This is a temporary part-time position, and we are looking for local applicants ONLY (in the SF Bay Area, preferably Oakland).

If you are interested and have the following applications, then please follow the instructions to email us. If you do not follow the instructions below, we will not consider you for a phone interview.

Qualifications:

• College education
• Comfortable with Photoshop and Microsoft Office programs
• Familiar with WordPress interface, for both blogs and websites
• Advanced knowledge of HTML and CSS
• Familiar with FBML or ready to learn
• Social Media experience (you use social networks in your personal life and understand the benefits for businesses)
• Very comfortable with social sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Delicious, LinkedIn, Flickr and most blogging platforms.
• Excellent writing skills

You should be:

• Eager and quick to learn. Can you use search engines to find answers to your questions? Can you be an online detective and easily maneuver blog posts, discussion forums and social networks to find reliable and up-to-date information?
• A people person. Do you work well with a group of people? Can you find humor in most situations? Your people skills must be translatable to online arenas as well...Can you make a Facebook Wall post sparkle and shine with your wit and personality?
• Able to manage your own time without supervision. When given a task, can you keep track of your time and get things done quickly and efficiently? Can you find answers to questions on your own and report to a supervisor when needed?

About us:

HyperArts is primarily a web development and design company, but we also specialize in social media marketing and development. We are a fun-loving bunch who enjoy working hard while listening to music in the office.

We are looking for a new member of the team who will be primarily working with our social media manager (Analisa) to develop social media strategies for clients and build custom templates and pages on Facebook.

To Apply:

You must follow these instructions in order to be considered for a phone interview.

1. Send us an email with "Social Media Job" in the subject line;
2. Provide us with your name, location, education and skills;
3. Refer to the list of qualifications above, let us know which of your skills apply;
4. Share any and all relevant links to your social web presence (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc);
5. Tell us your availability;
6. Let us know how to best reach you by phone and email.

Emails should be sent to analisa at hyperarts dot com

Facebook Static FBML, an app that allows those with minimal coding experience to create their own custom tabs, may be a victim of this change, as well as those amateur coders and the FBML Entrepreneurs who love them.

Facebook's Announcement of the FBML / iFrame Change

Namita Gupta wrote on the Facebook Developer Blog:

We are also moving toward IFrames instead of FBML for both canvas applications and Page tabs. As a part of this process, we will be standardizing on a small set of core FBML tags that will work with both applications on Facebook and external Web pages via our JavaScript SDK, effectively eliminating the technical difference between developing an application on and off Facebook.com.

Facebook's Previous Advice about Moving your Deleted Boxes Content to Custom Tabs? Forget about it!

Back in February when Facebook was letting everyone know that they would soon be getting rid of both the boxes Wall sidebar and the Boxes tab, it advised: "Create custom content in FBML on a custom tab (optional). Move deleted content from Boxes to a new tab on your page by adding the FBML application to your page."

Well, that was then and this is now. Now it appears they're saying something very different.

Where does Static FBML fit into these FBML / iFrame changes?

Static FBML is Facebook's own application for creating custom tabs using CSS, HTML and FBML. On the Static FBML application page, it is described: "Add advanced functionality to your Page using the Facebook Static FBML application. This application will add a box to your Page in which you can render HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language) for enhanced Page customisation."

Certainly, as Facebook is clear to point out, custom tabs created with Static FBML or FBML applications will continued to be supported indefinitely, but developers were also clearly advised:

"By the end of this year, we will no longer allow new FBML applications to be created, so all new canvas applications and Page tabs will have to be based on IFrames and our JavaScript SDK."

OK, so does that include Static FBML? If all new Page tabs have to be based on iFrames and the Facebook JavaScript SDK, it sounds a bit bleak for Static FBML...

And the same blog post mentioned:

"As a part of this process, we will be standardizing on a small set of core FBML tags that will work with both applications on Facebook and external Web pages via our JavaScript SDK.

