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 don’t like this move by Facebook at all. As a business owner who helps other business owners, the “Welcome” tab gives a much more professional look and feel to the fan page that the wall or info page.
Hi Patty,
I agree. I don't like this move by Facebook at all. It's becoming a very user-unfriendly place for small business owners.
Well, I wonder if perhaps enough developers complained because as of this morning, it’s back. I just checked 3 of the fan pages I administer and sure enough, my “Welcome” tab is back as landing option.
Facebook, oh Facebook, why do you mess with us so!
Because it's owned and run by a couple of immature kids.
Ladies, allow me to tell you what it is like for an Admin, complaining about a flaw in FB design. (crickets)
FB currently has a glitch in the 'Getting Started' tab on Business pages. Only Admins see the tab, but it will not deactivate as planned, until connections are made for mobile phones and Twitter accounts. Naturally, not every Admin wants to make those connections, some businesses dont' need them. But there is no opt-out feature, no way to just say no.
FB is ignoring this bug entirely, and a user group has popped up to combat it. over 160 Admins have joined, some of them with editorial blogs out on the web, and the are all insisting the tab be modified so we can opt-out. FB response so far……
Here is a link to the group. There is a story here; we are trying every way possible to tell it.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=128794247…
I agree Patty – I've been recommending appealing Welcome tabs ever since Facebook introduced the tabbed design a couple years back. I also like to recommend the Wall to show posts by page and fans… but that way you may not necessarily have control over what's on the wall when a non-fan goes to look and like you say it's just more professional looking to have the seamless branding. Hmmmm.
As you stated Mari very unfar… from my own experience with a number of Fan pages that I admin it doesnt seem to be affected , I have a full list of pages to pick from.. and no I am under 10k and no account manager to my knowledge to any of these accounts.. anyone else not affect yet .. or am I speeking to soon….
I actually think you were lucky and missed when it was not working. 🙂 It seems they've added the functionality back already. Or it's a bug in a server switch or something very strange but for the pages I admin, it works again. And it wasn't working at all about 6 hours ago.
Ya, I just updated my post (again!) — I ran a test of about a dozen fan pages with <10k fans… some landed on their Welcome tabs, others clearly didn't. Odd!!
To make things more confusing, Facebook has restored this functionality (again quietly) sometime in the past 6 hours. As of right now (2:30am central) the custom landing tab option is back live! argg frustrating to keep up!
I uploaded a video on how to redirect from your website to your custom Facebook tab. I hope this is helpful. http://www.socialmediadentist.com/fbfix/fbfix.html
In Kindness
Stephen Knight
Hi’Ya Mari:
Was definitely part of my promotion strategy. I was setting up to create a “welcome video” for the Welcome Tab (landing page)! Oh well… If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again… AND again! We’ll just find another way! 😉
Roz
Thanks Mari for always sharing the News ~ How incredibly short sighted! Doesn’t facebook get that over 50% of the economy is driven by small business. Facebook humbly began as the great equalizer, accessible all people and business, seems now that they’re working hard at becoming just another big corporate entity that takes the money grab at the expense of the little guy.
I’d like to think they have better reasons, but we already know they need a few PR lessons in how to manage change with their clients. I feel sorry for all the small and home based business people who invested money in creating custom landing pages that are now virtually useless.
Wow I had missed this change. That is very disappointing. I wonder if I am missing something about Facebook’s long term revenue strategy. It seems to me like they’re making move after move to alienate the small business owners that could give it Google-scale revenue if they catered to us. Thank you Mari for posting.
It seems obvious that they are looking to increase revenues. Of course this could backfire. Are we really willing to spend money to create a business when at any time they can change the rules for their benifit? It’s like building a brick and mortar business without a long term lease. Your landlord will always keep your rent just high enough so that you can’t make good money but not so high that you will leave.
Facebook is shooting itself in the foot. I knew there had to be a reason I was dragging my feet on sending my info to the designer (the one you recommended, Mari) who I was planning to have do my pages. What a lame move on FB's part. Takes the wind out of my sails for investing as much energy in FB as I had planned to! And I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
This totally sucks. I checked and it looked like it was not working, however I still have all my custom tabs listed under the 10+ pages I manage and they are still working well. Is it taking some time to populate?
Hi Brian — all your custom tabs are unaffected. It's just the ability to set any tab you want as the default landing tab for non-fans.
Apparently, they reversed this? I don’t have 10k fans, but I just checked and I was able to set any of my customized tabs as the default landing page.
I hope that if this was indeed reversed, it will stay that way.
Hey Pat — hmm, you're the second person to mention the Welcome tab is working again. I wonder if Facebook started to see the backlash and quickly changed it back???
The 2 fan pages I run with custom landing tabs also have the custom landing tab working now
http://www.facebook.com/theraveneffect
http://www.facebook.com/victormorenodesign
I believe Pam and Napoleon are correct. There definatly appears to be something go down. The small and midsized business appear to have been sold out 🙁 The curious thing is that this is where there PPC revenue is coming through. So with less small biz activity will the national companies beable to cover the short fall. Big gamble, I believe that should small biz leave they will be reluctant to return thus they will find another platform, quickly.