8 Things Page Admins Should Do Right Away After Upgrading To New Facebook Page Redesign

Facebook Page Redesign – it’s already on the floor and I believe many of you started working on it. This time Facebook has done full redesign of the Facebook Pages. The new Facebook Page layout looks and operate more like individual user profiles. The latest changes in this update are page admins can now post and make comments on other Facebook Pages by opting “login as Page” feature. The top bar is also replaced by the relevant photos just like we already seen in user profiles layout.

The most noticeable difference that you look into new Facebook Page redesign is the new layout. The left-hand menu is now used for navigation menu and left-hand “Information” box is also gone. The right-hand menu has also been redesigned and introducing a new section that shows page admins and users that how many of their friends have also “liked” the same page.
Personally, I think new Facebook Page redesign is surely a positive move and features some of the much-needed options for Page admins. The new features will gave Page admins options to give their Pages more exposure that helps in extending their reach on the platform.
But, you have to digg deeply some of the features which is always buried in Facebook complex structure. This article will focus on 8 things page admins should do right away after opting new Facebook Page redesign so that you can make most out of it as soon as you start using new Page layout.

1) Upgrade to new Facebook Page redesign

Let me tell you first, after opting for the new Facebook Page redesign there is no going back. However, if you don’t upgrade it right now, you will be dragged into the new format on March 1, 2011. So, it’e better to opt-it now and tweak to make most out of it by then.
I think you are ready now, click on this link. If you are admins of more than one Facebook Page, you will see list of all pages here and you can choose “Upgrade”  for the page you want. You can also click “Upgrade all” to upgrade all your Pages at once.

2) Chance to select your Page Category and Sub-Category

Yeah, you are reading it right. Now you have a chance to select category and sub-category for your Facebook Page once again. Before that, you got only one chance to select it, there was no option to choose sub-category and once choose it was locked down for the whole life.
To make changes, click on “Edit Page” on top right side next to your Page’s title. A new page will open and now click on “Basic Information” on left-hand side navigation menu. Now choose “Category” and “Sub-Category” from the drop-down menu.

3) Set your Wall Preference to Page Admins or Everyone

You already know that you can make fan comments off from the “front page” of the wall. Personally, I have opted this settings for all my Facebook Pages because it helps to avoid un-necessary spams and comments from official Page updates. If you too want to keep your fan comments off from from wall, you will have to change the settings because default setting is for “Everyone”.
To make changes, click on “Edit Page” on top right side next to your Page’s title. A new page will open and now click on “Manage Permissions” on left-hand side navigation menu. Scroll down, find “Wall Tab Shows” and select “Only Posts by Page” from drop-down menu.

4) Set your E-mail Notifications for comments

Don’t forget to change your Email notifications for Facebook Page if you don’t want to get annoyed by notifications. Click on this link and tick-out the option you don’t want to get the email notification.

This is pretty handy when you admin only one Facebook Page. But, if you are like me who admins more than one page, you will surely get annoyed by the number of notifications keeping hitting your inbox regularly.
To make email notifications for certain pages, click on “Change email settings for individual pages” . A new pop-up window will open that allows you to opt-out for Pages you don’t want to get mail notifications for.

5) Use Facebook as “Your Name” or “Facebook Page Name”

This is pretty nice feature that allows you to make a choice whether you want to use Facebook as “Your Name” or “Facebook Page Name”. It means you can post and comment on your Page with your “Facebook Page Name” or your “Facebook Account Name”. For example, in our case, “WebTabLab” will be “Facebook Page Name” and “Yogesh Mankani” will be “Facebook Account Name”.
To switch between these two, click on “Account” tab on top-right of your profile page. Click on “Use Facebook as Page”, a pop-up window will open that shows all your “Facebook Pages”. Clicking on Facebook Name Page (webtablab) will allow you to use as “Your Name” while clicking on “Switch” will allow you to use Facebook as “Your Facebook Page Name”.

You can switch between two options seamlessly from right panel of your Facebook Page.