So which FBML tags will be deprecated/eliminated and which will be a part of the "small set of core FBML tags"? I've spoken with a few colleagues who also work in Facebook development and they've mentioned such tags as fb:visible-to-connection, fb:share and fb:comments being eliminated.

Demise of Static FBML = Demise of the Amateur Coder

The beauty of the Static FBML application is that it allows people with very minimal Web coding or development experience to build their own custom tabs, usually with the aid of some free or commercial FBML templates that require very basic HTML knowledge and allow the user to just copy and paste the content into the Static FBML box.

However, setting up iFrame custom applications requires significantly more knowledge. At a minimum:

• Downloading and uploading files via FTP;
• Working with, and troubleshooting, HTML iframe code.

To Web professionals, the above is trivial. But to those who were able to easily adapt their basic HTML skills to the requirements of Static FBML, it may be a steep hill to climb. The ground has definitely shifted.

Fan Pages that Cater to Amateur Custom Tab Creators

There is a cottage industry of Facebook FBML "Entrepreneurs" (most of whom are new to Web coding, a skill which can take years to fully master) who are going to have to raise their game in order to stay in the game, and keep their clamoring fans happy.

If Static FBML does indeed go away early next year, it will take not only an entire ecosystem of amateur custom-tab creators, but also many of the fan sites (and their FBML Entrepreneurs) that feed them a steady stream of FBML tags and pre-coded templates.

Will Static FBML Be Available in 2011?

At this point, Facebook is mute on this question. And it's hard to tell from their recent announcements what will be its fate. Stay tuned.

Should people continue to develop new Static FBML custom tabs?

Any custom tabs developed before the changeover will be supported into the indefinite future. We know for sure that this applies to the creation of FBML canvas applications.

How Facebook handles Static FBML custom tabs will be interesting. Static FBML is Facebook's own application and quite recently Facebook was recommending that page admins use custom tabs for boxes content when support for boxes is yanked.

And Static FBML tabs are used by hundreds of thousands of Facebook users (the Static FBML app page has 429,158 fans!), so I would expect support for existing Static FBML tabs — and for the common FBML tags it supports (fb:swf, fb:mp3, fb:share-button, etc.) — to continue for quite some time.

Of course, we sell custom Static FBML templates, and we are asked if it's no longer viable to purchase them because of the impending change. I believe that our templates, like FBML canvas apps, will be supported well into the future.

As Namita Gupta wrote: "We will, however, continue to support existing implementations of the older authentication mechanism as well as FBML on Page tabs and applications."

Facebook may just let FBML fade away by attrition.

Please post any information you find out in the comments!

Resources

• HyperArts Tutorial on Creating an iFrame Canvas application
• Facebook Developer Wiki: Choosing between an FBML or IFrame Application
• Facebook Developer Wiki: iFrame Applications

You may have noticed that Facebook is allowing Page admins to preview to upcoming changes to Page layouts, coming into effect on August 23rd (read Facebook's announcement here). Don't worry, only Page admins can see these changes. If you have already been designing FBML tabs for the new 520 pixel width, you should be fine. But what about the standard Facebook tabs that come with every page as default applications (Notes, Photos, Discussion, Reviews)? You should take a look at the new layout for these stock tabs and see how you can best utilize them in your page marketing strategy.

Take a closer look at the Notes Tab...

This blog post will focus specifically on Notes, a blogging feature built in to all Facebook Pages and Profiles. Today I noticed the new Notes layout on Pages:

The HyperArts blog is currently being imported via the Notes function (see tutorial for this below). You can see that now the Notes tab is a central column, nested between Facebook ads on the right and the HyperArts profile photo and page info on the left. The layout has changed a bit, giving readers a preview of each note, a link to read more, and any comments left on each note.

Write a Note?

There is also a new button in the top right corner, "Write a Note," which confused me at first. Can I write a note on someone else's Page?

