UPDATE: Check out Wendy Roe’s articles, “How Photographers Can Use Facebook Timeline” and “Five Facebook Features Every Photographer Should Use” for up to date tips on Facebook for Photographers. Also, don’t miss out on Lawrence Chan’s PDF “The Professional Photographer’s Facebook Strategy Handbook.”
Since the last Photo Life Dispatch was all about Social Media, I thought I’d follow up with a post on some specific enhancements and strategies you can use to increase the effectiveness of your Facebook business page. Facebook recently made several changes to the way it handles Business Pages that allows business owners to interact more directly with our “fans.” The new features can be used to your advantage to help beef up your Social Media strategy.
The most impressive new feature is the ability to navigate and interact within Facebook as your page. This new feature lets you leave comments, “like” other pages and communicate with other users using your page identity not your personal Facebook identity. This is extremely helpful when communicating with clients and making vendor connections. This feature also allows you to setup new forms of notifications for your business page. For instance, you can now see when a new user “likes” your page and you can also be notified via email when a user comments or post to your page (long overdue). This, along with some other enhancements makes keeping your clients “brand aware” even easier than before.
Another thing I thought I would share in this Facebook themed post is how to customize your Facebook landing page. When a user “lands” on your Facebook business page they see the page Wall by default. You can enhance this experience and create a more robust and branded landing page for your visitors with minimal effort. You can see what a custom landing page looks like by visiting our page at http://facebook.com/phindystudios (don’t forget to “like” us while you’re there!)
Here are some quick and easy steps to follow to get you started on your own custom page:
1. Install the Static HTML: iframe tabs App
a. Go to the app page here: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=190322544333196&sk=app_190322544333196
b. Click on “Add to My Page” as seen in the screenshot below.
2. Once you have installed the app, go to your business page and click “Edit Page.”
3. Click on “Apps” in the left navigation.
4. You should now see the “Static HTML: iframe tabs” app in you Added Apps list. Click on Edit Settings to name the new tab whatever you would like. I stuck with the default, “Welcome.”
5. Next we are going to make the new fancy welcome page be the default landing page for your visitors so that it’s the first thing they see (optional). Just click on “Manage Permissions and change the “Default Landing Tab” to your new page. The name will be whatever you selected in step 4.
6. Now you need to make the page have some content! Click on the new tab from your Business Page.
7. Once you get to your new Welcome page you will see an editor, here you can enter your HTML code for what both the new visitors see and the page that people that have already “liked” your page will see (optional).
While building your page keep in mind you will need to limit the width to 758 pixels. This includes images. If you aren’t a HTML ninja and you don’t have a friend or web designer to help you out then feel free to modify the code we are currently using on our landing page. You can download code as a txt file below and you should be able to just copy and paste into your code window.*
Download Phindy Code Text File {link: http://www.mindyandphil.com/temp/phindy_facebook_code.txt” }
*WARNING: you will have to modify the code so that our images and links don’t show up on your page!
Written by Phil Thornton
Phil Thornton and his wife Mindy run one of the most successful wedding photography studios in the Nashville market, Phindy Studios. Before entering the photography industry, Phil was a web developer and internet marketing professional. He contributed to several international web marketing projects for clients ranging from Disney to Madonna. He has also helped develop internet marketing strategies for celebrities such as Clint Black, Martina McBride, and Sarah Evans.