And if you are confused with above feature, you can also select Always comment and post on your page as “Facebook Page Name” even when using Facebook as “Your Name”.
To make changes, click on “Edit Page” on top right side next to your Page’s title. A new page will open and now click on “Your Settings” on left-hand side navigation menu. Tick the checkbox right next to “Posting Preferences” and you are done.

6) Quickly look up and change your Moderation and Profanity Blocklists

I think this is much needed feature for most of the page admins really want to use to blocks spam comments and other nuisance things on your page. “Moderation Blocklist” will allow you to block specific words that you want to show on your Facebook Page while “Profanity Blocklists” is automated and you can set it too : None, Medium or Strong
To make changes, click on “Edit Page” on top right side next to your Page’s title. A new page will open and now click on “Manage Permissions” on left-hand side navigation menu. You can find the above two options on this page.

7) Small Tweak with your Page’s Tab

You must have noticed that Page’s Tab are now on left-side portion instead of Top panel. There is nothing much to change these tabs but you can at least make most out of it. With tabs now moved to left-side portion means you are not bound to give brief names to your apps. Now, you can give nice little titles to your apps that will become easy to understand for your users.
To make changes, click on “Edit Page” on top right side next to your Page’s title. A new page will open and now click on “Apps” on left-hand side navigation menu. From here, you can change the name of the any app you wanted.

8 ) Add “Featured Likes” and “Page Owners”

Now, you can show “Featured Likes” and “Page Owners” on your left hand side portion of the Facebook Page. “Featured Likes” will show other Facebook Pages you have liked and “Page Owners” will list other Page admins on the page just below the “Featured Likes” tab. Featured Likes will show only on your Facebook page that means it prevents your personal profile from clutter.
To make changes, click on “Edit Page” on top right side next to your Page’s title. A new page will open and now click on “Featured” on left-hand side navigation menu. From here, you can feature your favorite pages and other page admins.

Well, there are many other changes you can make after opting for New Redesigned Facebook Page, but above are the major and sure- do changes to make most out the of the new Facebook Page. If you know any other settings that you think every Page admin has to know about, please feel free to tell us in the comments section below.

8 Things Page Admins Should Do Right Away After Upgrading To New Facebook Page Redesign

Facebook Page Redesign – it’s already on the floor and I believe many of you started working on it. This time Facebook has done full redesign of the Facebook Pages. The new Facebook Page layout looks and operate more like individual user profiles. The latest changes in this update are page admins can now post and make comments on other Facebook Pages by opting “login as Page” feature. The top bar is also replaced by the relevant photos just like we already seen in user profiles layout.








The most noticeable difference that you look into new Facebook Page redesign is the new layout. The left-hand menu is now used for navigation menu and left-hand “Information” box is also gone. The right-hand menu has also been redesigned and introducing a new section that shows page admins and users that how many of their friends have also “liked” the same page.



Personally, I think new Facebook Page redesign is surely a positive move and features some of the much-needed options for Page admins. The new features will gave Page admins options to give their Pages more exposure that helps in extending their reach on the platform.



But, you have to digg deeply some of the features which is always buried in Facebook complex structure. This article will focus on 8 things page admins should do right away after opting new Facebook Page redesign so that you can make most out of it as soon as you start using new Page layout.



1) Upgrade to new Facebook Page redesign

Let me tell you first, after opting for the new Facebook Page redesign there is no going back. However, if you don’t upgrade it right now, you will be dragged into the new format on March 1, 2011. So, it’e better to opt-it now and tweak to make most out of it by then.



I think you are ready now, click on this link. If you are admins of more than one Facebook Page, you will see list of all pages here and you can choose “Upgrade” for the page you want. You can also click “Upgrade all” to upgrade all your Pages at once.







2) Chance to select your Page Category and Sub-Category

Yeah, you are reading it right. Now you have a chance to select category and sub-category for your Facebook Page once again. Before that, you got only one chance to select it, there was no option to choose sub-category and once choose it was locked down for the whole life.



To make changes, click on “Edit Page” on top right side next to your Page’s title. A new page will open and now click on “Basic Information” on left-hand side navigation menu. Now choose “Category” and “Sub-Category” from the drop-down menu.