I looked at a Page that I do NOT admin, and saw the same button.

Well in fact, this button does not allow you to write a note for the Page you are viewing, but rather, takes you to the Notes tab of your own PROFILE. You are taken to the new Note editing interface, which has more features than the standard Facebook note or message-writing interface.

Notes Tab becoming more like a Blog

Now you can add basic formatting to your post (bullets, text formatting, etc) and preview your post or save as a draft. Facebook is really trying hard to make it easy for us to do EVERYTHING on Facebook, even blog! This seems like their newest strategy for keeping us happy within their network.

Do you even need to have your own blog anymore, if you are just going to import it into your Facebook page anyways? That's a question for another post

Another interesting change, is the new box in the left column, under the profile photo:

Facebook suggests that you stay within the realm of Notes and visit the Notes of your friends, or Pages that you follow. If I click on "Page's Notes" I get a stream of all the Notes written by any Page that I have "liked" on Facebook! Then, I can even choose to subscribe via RSS feed to this mega Notes stream:

Notes Search Function

In addition, there is a search field where you can find specific Notes of friends or Pages just by searching like you would in the top navigation search bar. Facebook will kindly auto-fill suggestions for you:

It is important to notice how these changes in Facebook will make your Page easier or different for users to navigate. Does this new formatting make you interested in using the Notes feature now for importing your blog?

There are some pros and cons to this method, as detailed below in the following tutorial. You should look at all options, maybe try out different applications, and see which is most user-friendly for your fans.

Tutorial: How to import your blog via Notes

To feed your blog posts into your Facebook page (to show up on the Wall and in the Notes tab) you can use the default blog import function. Follow these steps, and then I will discuss the "pros and cons" of this method, compared to other applications or the manual method:

1. Go to your Facebook page and click "Edit Page"

2. Scroll down to the Notes section of your editing interface, and click "edit"

3. On the right side of the page, you will see a gray box titled "Notes Settings." Click on the link "Import a Blog" if you are not already importing a feed (you can only import 1 blog at a time)

4. The next page you are taken to will explain how to import your blog, which is as simple as typing or pasting in your blog's URL, clicking the box to assert that you have rights to this content, and clicking "start import"

5. You will be shown an example of your feed, and if you are satisfied, click "Confirm Import"

Pros and Cons

Now, there are some benefits and some disadvantages to using this free application feature:

• PRO: Each blog post becomes a post on your wall automatically, so your fans can "like" and comment and share your blog all within Facebook. If your post is popular, it can dramatically increase the visibility of your content across not just Facebook, but the web.
• CON: Each post is imported into Facebook, and so fans can read your content without actually visiting your blog's site. If your goal is to increase traffic to your blog (rather than get your content seen by more eyes) then this might not be the best solution for you.

See in this image, how comments and "likes" are preserved within Facebook, but do not benefit your actual blog. There is a link back to the original post, however.


• PRO: The Notes section of your Facebook page becomes a mini-blog, with all of your posts and any comments made by fans on the posts. The clean and easy-to-use interface is free of ads, unlike some other applications.
• CON: The Notes import feature can take a while to actually post your content. Sometimes a few hours, sometimes a day or two. This can be an issue if you are regularly blogging and then Notes pulls in 3 posts at once. Or, if you are blogging on topical issues and time-sensitive information, and you want to share this with your fans immediately.

Other Applications

Your other blog importing options include third party applications and manual posting of blog links on your wall, which guarantees that they will show up when you want them to! See this previous blog post for more information about third-party apps and importing RSS Feeds in FBML tabs.

A note on Capital Letters

An important note, that is not included in the video, is that your username can include capital letters. If you have a company name like "We Help You Move" with multiple words, you might want to capitalize each separate word in your username to make it easier to read (like "WeHelpYouMove" instead of "wehelpyoumove").

*NOTE: You must have at least 25 fans to set a username (custom URL) for your Page!

