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August 28, 2009 :: 11:53 am :: Being a Small Business, DIY and Craft Tutorials :: 46 commentsWall, Info, Photos, Discussions, Boxes. Those default tabs on Facebook Business Pages are great, but oh so limiting don’t you think? Sure, you want all your standard business info on your fan page. But what about that special content, like “where else you can go to buy my supercoolawesome stuff”?!
Right, because I recently started working with a few local retailers and am SO excited about it that I’ve wanted to spread the word everywhere: on my blog, on Twitter and of course on Facebook, to name a few! So I added a Retailers page to my blog, updated my Profile in my Etsy shop, tweeted it out and made a few Facebook status updates about the news. And this week, I added a new tab on my fan page called “Where to Buy”!
Here’s a tutorial on how you too can add a custom tab to your very own fan page!
You’ll need:
- A Facebook Business Page (aka fan page) of your own
- If you don’t yet have a fan page, see my previous post entitled Promote your Etsy shop on Facebook for assistance or try one of the many other fine tutorials that have been written since!
- Some very basic HTML knowledge…or simply the ability to copy other people’s HTML code!
- Here’s a page from w3schools.com with four very basic HTML tags that make a perfectly good start for HTML newbies! If you’re feeling more adventurous, use the menu of the left side of their site to find out how to make bulleted or numbered lists, basic tables…and more! Hack away, no harm done!
Ready?
1) Add the Static FBML application to your page
- Go to the Static FBML application page and click “Add to my Page”.
- Tell Facebook which of your fan pages you want to add the Static FBML app to. Click Add to Page. Then click the Close button.
2) Go back to your fan page and open the newly added Static FBML application
- I usually access my fan page either through a bookmark that I’ve added to my browser, or through a shortcut I’ve created on my Facebook profile page. Below is a screenshot of the latter.
- Once you’re on your fan page, click Edit Page.
- You’ll see a list of editable stuff for your page. Scroll to the Applications section. (1) Click on the pencil icon to display the edit menu and (2) Click the Edit link.
3) Create content for your new tab
- Clicking the Edit link above will take you to a simple form page where you can edit (1) the title of your tab and (2) the content to be displayed in your tab. You’ll notice that I’ve used some really basic HTML tags in the FBML box in order to format how my content is displayed. If you don’t know any HTML, you could just enter plain text but everything will just show up as, well, plain text and in a single paragraph — no line breaks, no bullets, nada.
- When you’re done, click (3) Save Changes.
- Facebook will confirm that your changes are saved. Then, click on the name of your fan page to return to its front page.
4) Tell Facebook to display your new tab, dammit
- When you get back to your fan page, you’ll see that your new tab is…nowhere to be found. WHAT?! Not to worry. Click on (1) the + icon to add a new tab, and (2) select your newly created tab — in this case, “Where to Buy”.
- You should now see something like this, where your new tab is displayed, content and all, alongside all your other tabs:
You did it! You did it! Jump up and down, call your mother, tell your friends and holla at ya fans! Your new tab is in town!
Addendum:
Waaaaaait a quick second. Say you come back to your page the next day and WTH?! Your new tab is M-I-S-S-I-N-G. Freak out! No no, don’t do that. This just means that your other tabs have momentarily crowded it out. Just click on (1) the double arrow >> icon, and (2) select your previously “missing” tab. Note that you can shuffle the order of your tabs around just by clicking on the tab you want to move and drag it to your desired position, holding your mouse button down while you do this. Hooraaaay, happiness returns.
Feeling fancy?
To take it to the next level, or for more ideas and information, try these helpful articles:
- Customizing Facebook Pages with “Static FBML” application by HyperArts
- Static FBML: Not Every Facebook Fan Page Needs An Application by Snipe.Net
I hope this was helpful! If you have any other tips to share, I’d love to hear your inside scoop!
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hi, I’m keen to get some extra bespoke tabs on my FB page but when I click your link to StaticFBML I don’t see a “add to my page”. I just get the ” add to my pages favourites”. Any ideas? your help would be much appreiciated, regards, Lucy
Hi Lucy, I’m not sure why you wouldn’t see that link. Might you have added the app to your page before? All I can think of is to go to your Edit Page view and see if it’s there. Or…you could try Static FBML 2 at http://apps.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=7146470109 maybe?
thanks Eleen but still can’t find that link. I’ve looked at my edit page but not there. all i can do is add it as a favourite. Back to the drawing board!! Thanks for your time though Lucy
hello Eleen. I did it!! First I thought I had ruined everything by becoming a personal account rather than a business page….phew!! Still not sure how I did it by I updated my profile that then allowed me to view that “add to page” link. Found a discussion here too http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=4949752878#/apps/application.php?id=4949752878&v=app_6261817190
Hooray! Glad you figured it out, and thanks for sharing that link!
Hi Eleen,
Thank you so much for posting this guide on here! You have no idea just how much it helped me! You’re a star!
Johan Roode
Thank you sooooooo much, spent ages trawling the internet for some help on this.
I did actually jump up and down when it worked
Thanks again!!
FD :)
Hi,
Thanks for this post. I was able to create a new tab, but I have no html clue whatsoever. I need to enable my fans to post comments on this new tab – leave reviews actually (with ratings possibly). Can you or anyone help with this?
Thanks so much!
you are now my hero – I will share your site everywhere – wis ther was easier way to learn how to customize facebook! thanks for the great directions!!!