3) Set your Wall Preference to Page Admins or Everyone

You already know that you can make fan comments off from the “front page” of the wall. Personally, I have opted this settings for all my Facebook Pages because it helps to avoid un-necessary spams and comments from official Page updates. If you too want to keep your fan comments off from from wall, you will have to change the settings because default setting is for “Everyone”.



To make changes, click on “Edit Page” on top right side next to your Page’s title. A new page will open and now click on “Manage Permissions” on left-hand side navigation menu. Scroll down, find “Wall Tab Shows” and select “Only Posts by Page” from drop-down menu.







4) Set your E-mail Notifications for comments

Don’t forget to change your Email notifications for Facebook Page if you don’t want to get annoyed by notifications. Click on this link and tick-out the option you don’t want to get the email notification.







This is pretty handy when you admin only one Facebook Page. But, if you are like me who admins more than one page, you will surely get annoyed by the number of notifications keeping hitting your inbox regularly.



To make email notifications for certain pages, click on “Change email settings for individual pages” . A new pop-up window will open that allows you to opt-out for Pages you don’t want to get mail notifications for.







5) Use Facebook as “Your Name” or “Facebook Page Name”

This is pretty nice feature that allows you to make a choice whether you want to use Facebook as “Your Name” or “Facebook Page Name”. It means you can post and comment on your Page with your “Facebook Page Name” or your “Facebook Account Name”. For example, in our case, “WebTabLab” will be “Facebook Page Name” and “Yogesh Mankani” will be “Facebook Account Name”.



To switch between these two, click on “Account” tab on top-right of your profile page. Click on “Use Facebook as Page”, a pop-up window will open that shows all your “Facebook Pages”. Clicking on Facebook Name Page (webtablab) will allow you to use as “Your Name” while clicking on “Switch” will allow you to use Facebook as “Your Facebook Page Name”.







You can switch between two options seamlessly from right panel of your Facebook Page.







And if you are confused with above feature, you can also select Always comment and post on your page as “Facebook Page Name” even when using Facebook as “Your Name”.



To make changes, click on “Edit Page” on top right side next to your Page’s title. A new page will open and now click on “Your Settings” on left-hand side navigation menu. Tick the checkbox right next to “Posting Preferences” and you are done.







6) Quickly look up and change your Moderation and Profanity Blocklists

I think this is much needed feature for most of the page admins really want to use to blocks spam comments and other nuisance things on your page. “Moderation Blocklist” will allow you to block specific words that you want to show on your Facebook Page while “Profanity Blocklists” is automated and you can set it too : None, Medium or Strong



To make changes, click on “Edit Page” on top right side next to your Page’s title. A new page will open and now click on “Manage Permissions” on left-hand side navigation menu. You can find the above two options on this page.







7) Small Tweak with your Page’s Tab

You must have noticed that Page’s Tab are now on left-side portion instead of Top panel. There is nothing much to change these tabs but you can at least make most out of it. With tabs now moved to left-side portion means you are not bound to give brief names to your apps. Now, you can give nice little titles to your apps that will become easy to understand for your users.



To make changes, click on “Edit Page” on top right side next to your Page’s title. A new page will open and now click on “Apps” on left-hand side navigation menu. From here, you can change the name of the any app you wanted.



8 ) Add “Featured Likes” and “Page Owners”

Now, you can show “Featured Likes” and “Page Owners” on your left hand side portion of the Facebook Page. “Featured Likes” will show other Facebook Pages you have liked and “Page Owners” will list other Page admins on the page just below the “Featured Likes” tab. Featured Likes will show only on your Facebook page that means it prevents your personal profile from clutter.



To make changes, click on “Edit Page” on top right side next to your Page’s title. A new page will open and now click on “Featured” on left-hand side navigation menu. From here, you can feature your favorite pages and other page admins.







Well, there are many other changes you can make after opting for New Redesigned Facebook Page, but above are the major and sure- do changes to make most out the of the new Facebook Page. If you know any other settings that you think every Page admin has to know about, please feel free to tell us in the comments section below.

