Tricked Out Facebook Pages using FBML
Written by: Eileen Lonergan
Thanks to a class that I took with Expand2Web with Don Campbell on Social Media Strategy for Small Business I have learned how to embed FMBL into Facebook Pages. Which means (drum roll please!) that I can now do some very cool stuff with Facebook pages such as: embed a Video, add links to other pages, and create pages that look just like web page. 
Needless to say, I am delighted with the results and send a big thank you to Don!
For the Anne Cain Golf Academy in Amelia Island Florida, I embeded videos of her golf tips into Facebook using FBML, which is Facebook’s answer to HTML. Using some coding I was able to set the YouTube video to auto play, which means the video will play within the Facebook page.
For The Elizabeth Taber Library, another client, I wanted to create a page within their Facebook page to promote a new writing group specifically for women. The library staff had created a beautiful flyer with all of the relevant information, so I simply created a jpg of the flyer and hosted it on my website, then used that url string within the FBML.
Perhaps my favorite Facebook page created with FBML is the welcome page for Not Your Average College Tour. Here I used a screen shot of the homepage, used PhotoShop to add “click to play video”, then hosted the image on my site and added the autoplay code.
I love learning new things and I am excited by the results. Please share your Facebook pages in the comments and let me know if you need any help tricking out your pages!
Good News Bad News:
Bad News – I just found out that FMBL is going away at the end of the year. To the best of my knowledge the pages that have been created will still work, but best keep our eyes on this.
Good News – my friends are rolling out a super cool new application which will be way more fun and amazing than FBML!
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This is my blog and I hope you enjoy it. I try to share tips and tricks that I have learned about WordPress and digital marketing, which hopefully will make your life a bit easier. I have been working on search engine marketing for clients since 2003.
eileen@eileenlonergan.com
October 7th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Nice job Eileen! You make this stuff look sooo easy.
October 7th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
What a nice compliment, thank you!
October 7th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
Great work Eileen!
I like how you’ve set up custom default tabs for these pages, added video, forms and other tweaks that make the business stand out from all the plain old “wall” Facebook Pages out there.
October 7th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
I also love the custom tabs, I forgot to mention that in the article! Thanks again for an awesome class, I learned so MUCH!
October 8th, 2010 at 8:06 am
Hi, Eileen,
Great work – congratulations! This is a wonderful value-added service to offer clients.
Yvonne
October 9th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Appreciate this detailed explanation. Makes me feel better to know that you had to take a course to understand how to facilitate some of the Facebook Business page options. I hate when everyone tells you the stuff is not rocket science. It really isn’t but the instructions they give fall short in allowing the less savvy computer geeks in being able to use the available options.
October 10th, 2010 at 9:03 am
Thanks for your note Myrna. I actually love taking online classes, the amount of info that we need to keep up with can be overwhelming. There is a new design class starting soon, we “meet” once a week for four weeks. Each week you learn something new, have action items for the next week and at the end of the session have a complete site. You can ask questions and get feedback from the other members of the group. http://www.expand2web.com/blog/wordpress-websites-online-training/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Expand2WebBlog+%28The+Expand2Web+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader