We’re just a few days away from Facebook switching to the new page design and one of the biggest opportunities for the new business pages is the use of apps. While apps are nothing new to Facebook pages, they gain new prominence with the new timeline format.
Underneath the cover image on your page, you have three buttons that you can customize and use a call-to-action for your content.
(Your photos button cannot be changed.)
I hinted at some of these ideas last week, but I wanted to dive in a little bit further to show you how you can implement these on your Facebook page.
Let’s look at some of the strategic ways you can use apps in the featured button area to drive action on your Facebook page.
1. Encourage email sign-ups.
If you have an email list, you should always look for opportunities to encourage people to sign up for it.
And Facebook is the perfect place to entice people to get more information from you.
Most of the major email marketing providers offer an App to make it easy for you to integrate your sign-up form with your Facebook page. Here are links to the Apps for some of the most popular email marketing providers:
If you don’t have an email list in place, use this as an opportunity to start building one.
And, if you’re not sure which email marketing provider to choose, check out this run-down of two of my favorites.
2. Showcase upcoming events or activities.
The “Events” page is one of the default buttons for your new Facebook timeline. This is a perfect place to promote your upcoming fundraiser, webinar, sale or customer appreciation event.
However, the button will only take you to the events page. When users click on that button, they will see all of your upcoming events. If you want to promote a certain event, it would be important to do so by customizing the thumbnail for that button as Heart Ministry Center does on their page.
If you need help changing the thumbnail, check out this post for instructions on how to do that.
Also, if you don’t have an upcoming event, swap out the Events button for another option. Otherwise, when users click on that button they will see that you have no upcoming events.
3. Promote your blog.
If you have a blog, you can encourage people to check it out right from your Facebook page.
The good news is that the Networked Blogs app makes this super easy. It pulls in your RSS feed and links to all of your recent blog posts. It even gives users the ability to subscribe to your posts and share your content on social networks right from Facebook.
Pretty slick, huh?
4. Highlight your videos.
If you create a lot of videos, you can breathe new life into them by highlighting them on your Facebook page.
Vimeo has their own app that allows you to pull in your videos from their platforms onto your page. If you use YouTube, Involver has an excellent free app that creates a slick page for all of your videos.
5. Feature a Fan of the Week.
Selecting a Fan of the Week can be a great way to highlight your customers and engage your fans.
This free Fan of the Week App automatically selects a fan who has interacted with your page in the last week. You can give this fan even more prominence by adding this app to your featured buttons and using the fan’s photo as the thumbnail for the button.
6. Get feedback from fans.
I’m a big fan of getting feedback from your customers. While you can certainly get feedback on your Facebook wall through individual posts, you can call attention to your feedback request by promoting through one of your featured buttons.
If you want to ask
poll your audience for feedback on a single question, you can install this Polls Tab or Polldaddy Polls app to your page.
Or, you can embed an entire survey into your page using apps from SurveyMonkey or SurveyGizmo.
7. Highlight a promotion or contest.
Promotions and contests are a great way to drive engagement on your Facebook page and interest in your products or services.
There are a number of apps to help you run promotions or contests, but EasyPromos is a great option because it’s easy to use and your first promotion is free. After that, it’s only $15 per promotion, which is a more cost-effective option than other apps.
Wildfire is another promotion builder app that is $5 per promotion, plus $.99 per day, which isn’t a bad price if you run occasional campaigns.
8. Showcase a product, service or special offer.
Whether you have a free ebook, product or a service that you want to highlight, you can use your Facebook buttons to call attention to it.
Involver has a great free app for building your own HTML page that you can use to promote your item using the image of your choice. Simple upload a jpeg file and set it up to link to your designated page on your website. It’s simple, free and you don’t have know coding language to set it up.
What Else?
Using these apps will get you well on your way to create a stellar page that your fans will love. However, these tips just scratch the surface of what’s possible through the use of apps.
What apps are you using on your Facebook page? What ideas would you add to this list?
Image credit: Johannes Fuchs
4 replies on “8 Essential Ways to Use Apps on Your New Facebook Page”
Bless you, Laura, I needed this.
Awesome! So glad you found it useful. 🙂
Hey, businesses! Notice none of the numbered suggestions are “Put up static information that doesn’t include your email address and never log in again.” *grumble potential wedding vendors grumble…*
So true! It’s a shame that so many businesses leave their Facebook pages dormant.