Facebook Promotions: What You Need to Know

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Are you thinking of running a contest or promotion on Facebook? Have the rules imposed by Facebook confused you?
Look no further.  This article will provide an in-depth look at Facebook’s promotional rules.

The Tricky Rules

Running a contest on Facebook is a powerful way to generate buzz, increase engagement, boost your fan count and build your email list. But Facebook has rigorous rules governing what campaigns you can and cannot administer and promote on their platform.
For several years, the contest rules were fairly loose and Facebook users and page admins could pretty much administer whatever campaigns they wished within the confines of Facebook’s general terms (now called Statement of Rights and Responsibilities).
However, in 2009, Facebook severely tightened up their promotion guidelines, causing a great deal of confusion even two years later. To quote Susan Getgood on her post about Facebook contests:

Bottom line, Facebook doesn’t want any explicit involvement in ANY of your contests. It’s all about liability, and the Facebook promo guidelines are designed to distance the social network from whatever companies and bloggers do with their contests.

Every day, vast numbers of page admins—from small businesses to major brands—administer promotions that violate Facebook’s rules.  They are running the risk of having their pages disabled completely. I strongly recommend all Facebook page admins become very familiar with how to safely run contests within the rules.
This post will tell you what you need to know.

What does Facebook mean by a “promotion”?

To quote Facebook:

These Promotions Guidelines govern your communication about or administration of any sweepstakes, contest, competition or other similar offering (each, a “promotion”) on Facebook.
A “sweepstakes” is a promotion that includes a prize and a winner selected on the basis of chance.
A “contest” or “competition” is a promotion that includes a prize and a winner determined on the basis of skill (i.e., through judging based on specific criteria).

So, anytime you run a campaign on Facebook where you wish to select a winner, that would fall into the terms of Facebook’s Promotions Guidelines.
Facebook also says:

You will not administer a promotion through Facebook, except through an application on the Facebook Platform. Administration includes operation of any element of the promotion, such as collecting entries, conducting a drawing, judging entries, or notifying winners.

Simply said: You can’t use Facebook’s features for your promotions!
A promotion where you select winners is not to be confused with you simply promoting and marketing your business—that’s exactly the reason Facebook (fan) pages were designed!

What are Facebook’s contest rules in plain English?

On November 6, 2009, Facebook changed their Promotions Guidelines significantly. Prior to this date, it was pretty much a free-for-all. With the changed rules, Facebook basically went from one extreme to the other.
In order to administer any kind of contest, you had to (1) get written approval from Facebook at least seven days prior to running your campaign, (2) have an account rep at Facebook and meet the minimum ad spend of $10,000 per month and (3) use a third-party app on the Facebook platform.
Then, on November 29, 2010, Facebook loosened up a bit and changed rules.  So, the good news is:

1. You no longer need written permission from Facebook in order to run a contest.
2. You no longer need an account rep at Facebook, nor do you need to meet the minimum monthly ad spend.
3. BUT you still must administer ALL contests on Facebook via a third-party app ON the Facebook platform.

That’s right! You MUST use an app to conduct a contest or risk having Facebook come down on you. Unless of course you’re a big time advertiser with Facebook.

What apps are best for running contests?

One of the most widely used apps is Wildfire app. Their interface is fairly easy to use and their fees are competitive.

Wildfire app

You can choose among 10 different types of promotions, including photo, video, quiz, trivia and more:

Wildfire app promotion choices

Wildfire app promotion choices

See Wildfire’s FAQ to decide among running a sweepstakes, contest or coupon/giveaway campaign.
A wide variety of third-party apps offer promotion services that meet Facebook’s rules. Check out any of the following:

• Fanappz
• Vitrue
• BuddyMedia
• Votigo
• ContextOptional
• BulbStorm
• NorthSocial
• Momentus Media
• Friend2Friend
• Strutta

See also this related post: Top 75 Apps for Enhancing Your Facebook Page. Plus, see Facebook’s list of preferred developers here.

Can I select a fan at random to give away a prize?

No. This constitutes a drawing where winners get selected. You’re effectively using Facebook to “collect entries.” Plus, you cannot contact winners inside Facebook at all—via email, chat or posting on their wall—nor can you post winners on your page wall.
What you can do, for example, is select a fan at random and feature him or her in your page photo. Or possibly feature chosen fan(s) on a custom tab (link). As long as you don’t have other fans vote or submit nominations, etc.

