Facebook Nixes Default Landing Tab Option
[UPDATE #2: May 20, 2010: A few members of my community alerted me their Default Landing Tab had “reverted” back… or was working now.
So I conducted a test: I logged out of Facebook, then pulled up about a dozen fan pages with fewer than 10,000 fans that would normally land on a Welcome tab. Some did, some didn’t.
There doesn’t seem to be any pattern. I’m guessing Facebook are rolling out this new “Default Landing Tab Only for Authenticated Pages” rule in phases. Or, perhaps they’ve listened to us and are rolling back?!]
[UPDATE #1: As a workaround to this new inability to direct non-fans to your custom landing tab, you could make your own redirect link, e.g. http://marismith.com/fanpage goes to my fan page and could just as easily go to any tab. (You could also use any link shortener, e.g. bit.ly)
Remember, each tab still has its own unique URL and all your tabs/apps are still intact.
This approach with your own redirect link could work well for promotions outside Facebook.
However, any promotion inside Facebook (e.g. @ tags) would automatically go to whichever default landing tab you’ve set – either Wall or Info. I recommend Wall.
Once you reach 10,000 fans, you’ll be able to set your cutom landing tab. Though, so far, a couple members of my community have mentioned they cannot make the change and they’re over 10k fans. Sounds like the change is buggy.
Props to my fab friend, Mike Stelzner for the redirect link suggestion.]
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Original post follows:
For some time, I’ve been raving about the benefits of having your non-fans land on a specific, custom landing tab on your Facebook Fan Page.
When you send visitors to your Facebook Fan Page, previously, you could have them land on a Welcome Tab, for instance – the purpose of which was to help visitors understand what your business is about and to compel them to want to join your Fan Page.
The option to set this was fairly easy – click on Options underneath the publisher on your Fan Page wall, then click on Settings and select the landing tab from the drop down menu:
However, in a rather odd move, today Facebook quietly let a few disgruntled developers know in the Facebook Developers Forum that they would no longer be offering the option to have a custom default landing tab. That is, unless you have a minimum of 10,000 fans or you have an account rep at Facebook.
New settings for fan pages with <10,000 fans:
(Image credit)
Here’s the forum post:
Amidst all the hoopla of the privacy concerns and morass of Community Pages, this default landing tab change just seems grossly unfair to the small business owner, in particular.
As Nick O’Neill writes, “We’d assume that this change was made for two reasons: to combat spam and more importantly, to boost revenue…”
Hmm.
To clarify, ALL of your custom tabs still exist. And – this is important – each tab still has its own unique URL. So, theoretically, you could shorten the URL’s and split test landing tabs as I’ve talked about before.
If you don’t have an account rep, here’s the contact form per Facebook.
How do you feel about this change? Was the default landing tab for non-fans a big part of your Fan Page promotion strategy? Let me know in the comments below:
Props to my bud Dave Kerpen for the phone call today about the Developer Forum post, and to my Twitter bud Ryan Burns for drawing my attention to this change last night (at first we thought it was a bug!), and to my bud Nick O’Neill for promptly blogging about the issue.
I have no issues with their privacy changes. I grit my teeth when they changed their contest rules, but this just seems like a bit too much.
Facebook now seems to be focusing more on it’s revenue than on the people that are on the site, and it’s frustrating to say the least. All of my pages fall in the safe category, but it’s frustrating for people like the page developer I work with to work around that.
It’s almost like “what’s the point”
@Napoleon a study came out earlier this year that pages that were over 10k were in the top 4%
Lynn,
I think the page stays there it's just not going to be the place where the non-fan lands when they come to your page. They'll have to manually click on that tab instead.
Pretty obvious FB is using this to drive more revenue. I have no problem with it, but the way they broadcast this, after people have the issue, is really poor customer service. If they continue to make changes and not educate the 400 million users, they will soon be no better than the phone company's customer service.
Lori ~ We'll find a way to get the Video in there. I have the same challenge!
Roz
This is outrageous. It is so hard for small business owners to stand out online as it is, but why does Facebook have to take away something SO simple??? What joy…now I get to tell my small business owner clients that the work I've done for them is worth VERY little now. DISLIKE!
The sad part is requiring 10,000 fans is what will create more spam and unethical tactics which facebook is trying to avoid. Because it is hard to reach 10000 fans. In order to reach 10000 fans some people will turn to these unethical methods such as excessive spam and fake accounts.
Please clarify what happens to welcome pages that are already in existence? Many thanks, Lynn
I just shared the custom tabs with the Julian Merchant’s Assoc. last night. While I love the idea that we can create custom pages, I’m disappointed that Facebook has made the decision to remove the opportunity for a custom landing page. Facebook has been a great tool for the small business community, who will struggle to achieve 10,000 fans. I’ve shared that I think Facebook makes these changes to foil those of us who create products helping others navigate and leverage Facebook. Now I have to re-do my videos. ;-(
I thought it was quite odd that the when I finally went to make my page today that I had 2 options instead of the many options there had been when I first started building my page.
I am glad I didn’t waste any time or any money building – or having a welcome page built for me.
I don’t understand what difference this makes to FB!
Apparently FB doesn’t care and thinks no on in this whole wide world will come up with a “new” FB, where they might care a little more about their supporters.
Are the FB developers former government workers, cuz some of their decisions have that “feeling”!
Instead of having new people start out on a nicely designed FBML Welcome tab that explains the business or cause, users will jump straight into wall posts. It's like jumping into a conversation mid-stream.
It's very unfriendly to small business and non-profits who will probably not get more than 10,000 fans. I'm reminded of the 1990s, where user groups and forum admins had to direct newbies to the 'FAQ/Start Here' section. FB page admins will have to do the same thing, directing ppl to their nicely designed, but totally bypassed Welcome tab.
I wonder what percentage of Facebook fan pages have more than 10,000 fans?
“It's like jumping into a conversation mid-stream.”
Exactly!!!
Here's that report that came out Nov 2009, an analysis of 600,000 fan pages – probably still lots of accurate data: http://www.sysomos.com/insidefacebook/ at that time, only 4% of fan pages had more than 10,000 fans. Unreal, eh!