“The only constant is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.” – Issac Asimov

Well, whether you like it or not, change is upon us in the form of Timeline for Facebook Pages. We live in Facebook’s world and they make the rules as long as we choose to reside in it.

I have to admit, at first I had a little anxiety and thought, “What the @#$% are they thinking?! Getting rid of Landing Pages?! Can’t they just leave it alone?!” Once I calmed down and looked into it a little bit though, I saw what is a great opportunity for everyone.

While the default landing page/Fan gates are going away (sort of), page tabs are getting prime real estate right underneath that behemoth of a cover photo (850px x 315px) on our fan pages.  The thumbnail images are larger (117px x 74px) and they are right in the visitor’s eye path when they’re on your fan page.

The way the page tabs were set up before had them with little bitty icons on the left hand side of the page. Unless you drew the visitor’s attention over there somehow or used one of them as a default landing tab then 90% of the time they wouldn’t even click on them.

Now you can set-up multiple page tabs for different purposes and stick them right in front of the user. Pretty cool. One of the things you will need to consider is that you’ll be given three positions out of the four to display whatever tabs you want. The first page tab in the sequence is the “Photos” which you have no control over. The other three tab positions you can shift around to whatever three tabs you want.  You’ll need to choose these wisely but you can also play around with it and see what works best for you.

IMPORTANT: As an admin of your page, you’ll be able to see all of your tabs but the visitor will only be able to see the four up top and eight others that are hidden after pressing the reveal button. 

Another thing about the new page tabs is that we’ll be given more space to work with from WordPress. instead of the 520px iFrame width that we had before, we’ll have a width of 810px to work with which is much more manageable.

Lest I forget, even though the default landing page is going which is a bummer, those who are using is FB Ads can direct people who click-through to a specific tab.  you’ll still be able to make a push to increase your “likes” or make a great offer using to the tools through Fanpage Connect.

Quite frankly, I think this change can really benefit fan page owners.  Create some kick butt page tabs, have a cool cover and profile image, and get creative with your marketing.

Now everything that I mentioned above is just a little bit of what’s going to be available to us. Below are a handful of resources to use for creating your new fan page Timeline and a few examples to inspire you along the away.

Resources:

http://www.learnfacebookpages.com/

https://www.facebook.com/help/pages/new-design

http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/facebook-timeline-for-fan-pages-frequently-asked-questions/ (Hyper  Artsarticle really spells out everything the Timeline can do for Marketers and Business owners alike. Figured since they did such a good job we’ll let them explain it) 

Examples:

https://www.facebook.com/OldSpice

https://www.facebook.com/cocacola

https://www.facebook.com/fordmustang

https://www.facebook.com/USATriathlon

https://www.facebook.com/today

https://www.facebook.com/redbull

Fanpage Connect Users:

We’re in the process of coding and testing an update for the new Timeline.  We plan to release an update for both Pro and Free Versions by next Friday, March 9th.  Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Since the posting this article, we’ve updated the plugin and developed a good work around for Facebook getting rid of the “Add to My Page” link.  If you haven’t done so already, get your updated copy of the Free or Pro version of the plugin and watch the new training videos on how to add page tabs to your fan page. The training videos for the free version is on our Fanpage Connect fan page and the training videos for the Fanpage Connect Pro are on the member’s login area.

Click Here for Fanpage Connect 1.4.3

Click Here for Fanpage Connect Pro 1.2.3

Yep…Facebook did it again.  They’ve changed things up for fan page owners who are using FB applications and made it a little more fun for us all.  Come February 1st, Facebook will be getting rid of App Profile Pages all together.  They’ve already gotten rid of the “Add to My Page” link from all new apps that are created which was so convenient before. While you can embed code into your website that allows people to add an app to their fan page, it makes you wonder sometimes what the FB guys are thinking when it comes to streamlining processes. It can get quite confusing and convoluted for non-techie/non-programmers like myself. Well whatever their reasons may be, we’re playing on their playground for free and we need roll with their punches.

What I have below is the step by step process (with pretty pictures and all) of creating an app, adding the app as a “page tab”, and connecting it to your Fanpage Connect enabled WordPress page.

Just to forewarn you, my perspective on the process is from the non-techie point-of-view so some of you might find a few of the steps elementary.  I wanted to demonstrate this process as clearly as possible because I found some of what was talked about in the Facebook Developer’s explanation a bit confusing.

1) Create App: Just head over to https://developers.facebook.com/apps and click on the “Create New App” button on the top. If you don’t see the that button then you may need to “like” or add the developer app to your page. 