Toys R Us Featured Fan!

Toys ”R” Us currently runs a fun Featured Fan promotion. Keep in mind the submission and voting is, of course, part of an official sanctioned promotion being run on a third-party app.

Toys "R" Us Featured Photo Facebook contest. Note the link to terms and conditions.

Can I have my fans enter a contest by uploading photos?

Not if you ask fans to upload photos directly to Facebook. Photos, or any content, submitted for entry into a contest can only be done via a third-party app on the Facebook platform. The Facebook app doesn’t count.
From the Promotions Guidelines:

You cannot: Condition entry in the promotion upon a user providing content on Facebook, such as posting on a wall of a page, uploading a photo, or posting a status update.
You can: Use a third-party application to condition entry to the promotion upon a user providing content to the application. For example, you may administer a photo contest whereby a user uploads a photo to a third-party application to enter the contest.

I searched extensively for a Flickr Facebook app, for example, that might be a good workaround for running a contest, but came up blank.
If you do a Google search for “Facebook photo contest,” unfortunately, you’ll see there are scores of Facebook pages running photo contests that do not adhere to Facebook’s terms.
Here’s a fun example of a photo contest—that does comply with Facebook’s Promotions Guidelines—by the United States Potato Board:

Twice Baked, Twice as Smart recipe photo contest

Can I give away a prize to anyone who likes my page?

You CAN restrict your promotion only to entrants who have first liked your page, as long as the promotion is administered through a third-party app on a separate canvas page (now a link, formerly a tab).
Plus, good news! You CAN provide a giveaway and even collect names and emails from fans and visitors to your page. I highly recommend you add a custom contact form to your page. Use the sign-up box code from your own email management system, or create your own form code using something like JotForm, reviewed here.
You can use a piece of “fan only” reveal code to give away a coupon code or special gift to everyone who likes your page. Check out Guy Kawasaki’s Facebook page for his forthcoming book, Enchantment, where he gives away a free ebook just for liking his page.

Guy Kawasaki—Enchantment Facebook page

See the Facebook page of 1-800-Flowers for a discount code, only revealed to users who like their page.

How can I tell if a contest on Facebook adheres to the guidelines?

Promotions on Facebook need to have clearly set-out terms that are visible right on the canvas page. For example, here’s the Twice Baked, Twice as Smart photo contest rules:

Contest rules for Twice Baked, Twice as Smart

Can I promote a contest on my Facebook page that I run on my blog?

Yes. As long as there’s no requirement to do anything on Facebook; e.g., like your page, comment, upload content, etc. You can simply post a link on your page to the contest. And, to be fully safe, I would also include this disclosure, “This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.”

Is it worth the risk to run a contest without a third-party app?

No, the risks are far too great, in my opinion.  Yes, Facebook does not have the resources to monitor every single promotion on the platform. But, you never know when you might catch the attention of their legal department.

In addition to our other remedies, we may remove any materials relating to the promotion or disable your page, application or account if we determine in our sole discretion that you violate any of our policies.

Facebook is serious about taking action if they discover a violation. My friend, Jonathan Rivera, had an experience with his real estate referral Facebook page where there was an inadvertent use of a trademark. Despite Rivera’s becoming compliant, Facebook shut down the very popular page with tens of thousands of fans. Fortunately, the issue got resolved in a fairly timely manner and Jonathan got his page back intact… under a new name.
So, just take note that any violation of Facebook’s terms is obviously a risk. (Along with directly administering contests and promotions on your Facebook page, two other common violations are setting up more than one personal profile and/or setting up a personal profile in the name of a business.)
Hopefully the fog around contests on Facebook has lifted for you now! All you need to remember is anytime you wish to run any kind of promotion where you select a winner, you’ll have to use a third-party application on the Facebook platform. I’ll be writing a follow-up post covering the specifics of what makes a successful contest. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, what questions do you have about contests? Have you run any successful promotions yourself? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.