News Feed Optimization and Effective Facebook Posting
Posted by Analisa in Social Media / Inbound Marketing on July 14th, 2010
You may or may not have heard of NFO. It’s similar to SEO, but specific to Facebook. “News Feed Optimization” refers to the strategy for posting content on your Facebook Page, with the goal of having it show up frequently in your fans’ news feeds. While similar to the principles behind Google’s search engine, Facebook’s news feed takes into account several different factors based on your fans, their friends, their interests and more. Or in their words, “affinity, edge, and decay.”
These three factors are part of “EdgeRank” the algorithm revealed by Facebook at their developers conference f8, in April 2010. Digital marketer Chris Sietsema blogs here about these three important pieces that together will determine the visibility of your content on Facebook.
via Teach To Fish Digital
Facebook: The Most Common Static FBML Problems & Their Solutions
Posted by timware in Social Media / Inbound Marketing, Static FBML & FBML, Web Coding on July 12th, 2010
In the course of posting so many Static FBML tutorials on our blog, and then responding to visitors’ questions in the comments, I now have a good idea of what are the most common problems people encounter when either adding Static FBML to their Fan Page or trying to get the tab to look and function as they wish. So I’ve put together this list of common questions and my answers.
NOTE: Check out our popular Static FBML Tutorial and, if you don’t see a solution here or you want more detailed information, check out our Static FBML FAQ which also has links to all our Static FBML tutorials.
NOTE: When I refer to “FBML box” I mean the box/field where you put your CSS/HTML/FBML content:
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FBML Examples from the HyperArts Fan Page
Posted by Analisa in Social Media / Inbound Marketing, Static FBML & FBML on July 12th, 2010
We asked our fans to share links to their favorite FBML examples, and here are a few that we liked and wanted to share. I am going to highlight the “best practices” of Fan page development (BP) that are demonstrated by each example, and also my suggestions for improvements (TRY THIS).
See You There Invitations
(shared by Judene McCalla)
- Best Practice: This simple landing page tab welcomes users to the business page and describes the company and its services/products.
- TRY THIS: Your landing page should explain what your purpose is here on Facebook, and encourage people to become a fan by offering some information or community service or even a product of value. Tell us, what is this Facebook Page all about? What value are you offering to your fans?
- BP: A second tab serves as a mailing list sign-up, a great way to add subscribers to your email newsletter list.
- TRY THIS: Keep it simple and combine these two tabs into one. You can add your mailing list email-form to the welcome tab and make it easy for new visitors to get all of the information in one place.
Tutorial: Embed a Photobucket Slideshow in your Facebook Static FBML Fan Page
Posted by timware in Social Media / Inbound Marketing, Static FBML & FBML on July 8th, 2010
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to embed a Photobucket slideshow in your Facebook Static FBML fan page. We’ve recommended Photobucket in other blog posts as a great option for hosting images online, specifically “activation” images that Facebook requires to load Flash, YouTube videos and Flickr galleries. Photobucket also offers a great selection of ways to display your slideshow. And they look great on a Facebook fan page!
Embedding a Photobucket slideshow in your Static FBML tab uses the same FBML tag that’s used when embedding YouTube videos or slideshows, Flash (SWF) or Flickr galleries.
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You Can’t Import RSS Feeds into Static FBML Tabs – but you can add RSS Tabs
Posted by timware in Social Media / Inbound Marketing, Static FBML & FBML on July 7th, 2010
I’ve been asked a number of times if it’s possible to import RSS feeds — Twitter, Blogs, etc. — into a Static FBML tab. Well, the answer is “No”! You need to use a scripting language — PHP, ASP — to parse an RSS feed, and Static FBML boxes cannot parse any scripting languages, period.
Given this unfortunate (but understandable) fact, how can you add blog feeds, Twitter feeds or other feeds to your fan page? There are basically 3 choices:
- Third-Party Applications, such as Involver or Social RSS;
- Facebook’s “Notes” application;
- Custom canvas page application.
How Social Media Changed Our Business
Posted by Analisa in Social Media / Inbound Marketing on July 6th, 2010
We have been thinking a lot about “social media strategy development” lately, and it feels like a short moment of reflection is in order…
2009 was all about preaching the values of social media. We attended a lot of social “meetups” to meet peers in the industry and learn how people were using social networks in new and interesting ways. We pitched grand social engagement strategies to potential clients.
What did we learn? Convincing people that the social web was the new frontier was not difficult. We had examples, case studies and passion for the cause. But once we had the converts, how could we help them learn to help themselves? I often felt like the proverbial fishing teacher…I wanted to teach my clients to fish on their own, to see them take control of their own online communities and blog with fervor! But at the end of the day, after hearing all of the typical excuses (“we don’t have the time” or “we don’t know what to say”) I was reluctantly handing out the fish.
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The (In)Famous 3-step Method of Requiring Likes & Invites to Make your Facebook Fan Page Viral – Forget About It!
Posted by timware in Social Media / Inbound Marketing, Static FBML & FBML on July 5th, 2010
The legitimate, organic acquisition of fans or followers or subscribers requires patience and, more importantly, the promise of quality content, in whatever form — useful information, discounts on products or services, entertainment, etc. If you consistently publish great content to your fan page, your fan base will grow, steadily and exponentially.
This article isn’t about that; it’s about get-fans-quick schemes…
NOTE: Do not add any script/code to your fan page that requires users to share or invite friends in order to view content! Check out our “Facebook-legal” code…
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Facebook – Vanity URL must be at least 5 characters long. Bug Fix!
Posted by timware in Social Media / Inbound Marketing, Static FBML & FBML on June 29th, 2010
Many users have had a problem obtaining a vanity URL from Facebook after their fan count has reached the 25-fan threshold. Even though the vanity URL they enter exceeds the 5-character limit set by Facebook, they get the error message: “Usernames must be at least 5 characters long.”
A bug report was opened on the Facebook Developer Wiki Bug Tracker on June 24, 2010, and a number of workarounds have been proposed.
Best Online Form Services for Facebook Static FBML Fan Pages
Posted by timware in Social Media / Inbound Marketing, Static FBML & FBML, Web Coding on June 2nd, 2010
In setting up Fan Pages on Facebook for a number of clients, there is often the need for a contact form so that Facebook users can contact a business right from Facebook. I decided to research several of the available online services that offer the creation and processing of forms, to determine which is best for setting up a form on a Static FBML application tab.
The services I checked out offer both free and paid plans. Either plan offers the same options in terms of form features etc. The difference with paid plans is in the number of different forms, or form recipients, or submissions you are allowed.
I looked at three services, Wufoo, Allforms and JotForm. I wanted to see which provided the most choice in terms of the form display/design, form validation (checking that required fields are filled in), and customization of the email the business receives from a form submission.
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How To Add a Contact Form to your Facebook Static FBML Tab with JotForm
Posted by timware in Social Media / Inbound Marketing, Static FBML & FBML, Web Coding on June 2nd, 2010
I researched several online form creation and hosting services and determined that JotForm and Allforms were the best choices for creating a contact form for your Facebook Static FBML tab. This is a tutorial on how to create a contact form using JotForm.
Getting Started with JotForm
There is a free option and a paid option. Both have the same features, but the paid option allows more forms, more submissions, etc. Here’s a comparison chart.
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Static FBML Code Templates for Sale!