Go ahead through the simple process and put in your “App Display Name” and “App Namespace”. Make sure you don’t include capital letters, symbols or spaces. Underscores are okay. You might have to validate your account by submitting your phone number or credit card number.  Don’t worry this is normal for your first time. 

And then you’ll get this…

Keep this app summary page open and open up a new browser tab for the next step. 

2) Now we want to create your standard Fanpage Connect fan page reveal tab on your WordPress website and then place the app id, app secret, and fan page url into the FPC setting of the page. 

Then copy the WP permalink… 

….so you can place it in the various FB fields. Those fields will be on the App Settings page from the previous app page we created.  The important sections for our purposes are the “Website” and “Page Tab” sections.  As you can see by the picture below, I just placed the permalink in three different locations with one of them being the non-secured version of the link in the “Page Tab URL”. For this demonstration I went ahead and titled our tab name “welcome page tab”. You can label your tab whatever you desire.

3) We want to go ahead and fill in the blanks for the following link with are APP ID and APP URL that are located in the App settings. I threw in what the link would look like based the post example.

http://www.facebook.com/dialog/pagetab?app_id=YOUR_APP_ID&next=YOUR_URL

http://www.facebook.com/dialog/pagetab?app_id=312476905451089&next=https://fanpageconnectdemo.c9.ixwebhosting.com/your-tab-name/

Now just go ahead and stick your newly created link into your browser and you should get a page similar to this:

Choose the Facebook page you want to add the tab to from the drop down box.  

Note: I would recommend saving this link somewhere in case you ever want to use it again.

All you have to do now is make sure your WP page is published and you should be rocking!

Hopefully this helps you out in navigating the convoluted process of adding a page tab. We’ll try to keep you posted on any other “streamlining” changes that Facebook surprises us with.  Until then…

Facebook is at it again with some minor tweaks that help auto-resizing of iFrames. We’ve also added a few tweaks ourselves. Here’s the list:

• Fixed occasional https/http/multi-site confusion when activating the plugin.
• Fixed like/unlike in reload to ensure that a fan page url is defined for edge.create/remove events
• Now enqueueing jQuery!
• Added plugin version number to the global settings page
• Converted the soon to be deprecated setAutoResize function to setAutoGrow for FB iFrame resizing
• Fixed menu width CSS – now 520 pixels!

We’ve got these fixes/updates in the free version and they’re already in the pro version. You can download the free version to the right, at the WordPress Repository, or update when WordPress asks you to.

Active members can always get the latest version of Fanpage Connect Pro in the members’ download area. If you’re not a Pro user, then you should check it out!

With all the changes that Facebook is making, it’s more important than ever to get your application settings correct in order to get your fan page working correctly or ensure that your Facebook social plugins work just right.

Recently, we’ve been getting some emails about the Facebook Comments plugin showing an error “Warning: URL is unreachable“. There’s an easy fix to this, and we’ll show you how…

1. Go to http://developers.facebook.com and from the top menu, click Apps
2. On the left side of the page select the App you want to edit
3. Then on the right side of the page locate and click Edit Settings
4. Under Basic Info section, locate “App Domain” and insert the exact base domain for your site (for example, for www.fanpageconnect.com, you’d just use fanpageconnect.com).
5. Now locate “Site URL” under the Website section and put in there the exact URL of your site (for example: http://www.your-site.com). If your site is using other subdomains other than “www” make sure to make the appropriate change.
6. Click Apply Settings and give it a few minutes – it should be fixed!

One of our Fanpage Connect Pro users found not a bug, but let’s say an “unintended consequence” . Thanks to Tom F, we found that a like button in the fan page was causing some funkiness.

Anyway, we’ve got that fixed and have updated both the free and pro version of the plugin. You can download the free version to the right, at the WordPress Repository, or update when WordPress asks you to.

Active members can get the latest version of Fanpage Connect Pro in the members’ download area. If you’re not a Pro user, then you should check it out!

P.S. We’re working on updates to the pro version already. Registered members can look forward to even more FB Karma functionality, better blog post listings with thumbnail and excerpt support, and more viral social buttons. Stay tuned!

** Update **

Ok, we accidentally released a buggy update – oops! There’s now version 1.4.3 as an emergency patch, and everything should be good. Thanks!

There’s been a little buzz, and frankly some people freaking out over Facebook’s plan to force all fan pages to be secured by October 1, 2011. As of this writing, that leaves us fan page owners about a month to prepare. According to Facebook:

As the web evolves, expectations around security change. For example, HTTPS — once a technology used primarily on banking and e-commerce sites — is now becoming the norm for any web app that stores user information. We feel that HTTPS is an essential option to protect the security of Facebook accounts, and since Apps on Facebook are an important part of the site, support for HTTPS in your app is critical to ensure user security.

