Facebook, the wildly popular social networking site has millions of users and is being used more and more often by businesses to interact with customers and brand themselves. Unfortunately, the average Facebook page is not very distinctive and can be difficult for users to express their personality and businesses to get their message across. However, Static FBML can help customize Facebook fan pages and delivering the company message much easier.
Static FBML is short for Facebook markup language and is a feature which allows Facebook pages to display photos hosted on another server, Youtube videos or special backgrounds and customize their pages to suit their personality and message. The application is not enabled by default on Facebook pages but must instead be enabled just like any of the other available applications. Using FBML, a business can customize a tab and then make it the default landing page where visitors see their company message first.
Without this markup language it might be impossible to put an image on the landing page which was clickable and lead to another site. However simply by using this code you can insert a jpeg hosted on your own site, and link it to an outside destination. This is ideal for Facebook users whose main site and information is hosted elsewhere.
Static Facebook markup language is an application available on Facebook that will allow the business user to add regular HTML or CSS and have it display as it would on a regular website. Facebook’s application is somewhat easier than regular HTML in that there is no need to add headers or meta and content tags. Additionally while a regular web page is slightly tolerant of inconsistent characters or codes, Facebook markup language requires very clean HTML and clean URLS to avoid problems.
While this markup language is an excellent addition to any user who wants to individualize their fan page, there are a few things to remember when using it. Facebook columns display at a fixed width so it is important to make sure the videos and images are not over 560 px wide so they fit into the page. Videos and jpegs should be resized to fit the space. Facebook markup language will not allow javascript and although the code can be inserted it will not work.
Images which have two words in a name must not have a space between the words. If an image has two words then a hyphen should be inserted in order to avoid problems in display. Images are limited in width but there is no limitation on the height of the image. However it is good to remember that the larger an image is the longer it will take to load and scrolling down the page to see the entire image is normally annoying to visitors.
The FBML application will normally accept simple HTML easily. When pasting code into the application box all tags should be closed and there should be no extra spaces or characters. Using the FBML application is as easy as using ordinary HTML but it requires clean code with no so called trash characters such as might be pasted from a WYIWYG editor.
Being unique on Facebook is much simpler with The Facebook markup language application. The business that wants to stand out and deliver their message to the visitor the moment they land on their fan page will find the FBML application invaluable. Static FBML is not available for groups or personal pages.
Now that you know what Static FBML is and what it’s all about, get the scoop on how to Make a Fanpage on Facebook.