WOW! My web genius friend found this and it helped me make our Real Estate Company a little more HIP! THANKS
Thank’s a million for this info. I’ve been trying to figure this out for ages. The time I have wasted getting no where…. Oh I don’t even want to think about it. I’m rolling my sleeve up as I’m writing this :-)
Thank you!
Birgitte
Hello,
Is there a way that i can import javascript files in this FBML box? Can i execute a js function?
I am trying to develop a form in this box which takes an email address and sends it to our server.
I want this box to work like a Ajax based widget. Im not sure though if thats possible.
Amit
Great so easy and it works:)Thanks
Thank you for the great tip and tutorial! Love it! So easy to add and now I am off to add more tabs! THANK YOU!
Use the form below to grade our picks and also tell us what we might have missed. ,
is there a way to have the tab you create become the default tab that shows up when someone goes to your page? for instance, I created a “welcome” tab and would like that to display first instead of the “wall” tab. any help would be appreciated.
thanks!
please disregard my last comment, I was able to figure it out!
sorry for another comment, but thank you very much for your tutorial!…great info!
Hi Eleen,
Loved this post. Thanks so much and took me forever to figure out how to get our promotional copy up on a custom tab. Your tips really helped. I spent hours on Facebook trying to find a support email. Do you have any suggestions on how to get help with Facebook support?
FYI, not sure if you heard but a few weeks ago a company finally came out with a neat tool on Facebook to help us get our shop onto a Facebook tab. They are called ShopTab. Anyway I was able to get in beta but just saw they made a post and might be worth looking into. I think the link to their App is http://www.facebook.com/shoptab
Thanks,
Mich
“steve says:
November 5, 2009 at 2:12 pm
is there a way to have the tab you create become the default tab that shows up when someone goes to your page? for instance, I created a “welcome” tab and would like that to display first instead of the “wall” tab. any help would be appreciated.
thanks!
steve ”
Steve,
Could you please tell me how you do that? Is it the “link to this tab” option on the Edit Fan Page? And do you need to do anything else?
hey nicole,
if you go into edit page/wall settings there is an drop down there to change the “Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else.” that is where you can set what tab shows up for people coming to your page that aren’t a fan yet.
:)
I add the app that lets you add a tab, how do I change the name of the tab? Now it just says boxes….
I have been trying for two days to make a new tab on the facebook page where i work. THANK YOU!!! for leading me through it.
I attempted to follow others’ instructions, which were similar to yours, but couldn’t find the page to edit the new tab. You led me straight to it!
Thank you so much!!
Eleen:
THANK YOU so so much! This was incredibly helpful. Ineeded to figure this out Today and you saved my life!
Here’s to hopefully having me repay the favor sometime!
I’m gonna go follow you on Twitter right now!
I am flipping ecstatic!!! It worked! I have been searching for the past three days for custom tabs applications and options and had found the Static FBML and had added but had no earthly idea what to do with it because there really were not any instructions…low and behold there is an angel…YOU! Thank you soo much for taking the time to share this with others! I am computer ILLITERATE and your instructions were so complete and concise that even I could accomplish this! :)
Thanks for the info! Very well written and easy to follow.
I have been looking for the article for a long time. It has many information i need. Thanks a lot.
Great! Nice info found here :) Facebook is being discussed everywhere now a days. But, today Facebook is being used massively by the webmasters too for getting traffic. I would like to tell you that I have developed a new method with the help of which you can make 5000 friends in 7 days only and can make 50000 fans in 30 days. This method makes me $500 EVERYDAY for making money. Hope you will like it! Only 9 copies has left. It is 100% FREE. I would like to subscribe to your blog, can you please send me its url at my email ID? Thanks!
You’re soooooo fabulous!! I totally agree with the other comments here that your instructions are clear, intuitive and easy to follow and accomplish, plus the sincerity, humor and joy that come out in your posts make it all so fun and productive!! Thank you very, very much.
Hey,
Very interesting article …
We built a light weight app specifically for the purpose of enabling ‘Welcome Tab’.
Check it out here – http://apps.facebook.com/welcometab
I will really appreciate if you include a mention to it in your article.
We are going to add some serious level of analytic to this app + other planned apps so that owners can see how much traffic they are getting.
Thx
Rajat Garg
Thank you so much for this information! My boss thinks I’m super tech-savvy now because I made our facebook page look great. Thanks so much for your help!
I have seen some business that have created a “website” tab. When you click on it, it actually shows a large photo of their homepage which acts as a link.
Would you be able to explain how to do this? Thanks!
hi eleen,
i m unable to find the edit option. please help me
Thanks for the info – I have a business Facebook page but didn’t know about adding custom tabs!
Cheers
It’s an awesome idea to make a Facebook pages for a business these days- there’s just so much traffic out there!
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Hey I just wanted to stop by and tell you how ECSTATIC I am about this and having a BUY NOW button on my facebooooook!! I also would like to tell you how great and witty the way your explained it was, SO easy, SO funny and thank you SO MUCH!!! Well done! Now, I just have to figure out how to put the code on my actual website!!
Great Info Eleen. Thanx ALOT. My Job Was On The Line
there’s also another easy way to do it and you can also add some designs. http://socialmediafunk.com let’s you do it. fairly easy to use too.
Facebook no longer allows page administrators to add the Static FBML application. For a nice replacement that will support most of the FBML you may already have – try this http://www.facebook.com/revealtab
I cant add static FBML. Is that becuase Facebook has changed? If so do you know how I can do that now?
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