FBML used to be the easiest way to make a custom Facebook landing page. Facebook has never supported certain HTML features like image maps, making it difficult to link to different areas on your welcome page. Now they are moving away from FBML and into iframes – which have more possibilities, but still aren’t easy for the typical user to install! If you don’t understand what all of that means, you would probably love the service that I have started using in the past couple of weeks – Assembly Line by Lujure.
Lujure is a service that lets you build custom facebook pages without knowing any code – just drag and drop, then publish to your page! The first step is to make the graphic for your main welcome page – 520px wide is the standard, and you can go up to 2000px tall. Once you have your page graphic, you can go to the Lujure dashboard and upload the background image. Then use their drag and drop interface to add things like clickable hotspots, flash content, a flickr stream, etc. Click on publish and it will show up on your facebook page! Of course you’ll still need to know your way around facebook in order to set the page up as your default landing page, but it makes things a LOT easier.
More and more businesses are using facebook to connect with customers and to stay connected with current customers. Some companies are doing away with the standard website altogether and opting to just use facebook – so you definitely want to have a web presence. A welcome page allows you to greet new visitors and show them immediately what you’re about. And happy customers are likely to share your link with their facebook friends, making it easier to get that coveted word of mouth advertising. You really should have a nice facebook page, and Lujure makes it easy. Lujure has plans ranging from free (one page, one tab) through $195 a month (unlimited pages, unlimited tabs – it’s unlikely a small photography business would ever need this) and most photographers will be fine with either the free or the $5.49/month plan (one page, unlimited tabs). Keep in mind that you also get a nice discount if you pay annually – $53 for the whole year.
Of course you don’t have to do it yourself – not all photographers want to be involved in the tech side of things, or have time to build a page and deal with the installation. I can do both the design of pages and installation on facebook. Installing lujure and the pages you design yourself is $25, if you want me to design the pages for you it is $60 – including the side profile picture. Take a look at Kim Skavnak’s page to get an idea of what you can do with the profile and main picture telling your story! (Keep in mind that if you already ‘like’ Kim, you won’t see her welcome page – you’ll need to click on it on the left side of the page.)
Marie Wally
March 6, 2011 at 5:18 pm //
I went to view Kims welcome page and could not see her page at all? I am on a regular browser. Also I noticed there is a large powered by is there a way to remove that from the pages I really do not want my clients to see that.
admin
March 6, 2011 at 6:05 pm //
Can you see it now? If not, click on the ‘Welcome’ over on the left side – her page is set to be a welcome page for people who don’t already like her.
The lujure part is part of the program that runs the facebook page. They do sell a non-branded one but it’s $195/month. There are other apps that can be used to make the pages as well (north social,etc) but almost all of them do have some sort of branding on them unless you pay a large sum to remove it. Facebook is getting rid of FBML, which was the easiest way to make fan pages.