Facebook and Social Startups Meme.

Default landing pages are a great way to send out an introductory message to anyone visiting your Facebook fan page for the first time. Research has showed that having a default landing page, with a “Become a Fan” call to action drastically increases the visitor to fan conversion ratios.

In this guide,we will walk you through setting up a default landing page for your Business’s Facebook fan page.

Step 1: Add Static FBML to your Page

In order to create a default landing page, you would have to add a special Facebook app called Facebook Static FBML application. This application will add a box to your Page in which you can render HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language) for enhanced Page customization.

In order to add the application, just go to the Static FBML app page. Once on the Static FBML page, click on the “Add to my Page” on the left menu bar, just below the FBML icon image. The “Add to my Page” link is highlighted in the image above. Clicking the “Add to my Page” link would open up a pop-up which would allow you to select the fan page for which you want to create the default landing page.

Step 2: Create a Default Landing Page for your Fan Page

Once the Static FBML application is added to your page, you would have to create a new custom landing page. For this, you would have to edit your Fan page, which could be done by clicking on the “Edit Page” link on the left menu bar, just below your Fan page icon image. The “Edit Page” link is highlighted in the image below.

Once on the Edit Settings page, scroll down to find the FBML application. Click on “Edit” link of the FBML application. A new page opens up that allows you to write the code for the new default landing page that you want to create.

It is a good practice to have the same name for the tab, as is the name of your Fan page. So since our fan page is Startup Meme, we named our tab to be “Startup Meme”. You can provide the name of the tab in the “Box Title” text box. The FBML text area allows you to specify the code for the default page.

We want to achieve two things with our default landing page. Firstly, we want our visitors to become fans, and secondly we want to provide them with a way to quickly invite their friends to the fan page as well. The first objective is achieved by having an image on the page that calls our visitors to action i.e. asks them to click on the “Become a Fan” button at the top. For the second objective we have added an “invite friends” form on our default landing page.

The code to add the “invite friends” form is provided below, just copy and paste it in the FBML text area of your Static FBML app.

 

1. <fb:request-form
2. action="start.htm"
3. method="POST"
4. invite="true"
5. type="Startup Meme Network"
6. content="StartupMeme is an unofficial Facebook Guide – a place for tips, how-tos and the latest information about Facebook for web users, brands, marketers and charities. Join me on this Startup Meme!
7. label=’Check out Startup Meme – the unofficial Facebook guide!‘ />
8. ">
10. <fb:multi-friend-selector
11. showborder="false"
12. actiontext="Invite your friends to Startup Meme – the unofficial Facebook guide!"
13. exclude_ids="<c:out value=’${appUserFriends}’ />"
14. />
16. </fb:request-form>

 

The text highlighted (emphasized) in the code above shows Startup Meme specific display messages. Don’t forget to change this text according to your liking. Once you have pasted this text in the FBML text area, just click on save changes.

Step 3: Add the Landing Page tab on your Fan Page

Once you have created the default landing page, you would have to add a tab that takes your users to this page. In order to do this, once again edit your fan page, by clicking on the “Edit Page” link on the left menu bar, just below your Fan page icon image. Once on the Edit Page, scroll down to the Static FBML application and click on the “Application Settings” link. This link is just besides the “Edit” link that you clicked in order to create your default landing page in step 2. Clicking the “Application Settings” link would pop-up a window. Within this window, click on the “add” link besides the tab label. The link is also shown in the image below. This would add the tab for the default landing page on your Facebook fan page.

Step 4: Give the Landing Page a prominent place on the Tab Bar

The landing page is now created, all you need to do is to give it a prominent place on your Tab bar. At first you might even not see the tab for the landing page. If that is the case, you would have to click on “>>” tab to see your landing page tab. You could just drag and drop your landing page tab at an appropriate place. We recommend to display the landing page tab, after the discussions tab.

Step 5: Making the page, a Default Landing page for Non-Fans

Once the page is created, you should make it a default landing page for all facebook users, who are not a fan of your page. It makes sense, because if these users directly go to the wall of your fan page, they might interact with your content – but might forget to become a fan, which is what matters most to you. In order to make this page a default landing page for non-fans, edit your fan page once again. You can do so by clicking on the “Edit Page” link on the left menu bar, just below your Fan page icon image. You have already performed this task in step 2 and step 3. Once on the edit page, you would have to edit your wall settings. In the wall settings, change the option “Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else:” from wall to your newly created page. The image displayed below shows this setting.

Final Remarks:

Congrats, you have successfully created a default landing page for your facebook fan page. The page has a custom call to action button displayed at the top asking visitors to become a fan of your page and a invite friends form, that allows your visitors to invite their friends to your page.

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