Just a quick look at the comments shows that this sweeping – and unstoppable – change is not being taken well by a lot of developers and fan page owners. Myself, I feel that forcing developers to secure fan pages that are displaying basic content with a fan gate, video and images is a little over the top.

The effects of this is that every single fan page on Facebook – whether they use free tab apps, custom code, Fanpage Connect Free or Pro – all of them have to be secured. So the bottom line is, whatever your feelings on the upcoming change, it’s really beside the point. It’s going to happen. So what can you – or what must you – do about it?

What is SSL?

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. Basically, it’s the technology whereby a user’s browser and your server talk to each other using encrypted data. This makes it much harder (not impossible) for hackers and other nasty people to get personal data.

To secure your site, your server needs to have a secure certificate installed, either shared by your host (works for a lot of domains), or a single certificate for your site/domain only.

If you’re going to be using a single site certificate, then you’ll also need a dedicated IP address for your site.

Shared SSL vs. Standard/Dedicated SSL

Shared SSL can be provided by your web host and generally doesn’t take too much work to get going, and is typically no additional cost. Basically, your host will give you an additional domain/URL that lets you access your site securely, like yourWebSite.yourHostsSecureURL.com. While the URL is ugly, it’ll work, especially if you’re pages will be inside Facebook’s iFrames.

The downside to shared SSL is that WordPress doesn’t play well with it, and while your web host may provide shared SSL, it might not work on your blog. If it does work, then you’ll still need an extra WordPress plugin to make it work well – but we’ll get to that in a minute.

As an example, we use IX Web Hosting for some of my sites, and their shared SSL is working very well with our fan pages. Our shared SSL URL is: fanpageconnectdemo.c9.ixwebhosting.com (wow that’s ugly) and you can see that our Fan Gate example works pretty well. However, we’ve had some reports that other hosts’ shared SSL doesn’t work so well with WordPress.

Standard SSL will most likely be the solution for most fan page owners and developers. To secure your site, you’d need to A) buy a secure certificate, B) get a dedicated IP, and C) have your host install your secure certificate. All in all, the process is not overly hard.

Ok, So How Much is This Going to Cost?!

This is what’s been freaking people out, and really it’s not bad. Seriously! How much are you paying for hosting – 7, 8, 10 dollars per month? Typically, a dedicated IP address will cost you an extra $4 per month. That’s less than one grande latte per month. One of our hosting accounts, IX, costs about 8 bucks a month, and we get 15 dedicated IPs. That’s a great deal.

Ok, so let’s talk SSL certificates. Right now, GoDaddy has a sale on secure certificates: $12.99 for a 1 year certificate. So that’s what, three lattes? For a whole year?

Usually, SSL certs aren’t that cheap and they normally run about $89 per year per domain. Ok, so now we’re up to about $7.50 per month. And if any cost is too much, then StartSSL.com has SSL certs free for one year!

So while your costs might go up somewhat to market your product or company, it definitely won’t be breaking the bank. In fact, it’s really more of a nuisance to do the the work of securing your fan pages.

How Will This Affect My Fan Pages, or Pages I Create for Clients?

If you’re a social marketing developer that has clients, then there are some considerations when using Fanpage Connect, either the free version of the premium version of the plugin.

If you’re creating fan pages for your clients on their own domains, then your options are pretty clear – your client will need to purchase a secure certificate and get their site secured. Of course, you can help them secure their site gratis, have them purchase the secure cert through your affiliate link, or handle the whole thing and pass the charges on to them.

Now, if you’re hosting the pages, you may consider securing one domain and host all the pages there. In that case, you could just run the pages on the site and manage them yourself, or set up WordPress Network (the subdirectory install would only require one certificate) and let your clients manage their own pages.

The bottom line is that it shouldn’t impact your fan page business at all. When you consider the cost of setting up fan pages (we’ve seen upwards of $700 for a single page) compared to the cost of a dedicated IP and SSL certificate, one client would more than take care of the additional costs!

So What’s the Next Step in Securing My Fan Page?

If you don’t have good hosting, then you’ll need that first. Here are just the links and some info I pulled up from some basic research:

StartSSL.com – free, 1 year secure certificates.
GoDaddy (hosting/secure certificates) – $12.99 certificate sale, reregularly $69.99/year.
IX Web Hosting – Their Unlimited Pro plan is $7.95/month and comes with 15 dedicated IPs. You can also use Shared SSL, which is confirmed working with WordPress HTTPS.
DreamHost – $15 secure certificates, a dedicated IP, and hosting at $8.95/month

Securing Your Facebook Applications

However you secure your fan page, either by Shared SSL or your own secure certificate, you’ll need to make the appropriate change in your Facebook Applications. To do this, head over to the Facebook Developer App. Once there, you’ll need to edit your application’s settings.

