It more or less goes without saying that Facebook is the market leader in the socialsphere. Facebook’s user base has already whooshed past 850 million; and even that is nothing if compared the escalating number of users who access the site through mobile devices.

Very simply put, Facebook’s popularity doesn’t seem to slow down anytime soon.

Most brands of late are really serious about using Facebook to ting their cash registers. They know they may have offices in the towering buildings at Palo Alto, but a user who’s logging in to Facebook from Nigeria or Mexico will only see the fan-page.

Facebook fan-page design is one of the top priorities for online marketers. In this article we’ll discuss some practices that are to be followed when designing a standout custom fan-page.

The first that comes in mind is

Study Facebook Fan-pages of Brands

Users may like a fan-page on Facebook if they are superficially lured, but the connection between them and the brand on a deeper level will never take place. Top brands take engagement with users to a new level through design. Surfing through their pages and taking note of all the important design related elements could help lesser known brands and startups strategize how to design a Facebook fan-page.

You may wonder whether Facebook cares for brands. It does. It lets brands

Use Facebook API

Facebook accommodates brands in their efforts to design fan-pages. Over last couple of years, Facebook has constantly been rolling out API changes to ease brands. Thanks to those changes, fan-pages are way more interactive now than they used to be in the past.

Earlier, fan-pages were static and allow users only to click on the ‘Like’ button and receive updates on their newsfeeds. But now they come with a body of exciting features; one of those features is supporting multiple tabs on one page. Entertainment brands often equip their fan-pages with music tabs. Non-profit organizations sometimes keep donation tabs on their pages.

No doubt Facebook fan-page API is helpful. So are

Facebook Page Creation Tools

There are plenty of online tools to create Facebook fan-page. Some are free and others are paid. They come with a wholesome range of functionalities. Top functionalities that these tools add to a page are;

❏     Creating custom tabs for pages

❏     Scheduling posts from the main website

❏     Streamlining the posts on the fan-page

❏     Monitoring activities on the page with custom metrics

The internet is there to help you out in more ways than you could ever possibly imagine. Other than fan-page creation tools, it also offers.

Fan-page Templates

Like the design tools, Facebook fan-page templates also fall into two categories; paid and free. Free templates are very easy to download. If you go for the paid ones, you need to log in to the vendor’s platform, select a Facebook template and then edit the template to add new design elements. Not all templates are editable; select the ones that can be edited. Once the fan-page template is ready, upload it on your Facebook page.

If you feel design is all about proper elements at the proper places, you’d have to look for

Placement of Apps on the Page

When designing fan-pages, the role of apps are often ignored. Proper placement of apps on Facebook fan-pages serves as an excellent way to increase conversion. But marketers don’t always get a clue of that.

They need to understand the template should be designed in such a way that it keeps ample space for the apps. In the Facebook page of Red Bull, apps are on the left hand side. Sufficient space has been left for them. But in order to view the ‘Apps’ section, one’d have to scroll down. This is a bad selling point for a brand like Red Bull.

All said, fan-page design should be futuristic. So

Stay Posted About Facebook API changes

Common sense is enough to understand why it is important. In future Facebook might allow fan-page designers to add search option to the page. To get first-mover advantage, you need to start visualizing from now, how the search option would be like on a page. Unless you keep yourself updated about the API changes that Facebook is bringing around, you won’t feel the need to visualize. So staying posted is very important.

The day isn’t far when Facebook fan-pages will suffice the need of a full-fledged website. It’s not a far-fetched speculation because fan-pages are already being considered as representatives of brands. To say a more sophisticated form of representation is next in line is not at all a hyperbole.