Tutorial Script:

How to create a custom URL for your Facebook Page

You may have heard them called “custom URLS” or “Usernames” or “Vanity URLs.” All of these names refer to one thing: the customized web address of your Facebook Page (Facebook refers to them as "usernames"). Ever noticed that when you want to share the link to your Facebook Page, you get a long messy URL with lots of letters and numbers? Facebook has given us the option of creating a nice clean custom URL instead.

Here is how Facebook describes Page usernames:

“Usernames allow public entities to easily promote your presence on Facebook with a short URL. This username can be used in your marketing communications, company website and business cards.”

If you pick the username “HyperArts,” then your Page’s URL becomes “facebook.com/hyperarts.”

It is important to note that you need at least 25 fans before you can create a custom URL for your Facebook page. You must also be an admin of the Page in order to secure its custom URL.

Facebook also says,

“Usernames can only contain alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9) or a period (".").”

We recommend picking a short and memorable username that reflects your company name or brand. You cannot change your username, so think wisely and ask for a second opinion when deciding on your page’s permanent username.

Now I will walk you through the steps to create your custom Facebook URL.

• Login to Facebook, with the account that administers your Facebook Page
• Go to http://www.facebook.com/username/
• You will see in a yellow box, the username for your PERSONAL profile. This is not related to your Page username.
• Below, you will see a link that says, “Set a username for you Pages”
• Click on that link
• A box will appear, and if you have more than one Facebook Page which you administer, you will see a drop down menu with all of your Pages displayed. Pick the desired Page from the list.
• If you are eligible for a username, meaning you have at least 25 fans and have not yet set your username, you will see a box that says “Enter Desired Username”
• If you select a page that does not have 25 fans, Facebook will tell you that you are not eligible. If you pick a page with already has a username, Facebook will display the current username, which cannot be changed.
• Once you enter a username, you can click “Check Availability.” If your desired username is available, you will see a box reminding you that you cannot change your username once it has been set.

• If you are ready to set your username, click “Confirm.”
• Now you have a custom Facebook URL! Share it on your other social networks, and you can even have it printed on your business cards.

I took a look at one of our application tabs in Facebook, and it showed the reduction of available space to the custom tab to 520 pixels. I checked around at a number of other fan pages and am seeing the changeover for all Pages I admin.

Here's what our Sandbox page looks like:

As you can see, the new left column contains pretty much same content as the Wall's left column, with the Boxes content still surviving (and the Wall boxes and Boxes tab are also scheduled to go). The Static FBML custom tab, which we designed for 520px width, now sits between two columns. And the design will have to be reconsidered (more on design implications below).

Don't Freak Out! Only Page Admins see the new reduced width...

This new view is only shown to Fan Page owners; if you view custom tabs that you don't admin, or you view your Page's custom tabs while NOT logged in with your admin account, you WON'T see the width reduction. Per the Facebook Developer Blog, the changes will go into effect on August 23.

Even for Fan Page owners, such as HyperArts, who have been designing application tabs for the long-anticipated width reduction, there will be work to do, particularly for designers.

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS: Your Fan Page Logo Avatar has a Larger Footprint

With the soon-to-be "old" width, the logo on Static FBML custom tabs was about 50 x 50 pixels, but it will, after August 23, appear as it does on the Wall.

What this means for designers is that you'll need to factor in the presence of a 200px x up-to-600px logo when re-designing your custom tab. You can see from the HyperArts example, that we can certainly lose that horizontal green logo in our application tab!

And, in general, such a profound change in the visual context for application tabs will require a rethinking of the design, both of the application AND the profile picture/logo.

Because of the new stronger juxtaposition of the logo and the tab, designers will need to take both into consideration when rethinking the designs.

Profile Picture Size is likely to hit soon, as well

Facebook announced back in January that it would be changing the maximum size of profiles pictures to 180 x 540px (down from 200 x 600px) “in the next few weeks.” So this change, which is likely coming soon, will also be a factor designers will need to consider.