In the settings, you would need to add the link to your newly secured fan page URL in the Secure Canvas URL and Secure Page Tab URL. In this case, you can see I’m using Shared SSL:

That’s it – your fan pages are now secure!

What Else You’ll Need

If you’re fortunate enough to be able to use Shared SSL, then you’ll absolutely need to download and install the WordPress HTTPS plugin. This is the plugin that will actually force WordPress to play nice with Shared SSL and also make sure that any graphics or other content is secure.

Even if you’re using dedicated SSL, I’d suggest using this plugin. Otherwise you’ll chase away fans if they start seeing warnings like this:

These warnings will pop up if any content on your page – scripts, theme files, images, etc are sourced unsecurely. WordPress HTTPS makes absolutely sure that all your site files are sourced securely.

Test Your Pages

Even having WordPress HTTPS installed, you’ll want to test your fan pages to make sure all your content is secure. Normally, this involves viewing the source code of your page, searching for “http:”. However, we developed a plugin that’ll do all that for you: Fanpage HTTPS Test.

This handy little plugin will chew through your fan page and highlight any unsecured content – forms, on-page links, images, everything. It’ll also show you a list of those unsecure elements with a click of a button.

Download
WordPress HTTPS Test

Using Fanpage HTTPS Test

Simply install Fanpage HTTPS Test either by FTP or through Plugin > Add New in your dashboard. It’ll work for both free and pro versions of Fanpage Connect. When you enable it, you can view your fan page, and a button “Test My Site’s SSL” will be displayed. Click it and you’ll see all unsecure items get highlighted and another button will show “View Report”.

When you’re done testing your page for unsecured content, simply disable the plugin.

So, to Recap…

So we know that Facebook’s going to require you to secure all your fan pages by October 1, 2011. But now we also know that it’s not the soul crushing catastrophe that some users are claiming it’ll be. With a little bit of research, a handy WordPress plugin, and minor elbow grease, your fan page can be secured well ahead of the deadline.

If you have any additional suggestions, hosting or secure certificate links, be sire to leave them in the comments!

So we have a small update today to both Fanpage Connect Pro and Fanpage Connect Free plugins today: version 1.4.1 free and 1.0.1 pro. The plugin will now comply 100% with both secure/unsecure canvases, and we’ve added another 25 Google Web Fonts!

Speaking of secure canvases, keep an eye out for an upcoming blog post on what Facebook’s secure tab policy means for your fan pages and how you’ll be able to easily adapt to it. Oh, and we’ll even throw in a plugin for testing your secure content!

You can download Fanpage Connect Free over to the right, or at the WordPress Plugin Repository, and you can get Fanpage Connect Pro here.

Today’s a good day! We’re pretty sure that nasty Facebook fan gate bug is dead, so we’re happy to release version 1.4 to everyone. Here’s what’s been updated:

• Updated to the latest Facebook SDK: 3.1.1
• FB.init is now oAuth 2.0 compliant as per Facebook Development roadmap
• Added javascript to ensure that likes/unlikes load the iFrame tabs
• Fixed the way Open Graph tags were working.
• Miscellaneous JaaScript updates and code tweaks
• Added 68 more Google Web Fonts for a total of 222!
• Organized Google Web Fonts into Sans-Serif, Serif, Handwriting and Display types

Download over at the right there, or check it out on the WordPress Repository.

We continue to improve Fanpage Connect, so this week we’ve released version 1.3.2! This version has some optimized code and some performance tweaks, so make sure you update!

Here’s the change log:

• Optimized page meta into a single array
• Streamlined/cleaned up miscellaneous code
• Added “Defer to Global” in page menu settings
• Perfected page level override logic

As always, download link to the right -> or get it from the WordPress repository!

Hey all you Facebookers! Today we have a hefty update to the plugin, version 1.3.1. We did a lot of tweaks, but here’re the biggest changes:

• Added global Open Graph settings for fan pages
• Streamlined Meta Box functionality
• Minor fix to “force-to-iFrame” functionality
• Added checking for “like” between tabs. If you liked one, it should like the other.
• Changed from php sessions to cookies for dealing with like/unlike actions in multiple pages/tabs
• Added additional “P3P” header for IE to accept cookies in a 3rd party iFrame.

These changes should fix multiple problems that people have had with running multiple pages and/or tabs on their fan pages and generally make the plugin easier to use.

Grab your latest copy either from the download link to the right, over at the WordPress Plugin Repository, or update from your dashboard.

As always, we love your feedback and definitely post your fan page links on our wall and show us what you can do!