I design Facebook pages. It makes sense that I’d tell my clients that they NEED to have a snazzy custom landing page, tricked out with all the latest bells and whistles. The truth of the matter is that users of Facebook are accessing the platform more and more via mobile applications. If someone can like a page without ever having visited it because of the like button/like box/or some other social plugin, that person may never visit your page. Where’s the value? The value is in the status update.
When someone navigates to your page that custom landing page is the slick cover of the magazine that attracts people to your brand. It gets us to open it up and check it out. You need to have quality and value, not just great graphic design. We want the information we sign up for to be worth our time. If all you have to offer is contests and fluff, why do you think people will like your page? Give them something more.
It’s not just the custom landing page. There are so many applications you can load into your page like Twitter, YouTube, UStream, LiveStream, LinkedIn, newsletter signup, contests, ecommerce like Payvment, and more. But what most people don’t realize is that because of the high level of mobile Facebook usage, many people have no clue that you even have those fancy apps. They simply can’t see them.
See these examples of how people see your page via iPhone:
First View
The first view is through Facebook’s own application. I can only see the wall, info, and photos tab. You would have no idea what their custom landing page looks like, much less know they even have one. All the other applications they load in can’t be seen through this view at all.
Second
So if you decide to access Facebook through your Safari browser, you see the mobile optimized version. Not much better.
Final
The third option is the desktop version in Safari. Do you know how long it takes to view a page in this mode?I’m too lazy to count all the steps in both modes. Let me tell you, it’s a pain. Most people don’t even know that they are missing something much less that they can alter how they view it.
All that money people are pouring into their social plugins may not even be worth it. Think about it before you spend the money.
So, what I’m trying to say is, Yes, you can have lots of fancy bells and whistles. You can do it yourself or pay a consultant such as myself but just because you have all that cool stuff, doesn’t mean your audience will ever see it. *Spend money on the right stuff*.
What you discuss here is really a back to basics rule of social media. You need to add value. Status updates are best when they provide useful or interesting information. As you say, not just fluff. I’m in the process of setting up my new Facebook page, facebook.com/GinaForSupervisor. It’s currently a work in progress as we’re creating custom tabs.
Thanks for your advice, and thanks for all you do.
I just keep coming back to the word value. Is it of value?
Thanks for reading! Good luck, Gina!