How to create a custom Welcome Page on Facebook

Tweet
Buffer

Tweet
Buffer

Video tutorial on the new way to create custom tabs

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, cause organizations, social enterprises, brands, social media managers, Web publishers, individuals.

Your Facebook Page is up and running, but you want to entice newcomers to become fans. The best way to do that to direct visitors to your custom Welcome page rather than to your Wall as the default landing page for people who are not yet fans.

If you’re with a small nonprofit and have a little HTML knowledge, you can create custom tabs using an application called Static HTML:iframe tabs. (Facebook replaced FBML with support for iFrames earlier this year.)

The video above shows you how to create a simple tab with fan-only content using Static HTML.

Design is key

Remember that just because you know HTML doesn’t mean that you’ll create an effective custom tab.
Design wins over code any day. For example, the Dog Bless You Facebook Page has created an extremely effective welcome tab with just one line of code (an image).

Do you have a custom Welcome Page for your Facebook Page? How’s it working out?John Haydon delivers social web strategy solutions for “the quick, the smart, and the slightly manic.” Curious? Then connect up: Contact John by email, see his profile page, visit the John Haydon blog, follow him on Twitter and Google Plus or leave a comment.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported.

xlance

http://www.widgetsocial.com

share flag

spam
offensive
disagree
off topic

Many businesses now rely on Facebook pages as a primary business channel. As a part-time freelance, I've had a countless number of fan page projects sent to me. I do not consider myself an amatuer in the realm of programming, but, still, I find these jobs a daunting task. At times, the unpredictability nature of the final output (when viewed on different browsers) haunts me in my sleep... ummm ... ok, I admit... not as much as images of my ex, but still. It's beyond one's comprehension how many startup's are looking to have their pages up everyday. I've seen apps that allow users to build pages by asking them to select page contents from a list of available few features, but that means you're restrained to a limited number of options. I'm not even remotely close to being a world-renowned computer scientist, nor am I Richie Rich, but I still want to dedicate myself to doing something for others. And, that is The Rise of the Empire, oh... umm... I meant this site http://www.propplan.com/#!/propplan/home/Facebook... Now, you can stop worrying about the escrow amount or the total cost of your page. Propplan invites you to create page tabs for free. Design your page on Propplan and have it published as a tab on your fan page immediately. To maximize consumer engagement, all elements placed on your page can be assigned a redirect link and animation. Have fun!!!

mohamed adel

thank u for info

Houston Web Design

thanks for sharing this face book video. i will try it for our website. we are branded company , 10 years old. i want to make face book look high. thanks for sharing this..

Avi Kaye

1. Absolutely agree with Cindy - alt text is important (good practice for SEO, as well) :) 2. You can go the other way - instead of using your Facebook Fan page as a way to draw people to your site, just bring your site to them, by adding it to your Facebook page as a tab (MyWebees does exactly that, and it's free too http://bit.ly/mywebees_app)

Cindy Leonard

Thanks for this info, by the way - very helpful!!

An important thing to note, if one decides to do a welcome page with a single image, is to be sure to add the code that provides screen reader software with the ALT text for the image. This is good accessibility practice and doesn't take a whole lot of time. Not to pick on the Dog Bless You welcome page, but it's a good example. The ALT text on the image is "Photobucket" which isn't descriptive of the content. A person using screen reading software won't "get" the text/photo content or the emotional response that the photo conveys. The ALT text should be descriptive of the content, including emotions to be conveyed. A tutorial (single line of code) is here: http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/images/_IMG_ALT.html