Managing Facebook Brand Pages Part 1: Custom Tabs

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This year we’ve been doing lots more work on Facebook, from Community Management and Engagement Campaigns to Custom Tab Publishing and Monitoring Page Insights. Many marketers are still learning about Facebook Pages so I’m planning on publishing a few short (& hopefully helpful) guides to Managing Facebook Brand Pages.

This first post covers some of the work we’ve been doing on Custom Tabs. It has been written with marketers in mind so apologies to the more experienced and/or technically savvy. I hope you find it valuable and if you have some experience of your own please do share it.

What is a Custom Tab?
If you want to add content to the left hand menu of a Facebook page you need to create a Custom Tab App. Don’t let the word App alarm you though; there are complex and often expensive apps that integrate with Facebook but you can also publish simple Apps relatively easily.

Simple Facebook Tabs

The following tabs do not integrate with Facebook and are simply normal web content hosted on the client’s normal web hosting. Don’t get me wrong, someone still has to design, template and build the content but once it has been published it is a relatively straight-forward task to add it to Facebook with a simple iFrame and some changes to your page settings.

• NHS Smokefree Generations Campaign
  This is a very simple html page that links through to campaign content on the Smokefree website.
• RAF Benevolent Fund Welcome Page
  This page is actually managed through the website CMS and contains dynamic content pulled from the website blog.
  (Design concept by Reading Room, development by Headscape)

Integrated Facebook Tabs

You can also create more integrated tab apps but they take far longer and involve much more development work. These are the ones that ask users to grant permissions before they can be accessed. They can then be used to pull data from users profiles and to enable status updates, photo uploads and other standard Facebook functionality. It is very important to understand that the development of an integrated app is entirely dependent on what the Facebook API will allow and there are strict guidelines in place to prevent abuse. Here are a couple of examples we have published recently:

• Prostate Action Top Dad Campaign
  Users are able to upload a story and video or view and rate other user’s submissions. The app posts details of user actions to their walls and allows them to invite their friends to participate.
• NHS Smokefree Quit Calculator
  This app mimics tools found on the NHS Smokefree website and enables users to either assess the severity of their addiction or calculate the cost of their smoking habit. Integration is limited to posting to user’s profile.

Third Party Options

It is possible to create integrated apps with more limited budgets using off-the-shelf apps. There are a number of providers out there including Wildfire, Engage and Involver who offer off-the-shelf options to meet some standard needs like prize draws, mailing list signups and Twitter Feeds. There are also some services that offer apps as a value add, for example Just Giving have a donation app and Campaign Monitor the email broadcast service offer a mailing list sign up app.

• RAF Benevolent Fund – Facebook Shop
  To increase sales through the RAF Benevolent Fund’s web shop we used Beetailer to set up a shop tab. Beetailer is an App that simply plugs into Shopify which powers their web shop.
• BUAV No Cruel Cosmetics Campaign Petition
  BUAV wanted to promote petition signups for their No Cruel Cosmetics Campaign We used Engage Sciences to develop a custom version of their off-the-shelf app and customised the front end interface to bring it into line with their other campaign assets.

5 things To Consider when embarking on a new tab

These aren’t exactly Golden Rules but they are useful to keep in mind when considering an app. In no particular order:

1. Apps often need to be supported by advertising
   Many people talk about ‘Viral’ but nowadays Facebook is awash with apps and we feel it is important to give them advertising support to get them off the ground. Unless you have a huge and engaged audience or a very good cause you should consider running a campaign to drive traffic to your app. Facebook ads can be very cost effective and I’ll be covering them on a separate post.
2. Keep It Simple Stupid (or You Get What You Pay For)
   The best Facebook Apps are usually very simple to use and use the Facebook API in the way it was intended. Users prefer simple apps and even simple functionality is complicated to build when a third party system is involved. Off the shelf apps are easier but you still need to keep front-end customisation to a minimum. One thing is sure, the more you ask of an app, the more you need to be willing to pay for it.
3. Don’t forget about secure browsingIf you browse Facebook pages with the ‘secure browsing’ option turned on then from time to time you’ll see an error message when visiting tabs. This is because Facebook has started warning users that they are leaving a secure page (a good thing if you ask me). Not only is this message off-putting to visitors but it also prevents users from interacting with the app. Fortunately the solution is very simple, you just need to place the content on a secure page (i.e. HTTPS). Most sites already have a security certificate but if you haven’t you’ll need to buy one from a company like Verisign.
4. Facebook Apps are not currently supported by Facebook for mobile
   A significant proportion of Facebook page interactions take place using Facebook for mobile. It does not currently support custom tabs so this is worth considering when deciding whether to deploy an app.
5. Last but not least, if you don’t have a strategy don’t bother
   Facebook Tabs can be a expensive waste of time. As with all social engagement you need to set objectives and have a clear strategy for what you are trying to achieve and why your followers should care. I’ve yet to write anything on that subject but in the meantime Mashable have put together some more tips on this subject.