as the page, and like and comment on other people’s walls and pages as your private self (personal profile). To switch back and forth with this feature you can either enter this section and change it or go to the Fan Page and find on the right-hand side “Use Facebook As YOUR PAGE NAME HERE. ”

Or you can use your Account tab on the top right and chose Use Facebook As Page. Then a list of your administered pages will pop up for you to chose which page you would like to react through.

From the moment that you chose to act as your Page until you switch settings again you will be responding as a Page. You can post, comment on other pages and like them. Do not be tempted to

spam. It is only going to drive users away from your pageyou’re your efforts and tactics might actually turn against you. However, you cannot comment on people’s walls as a Page.

There is another very important change in the Facebook Pages. When you switch to using the social network as a Page you will notice on the top right, that the toolbar changes.

Now, it shows you the last people who have become Fans of your webpage and in the Notifications tab it keeps you updated on the new posts on your site.