The Good News — 520 Pixels Renders Fine

I am relieved that the full 520 pixels is made available on custom tabs. I worried that Facebook might fudge that with some padding or something and we'd still have to modify the designs we thought would accommodate the 520-pixel width.

Canvas Page Tabs are Getting Squeezed into the Narrow Column

From the earlier announcement by Facebook concerning the width reduction, I had been under the mistaken impression that tabs that displayed Canvas-page applications would still be allowed the 760px width. However, I was wrong about that.

From the Facebook Developer Wiki Roadmap Profile:

Application tabs (including static FBML tabs) will be the only way to integrate applications into profiles and Pages. Application tabs will shrink from 760 pixels wide (today) to 520* pixels wide to accommodate a slightly revised design. Boxes, info sections, and the Boxes tab will be removed in the near future.

An "application tab," as defined by Facebook, is any tab on a profile or Page, created by Static FBML, a Canvas page, whatever. All tabs will be restricted to the 520px width.

In order to display your Canvas application to users at the full 760px width, you would need to send them to the actual application page. However, this would result in a less-than-ideal user experience, as it takes the user away from your Fan Page to your application page.

The current HyperArts "welcome" tab pulls in the Canvas page from this URL:

Here is our Canvas-page Welcome tab with the new width reduction:

We intend to still pull our tab from a canvas-page application — to enable RSS feeds, primarily — but it's width-reduction time!
I'll continue to modify this post as the situation develops. Hold on tight!

If you are trying to find the perfect social site for your business, organization, or personal interest, do you choose the best platform for your purposes, or the popular one with the most familiar name?

Names Matter

Perhaps there is something in a name after all. 500 million people feel comfortable with Facebook, perhaps that is why so many brands have decided to focus on building their presence on that particular network. It's not a perfect platform by any means, especially for marketing, since FB tries to protect users from spam and un-paid advertising. Even the paid advertising is kept to a minimum. There is no way for Page admins to message their fans, or post to their profiles. The complaints and "known bugs" on Facebook seem to be endless! There must be a better network for building online communities, but this one if by far the most popular.

I have worked with some Clients who use Ning for their social networking, and as a platform it can be very accommodating. Ning offers many features, and until recently was free. Even with their new pricing plans, it is still a great deal. You can host a forum, blog, create private groups, message your members, chat and more, all from the same site. The downfall? Members must register with Ning. It's a whole separate site, not connected to their email or Facebook page. This can be a roadblock to some people, who prefer to stay within their familiar "hub" of online activity (email, blog reader, Twitter client, Facebook).

Setting Expectations

And then there is the name. I have had people ask me, "What does Ning mean?" and I have to explain that it is just a platform for creating a personalized social network. One client of mine always refers to their Ning community as such, rather than calling it by their own customized title, or "Our social network." It makes sense, because we as Internet users have come to understand various sites as having specific functions and formats. Facebook works a certain way, Twitter is unique with its 140 character limit, and blogs can be expected to look and feel a certain way.

So what does "social network" mean to users? It's too general of a term, with no agreed-upon format or features. Calling the site "Our Ning Community" refers to a brand, and implies certain known characteristics.

Familiar Icons

This is why icons have become so important to social networkers and marketers. If your company or client is building a presence on Facebook, you brand it with these icons:

People feel comfortable with this logo, and know what to expect when they click through to your Facebook Page. Links like these are important to have, because each network has its own special and unique features that users know and trust:

But what about a button like this? "Our Social Network" does not tell me anything about the site you want me to visit. Will I need to sign up? Is this a private network?

So, this particular client has decided to change this button to include the brand of their social network. Soon it will say, "Join our Ning Community" instead.

Do you think this will affect people's willingness to click through, or change their expectations of the site?

Those fan page owners who aren't comfortable creating and uploading files to a Web server have been particularly hit by this IE 8 problem, and unfortunately IE 8 is currently a very popular browser.

