Facebook fan pages are a great marketing tool. With a fan page, you meet your customers where they are–on Facebook–and you engage with them in hopes of making them a lifetime customer. Sometimes, it isn’t always that easy.

Just as any other marketing campaign, you need to make sure that your Facebook fan page is aligned with your priorities and strategy. Are you setting out to honor your fans by giving them great Facebook-exclusive deals? Make sure your fan page reflects that purpose. Are you trying to build an army of advocates that will help your business grow? Organize your fan page to accomplish your goal.

There are two parts to a fan page, the design and the content. To make things a little easier, I’m going to provide you with two awesome posts about this topic, one post for each part.

Let’s cover the design aspect today and we’ll hit the content portion at the beginning of next week.

The design of your Facebook fan page speaks volumes about your commitment to your online marketing campaign, so make sure it’s what you want to portray.

Here are four design tactics you need to consider when constructing (and reconstructing) your fan page:

Profile Picture – Your “default” profile picture is uber-important when designing your page. It is one of the most critical aspects of your page because it is what draws users to you and your business, no matter your purpose.

If I am searching “Bob’s Plumbing” or “Chicago’s Best Pizza,” the only way I will know that I have found the correct company is by looking at the images in the search result. If your logo or face isn’t prominent and easily recognizable, I’m not going to find you. It’s like finding Nemo in the ocean; it can be done (obviously) but it’s going to take a lot of hard work.

Do you want to put your potential fans, customers, or clients through that tough search?

Text Box Blurb - Facebook gives you a small section of retail space below your profile picture to put something about yourself or your business. Most people underestimate the great value of this space. In essence, this is your 30-second elevator pitch to anyone visiting your page for the first time.

Make your words count and allow them to authentically tell what you’re all about. If you’re about gaining more customers, talk about your wonderful food, catering, or roofing work. If you take pride in supplying your customers with sweet deals on your stuff, say so in this box.

Use this box to amplify your business and to alert customers of your purpose for the fan page.

Tabs and Applications – Facebook and developers have provided a boat load of content that can be added to your fan page to boost your image and the page’s functionality. The applications you have enabled will tell users exactly what your intent is on Facebook.

By default, you are given the option to include various applications, such as media sharing and customer reviews. Depending on your choice of add-ins, viewers can tell the main purpose of the fan page. If you are including the Reviews application, you want to give customers or clients a place to brag or diss your company or product. In the customer’s mind, you’re focused on customer service. No matter your enabled applications, your viewers will be able to tell your goals and focuses.

It’s also important to note that if you want to give off the image that you’re more than just a once-a-week-fan-page-administrator, include applications that ARE NOT automatically enabled when you sign up for your fan page. This shows initiative and customers love it.

FBML (Facebook Markup Language) - FBML is a great way to take the next step in managing and improving your fan page.

FBML is a programming language that Facebook uses to create its pages. With certain bits of code, you can customize your fan page to really have an impact on your visitors. With FBML, you can do some interesting things, such as include an email opt-in form on your page, track your fan page using Google Analytics, and post additional media, such as Flash videos. If you’re looking to take the next step and WOW your visitors, upgrade your page using FBML. It speaks volumes when you take initiative and show that you are dying to interact and engage with your audience.

Here are some pages with free resources regarding FBML:

7 FBML Examples To Rock Your Facebook Fan Page
How To Customize Your Facebook Page Using Static FBML

Your fan page is a critical marketing tool to manage. If you don’t advertise and present it appropriately, you and your reputation will suffer. In today’s world, it’s critical to ensure that your online presence is saying the right things about you.

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by stucklo6an

Facebook hasn’t always been good about letting users know of coming changes. But they have been talking about the resizing of custom landing tabs in October 2009.

Well now it’s time to get your stuff together because the changes are coming August 23. Here is Facebook’s official announcement.

Facebook is saying that they will launch a new 520 pixel canvas size for all applications hosted as custom tabs.

What is changing

In essence you will have 31% less space to work with on your your custom pages. The most common custom landing tabs are FBML (Facebook Markup Language) pages that have been customized for your fan page. These have allowed companies to display full graphics, videos and links to their fans and visitors.

