Facebook has grown massively in the last few years and attained their 500 millionth account signup on 21 July, 2010. This is a huge number and it is not only individuals who have signed up but many businesses and large corporations.Step 1: Add the Static FBML App
The tabs located on the top of your Facebook page called apps (Short for applications or more so mini-applications). Some of them, like your wall, photos, notes are built into Facebook. Others are essentially plug-in apps built by companies or users where you can view external content, like YouTube for example.
The app you need to create a custom page is called “Static FMBL”. Log into your Facebook account, click here to view the Static FBML page and click “Add to my Page” under the question mark image. Basically it’s a blank canvas where you can add whatever content you want, like pictures and custom HTML etc.
Once you have added the Static FBML app, click on “Edit App” located just below your company logo. This will load the web page containing all your settings and apps for your business account. Look for the Static FBML app and click the “App Settings” link.
The app can function in two ways: You can either use it as a set of boxes or as one dedicated profile tab. If you’re building a splash page you would want to use it as a tab. For now let’s make sure the “Box” setting is removed and only the “Tab” setting is added. By default only the “Tab” should be there. You can always experiment later with the Boxes layout.
Step 3: Add your text, images etc.
Once you have remove the Boxes section and only have tab mode, go back to your settings and click the “Edit” link under the Static FBML app. This will open up a standard text field where you can add your content.
“Box Title” will be the name of your tab, you can change it to whatever you want. For this example I have named it Promotion.
In the main text field is where you can add your content. Just add in plain HTML tags, if you want any images displayed they need to be hosted elsewhere, for example your company’s website or an image gallery like Flickr. In the example above you can see how I referenced the external image by calling it from the Go Fish website.
Step 4: Make your Tab the Default Landing Page
As above I mentioned that we will be working with Tab mode, so to set your new tab to be the default landing page, head back to your page settings and edit your “Wall Settings”. There is an option located for “Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else”. Select your tab from the drop down list.
Your tab has been set as default and will be the first thing new visitors to your page sees.
If you require more features or more interactivity on your page, it might be worthwhile to learn the FBML (Facebook Markup Language) language.