Google Sites for Hosting your Images and your CSS Stylesheet

I decided to find the easiest and cheapest solution possible for external hosting of CSS files and images — and that solution is Google Sites, a Web service Google offers that allows the creation of websites, including the creation of directories and the uploading of HTML and CSS files, images and other file types.

Although Google Sites was originally intended for creating websites, I'll show you how to use it as a free and easy service for hosting your stylesheets, images and other file types.

First, Create your External Stylesheet

I'm not going to go into the specifics of creating CSS styles. The W3 Schools is a good place to start, if you need the basics.

Your external CSS stylesheet should:

• Be created in a plain-text editor such as Windows Notepad or Mac TextEdit. There is a great free text editor for Macs called TextWrangler, by the makers of BBEdit which is one of the most popular text editors for those working on Macs.
• Contain ONLY your CSS styles — DO NOT put the styles between <style> ... </style> tags! Your HTML and FBML will go in the "FBML" box (see below);
• Have a file name with NO spaces and have the suffix ".css" — example: mystylesheet.css. NOTE: When referencing your stylesheet file, be aware that directory and file names are CASE SENSITIVE.

Reference Your External CSS Stylesheet from the FBML box

When putting your HTML/FBML content into the Static FBML box:

you want to insert, before the HTML, the reference to the external stylesheet, indicating its URL in the proper format:


<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="FULL URL TO YOUR STYLE SHEET/mystylesheet.css?v=10.0" />


The "?v=10.0" is for Facebook only. Facebook creates a copy of your stylesheet on its servers and that's what it uses for your tab. In order to force Facebook to refresh its cached version of your stylesheet with the latest version, you need to increment the "?v=10.0" each time you make a change to your stylesheet, by changing, for example ?v=10.0 to ?v=10.1 ... 10.9, 11.0, etc. and then re-saving the Static FBML.

OK, you have your stylesheet — Now you need to host it somewhere!

If you don't have a Webmaster who can upload your CSS stylesheet to a Web server and provide you with the URL to the file, then you'll need to find a service that will host your external CSS file.

After researching this, it became apparent that Google Sites was the perfect option for external file hosting. The service is free — you just need to set up a Google account or add "Sites" to your existing account.

Setting Up Google Sites and Adding your Files

Log in to your Google account.

Click "Settings" in the top-right corner of your browser. You will see the Google services you have in your account. After the list of active services you'll see:

If you don't see "Sites" under "Try something new," click the "More" link and, on the next screen you should see in the list:

Click on "Sites" and you'll then be redirected to the landing page for your new Google Sites account:

Click "Create new site" and, on the next screen, fill in the "Name your site" field with a short descriptive name (NO SPACES). Below that you'll see the URL for your new site. Write this down as this will be the URL you use for your stylesheet and any images, or any other file types, you upload.

Fill in the CAPTCHA characters and click "Create site":

With "Home" highlighted in the left column, click "Create page" in the top right:

You're going to want to create a directory for your files, so select the "File Cabinet" icon and enter a name for the directory ("facebook" is a good choice) and, again, NO spaces in that name (Google won't let you create spaces anyway):

Then click the "Create Page" button (I recommend selecting "Put page at the top level").

Next, click the "Add file" button:

Use the "Browse" button to locate on your computer the CSS stylesheet file you created, double-click the CSS file to upload it, and, if you want, add a "File description" which is shown in your list of files for easy identification. DON'T enter anything in "Text to display":

Then click "Upload".

You will then see your CSS file listed:

Copy your external CSS stylesheet URL to your Static FBML box

The URL to your stylesheet is what is in your browser's address bar (at the top):

In the example, the URL is: http://sites.google.com/site/hyperartsfb/facebook

Your URL will (unless Google changes something in the future) the same up the "/site/" but then will be your site's name and the directory you created.