Until now all Facebook fan page custom tabs had have been 760 pixels wide. The vertical dimensions of the custom tabs has been unlimited.  This total area is referred to as the canvas size.

Remember – this change will only affect custom landing tabs in Facebook. It does not effect applications which are not hosted as custom tabs. Starting August 23, any customizations will have to fit within a width of 520 pixels. Canvas space is shrinking and depending on the complexity of your design, this may require time to redevelop your applications code.

How to fix your customer FBML landing tab

While Facebook is automatically resizing the canvas area – don’t expect them to automatically resize your content.  Your graphics, text and other elements will look like they are running off the page unless you update the code.

To resize your Facebook custom landing tab you’ll need to update the source code.  If you had a company create the custom page for you, be certain that they update the width of your tab to 520 pixels wide.

Here’s a quick strategy for updating a custom fan page on a budget. If you don’t have time to entirely redesign your custom page or application but want to try resizing it on your own, don’t panic. John Haydon has an excellent video on his site showing you how to re-size images in your custom tab application in about 90 seconds.

Today’s Action Steps

Your goal today is to get any custom landing pages fixed on your Facebook site. I’ve broken down three options for you…

• Fix it yourself. If you are handy with HTML or FBML code, try to resize the canvas area to 520 pixels wide yourself. The vertical dimensions don’t matter right now and are unlimited.
• Get your designer to fix this. If you hired a design company or are currently paying a social media consultant, be sure to ask them if they’ve re-sized this for you. Point them to this Facebook post if needed.
• You can Ask us to help you. Contact our team if you have a Facebook application which might require a redesign. Our team can provide a quote on the cost to take your existing page and shrink your design to the proper size. Send us an email to info@folkmedia.org and simply ask for a quote. Be sure to give us the URL or name of your current page so we can give you an accurate estimate.

Now pick one of these options and go take action.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.

*Photo by The Shopping Sherpa

“Above the fold” is a term from the newspaper industry that refers to the content displayed on the top half of the newspaper after it is folded and placed on a shelf. This is prime real estate for the obvious reason that it is seen first by readers.

The same principle applies to online content. Let’s look at the Folk Media site that you are visiting right now. On our homepage we have content that is above the fold.

Everything that is above the gray area is seen by visitors first. Borrowing from the newspaper industry we call this “above the fold.” You’ll notice that we’ve placed our featured articles here, links to all the categories and (the most critical) our email sign up box.

Don’t make me think

Your visitors aren’t on your small business website to be entertained. They don’t want things cryptic and riddled.

Visitors are online searching for a solution. Hopefully your business provides that solution. So make sure you make it EASY for them to access your products, services and content.

Don’t make your customers think.

Imagine they are 5th graders and spell things out for them in the simplest terms.

“I’m not going to stoop to writing or designing my business website for a 5th grader!” I can hear you scream.

The truth is – the best communicators on the planet speak in simple folksy styles that appeal to even the youngest observers.

How to use the area “above the fold” effectively

Put your best stuff at the top of your homepage. Make sure you place your email opt in form here too. Here are the items that I feel are critical to your “above the fold” real estate.

• Your logo with a benefit driven, solutions focused slogan
• Your phone number
• Other critical social media platforms where customers can find you
• Your featured content and/or latest articles
• Blog category and page links for easy navigation around the site
• An opt in box for visitors to sign up for your email list

Today’s 10 minute action step: Find your “above the fold” space and evaluate

If you are not a designer here is a good way to brainstorm possible ideas for your homepage.

Print off 2 copies of your homepage. Take the first and lay it on your desk. Using a pair of scissors cut up all the elements of the second print off and play around with rearranging them on the first version. By doing this, you’ll see how space can be used and content can be organized.

If you are using a Wordpress blog,  look through some of the “done for you” designs that Woo Themes has created. There are many that have good above the fold designs. Some don’t – so looking through these is a great way to train your mind to think above the fold.

Now go take action.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media and author of 21 Days To Twitter Leadership. He is a producer, author, and speaker who consults with businesses and nonprofits on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter or Google Buzz.