Facebook Fan Page Changes in March
by Dave Maloney Facebook has recently announced some new changes to that will be coming to business' Facebook fan pages next month. We've been asked by a few customers if there's anything they need to worry about; and the answer is no, it's nothing drastic, but all good things.
What's happening to your business' Facebook Fan Page:
Although the change isn't scheduled until March 10, 2011, you have the option to take a tour of what's new and upgrade now if you like. The first things you'll notice are layout changes: a stream of your business' uploaded images display across the top of your page, which randomly shuffle every time the page is reopened or refreshed. The navigation tabs across the top are now gone and have been moved to the left sidebar, where most FB users are used to looking for them. Overall nothing major, but designers might be mad that it looks like they lost a little more page width and the company logo image is now smaller.
Using Facebook as your Facebook Fan Page
One of the best but not so obvious updates to Facebook Fan Pages is the new ability to "use Facebook as [your business page]." Being able to interact and communicate with your online community as your business, rather than your personal profile, is exciting news and will be a great help with online marketing. Businesses will also be able to "Like" other business pages and control how they display their links in the sidebar.
Updates are also coming to any custom tabs you have on your Facebook fan page. While it looks like any existing custom pages you've created will stay (at the moment), the option to make new ones with Facebook's FBML code is being done away with. We'll tell you more about their new and improved version soon, and it sounds like awesome news for online marketing!
For now, go ahead and take the preview tour. Upload a few images if you don't have any, or get rid of ones you don't want to see at the top of your wall page. Consider rearranging your displayed list of "Liked" businesses, or find some to add if you don't have any shown. Finally, your Facebook fan page is starting to feel like a page for your business, and not just a page on Facebook with your company logo!