Just paste your stylesheet URL into your Static FBML box:

NOTE: Directory and file names are CASE SENSITIVE!

Hosting your images on Google Sites

Facebook requires that you host your images used in your Static FBML tabs on a Web server. In the past, we have recommended Photobucket's image-hosting service but, for the purposes of hosting images and other files for your Facebook Fan Page, I think Google Sites is the better option. Photobucket has a limit on how many times your hosted images get "called" from their servers, where I don't believe Google Sites has this limitation.

And if you're already hosting your external stylesheet on Google Sites, it makes sense to host the images there, as well.

As many of you have probably noticed, viewing Static FBML tabs with Internet Explorer 8 is now a rather painful experience IF you inlined the styles with the <style> ... </style> tag instead of having an external stylesheet called with the <link rel="stylesheet" text="text/css" href="URL TO STYLESHEET" /> tag.

If you call an external style sheet via the <link> tag, then IE 8 is happy and will display your tab as dictated by the styles in the stylesheet. This is a problem on Facebook's side, as nothing changed in the past few days with IE 8 and Facebook is constantly fiddling with their API.

This current problem underscores the importance of using external stylesheets for your Static FBML tabs instead of inlining the styles.

NEW: Read our tutorial on creating and hosting your external stylesheet, using Google Sites!

There is a bug report on the Facebook Bug Tracker #11683, but no one from Facebook has commented there.

The solution, as discussed in my earlier post on using external stylesheets with Static FBML, is to NOT inline your styles, but use the <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="URL TO STYLESHEET">. Of course, you have to put your CSS styles in a text document with the extension ".css" (and DON'T include the <style> </style> tags!). Besides the current situation, where IE 8 simply isn't rendering styles inlined with the <style> ... </style> tag, background images called from inlined styles are often displayed incorrectly.

You've changed from inlined to external styles and your tab's display is still broken in IE 8?

If you changed from inlined to external stylesheets and your Static FBML still appears broken, try incrementing the number we've recommended in the past to refresh Facebook's cache. Use:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.your-domain.com/your-stylesheet.css?v=40.0" />

The "?v=40.0" appended to the end of your stylesheet file name forces Facebook to refresh its cache. In the above example, I have intentionally set it high (usually you just start with 10.0) just to make sure. Every time you modify your external CSS you need to increment that number to refresh Facebook's cached version of your stylesheet.

If you're switching from using the <style> ... </style> tag to inline your styles, to calling your external stylesheet via the <link> tag, then I would strongly recommend using the "?v="40.0" method to emphasize the change on Facebook.

“Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity.”
- Mark Zuckerberg, Co-founder, CEO & President of Facebook (via Gigaom)

People often ask me why they can't have a Facebook Page for their business without having a personal Profile first. I usually try to explain that Facebook has made this mandatory (with one exception, see below) to encourage people to be as transparent as possible. I think Mark Zuckerberg's quote above expresses this sentiment even more accurately. Facebook (or at least their CEO) believes that everyone should "be themselves" on Facebook, and not hide behind a brand or logo. Facebook also probably wants as many people to be on Facebook as possible (for advertising revenue of course).

Facebook explains the difference between a Page and a Profile here.

"Profiles represent individuals and must be held under an individual name, while Pages allow an organization, business, celebrity, or band to maintain a professional presence on Facebook...In addition, Pages are managed by admins who have personal Facebook profiles. Pages are not separate Facebook accounts and do not have separate login information from your profile. They are merely different entities on our site, similar to how Groups and Events function. Once you have set up a Page within your profile, you may add other admins to help you manage this Page. People who choose to connect to your Page won't be able to see that you are the Page admin or have any access to your personal account."

You can see how Facebook is encouraging the fusion - NOT the separation - of Pages and Profiles. The creator of a Page has to use his/her personal account to build a page for a business or organization. And the promotional features of a Page are not nearly as "personal" as your Profile features. No messaging to fans is a rule that many marketers despise, as outlined here:

"All personal site features, such as friending and messaging, are also for personal use only and may not be used for professional promotion. If you add a user as a friend, for example, this person will be invited to be a friend of your profile and not your Page. Using personal site features for professional promotion, or creating unauthorized Pages, may result in your account being warned or disabled."

But would you want it any other way? Millions of people use Facebook because they feel safe (relatively) in the space. Facebook wants to protect that feeling of privacy and choice. Allowing marketers to bombard their fans would surely drive users away. Besides, we have learned over time that "opt-in" social marketing is much more effective in the long run. Let the user choose to listen to your brand. The use of force and interruption is ineffective and despised in the social realm.

Business Accounts

There is a way around the Profile-before-Page rule. If you are creating a business Page on Facebook you can create a Business Account and avoid making a personal Profile for yourself. There are some restrictions to these accounts, which is why many of us break down and use our personal accounts for business:

"Business accounts are designed for individuals who only want to use the site to administer Pages and their ad campaigns. For this reason, business accounts do not have the same functionality as personal accounts. Business accounts have limited access to information on the site. An individual with a business account can view all the Pages and Social Ads that they have created, however they will not be able to view the profiles of users on the site or other content on the site that does not live on the Pages they administer. In addition, business accounts cannot be found in search and cannot send or receive friend requests."

Another important restriction to note: You cannot add applications to your Page if you are using a business Profile in lieu of a personal Profile. From the Facebook Help Center:

You will not, however, be able to view the profile information of any other users on the site, or add any other applications to your account. Your account will not be visible in search and other users on the site will not be able to find you and add you as a friend.

That means no Static FBML application for you!

Learn more about how to set up a business account here. We do not recommend this strategy to our Clients, but it could be the right approach for your brand if you do not need any of the personal Profile features.

You may or may not have heard of NFO. It's similar to SEO, but specific to Facebook. "News Feed Optimization" refers to the strategy for posting content on your Facebook Page, with the goal of having it show up frequently in your fans' news feeds. While similar to the principles behind Google's search engine, Facebook's news feed takes into account several different factors based on your fans, their friends, their interests and more. Or in their words, "affinity, edge, and decay."

These three factors are part of "EdgeRank" the algorithm revealed by Facebook at their developers conference f8, in April 2010. Digital marketer Chris Sietsema blogs here about these three important pieces that together will determine the visibility of your content on Facebook.

via Teach To Fish Digital

Other Facebook experts and social media marketers have offered insight into the mystery of the newsfeed. But if Facebook is the master behind the scenes controlling your content, how can YOU shape your content to be as appealing and visible as possible? Here are some suggestions I have found useful from various blogs and websites:

• Wildfire Blog: 6 Clever Tricks to Double the Effectiveness of Your Fan Page Status Updates!
• INC: How to Optimize Your Facebook News Feed Presence
• Virtue: Anatomy of an Effective Facebook Post Strategy

The HyperArts fan page is where we offer advice and DIY tutorials for enhancing your social web presence, especially with Facebook applications like FBML. Our community has grown over the past year and we have seen our fans engage with us and each other with greater frequency in the past 6 months. When we post to the Wall, it is rarely with a grand "strategy" or scheme in mind. We post when we have something important to say ("Facebook applications are not working!") and when we have a solution to known problems ("Try this fix for shrinking images in FBML..."). We also like to give stuff away on our page, from information and answers to individual questions, to prizes and free products.

But beyond what you say, there is an art to how you say it, and how you craft each individual post. Blogger Dan Zarella has some suggestions for the words you use on Facebook, if you want to get really picky.

These are my personal tips for effective Facebook posts:

• Don't be harsh, rude, controversial or angry, unless you are intentionally inviting any possible response. You might offend people, but you also might please them, so be ready for both.
• Ask a question with your post if possible, it will encourage responses more than a statement would.
• Tag your friends or pages that you like in your comments. