I love that Facebook lets you make custom welcome pages for Facebook Fan pages. There is nothing more professional than having something that is your own, on Facebook. The problem is, Facebook doesn’t provide you with the step by step directions for you to create your own, but now you too can have a custom Facebook welcome fan page, and more by following the directions supplied in this article.
Facebook use to support FBML application that didn’t provide you with a custom icon, but rather which doesn’t look professional at all! But FBML does have it’s strengths, which is why many professional Facebook fan pages still have FBML if they managed to gain access to it.
The first thing you will need is a website, or a free website that allows direct linking. This is a must, if you don’t have one, can’t get one, check with your business, or network connections. Since you are only going to be using one webpage, and graphics you could upload at places like Photobucket, it won’t be like you will be asking for massive usage of your business partners web space bandwidth. If you don’t know how to create a web page you will need to know that before you implement this custom Facebook welcome page. Or hire someone to create a Facebook welcome page for you.
After you have confirmed the fact that you have somewhere to host your web site or have hired someone to create the website for you, the rest is pretty much easy.
You will need to make your webpage .php not .html or.htm. So though your website can be proper HTML when you save it, make it index.php You will have 520px wide to work with, anything else will be cut off, or set up with a scroll bar, and that scrollbar will be something you will want to avoid if at all possible.
Go to the Facebook Developers web site. Once there click on “Set Up New App.” Give your Facebook application a name, it doesn’t matter what you name it, as it’s only for you to see the name of it. After you have come up with a name, click that you agree, and click the “Continue” button. Fill in the security check by typing in the captcha, and clicking on the “Submit” button. There may be a long pause while it confirms, do not hit the refresh, or back button on your browser.
Once you have gone through all the above steps, you finally come to the “Basic Info” of your Facebook application, parts will already be filled in. At the top you will see the name of your application, and a “edit icon” this is where you will want to upload what will appear on the left under the profile photo in your menu, your custom icon, like a favicon. Pick something readable, or your logo so it flows with your Facebook fan page.
Pay close attention to the “App on Facebook” section, “Canvas URL” is where on your domain, or your friends domain, your web page is placed. Only put the location of the folder, not the link to the page, example: “www.name-of-website.com/nameoffolderitsin/” be sure to have the end backslash.
Under “Page Tab” name what you want your page to be, such as “Welcome.” Then click “Save Changes” at the bottom. If you encounter an error chances are you are not using a .php file in the folder to link to, or you forgot to use the end backslash. Both of these are very common mistakes, and ones I’ve noticed are all over the internet asking for help.
Facebook is constantly upgrading, so those these step by step directions work now, in like four months Facebook may change, hopefully keeping things slightly the same for you to be able to still use this as a basically template of a guide.
If you managed to save your information, and have progressed with no errors the next step. On the left, click on “View App Profile Page” Then at the left side click “Add to My Page” Select your Facebook Fan Page you wish to add the custom Facebook welcome page.
Now go to your Facebook Fan Page, you will now see the custom welcome page listed under your profile image. If you have already created other pages, or other applications including photos, the custom welcome page may appear at the bottom. Click on “Edit” right under the custom Facebook welcome page on the left, and move it up to where you would like it to appear.
Next click on “Edit Info” at the top of your Facebook Fan Page, and go to “Manage Permissions.” Under the “Manage Permissions” page look for “Default Landing Tab.” Select the tab you wish for your visitors, and non fans to see, then click on “Save Changes.” You have now not only created a custom Facebook welcome page, but a custom default landing tab too.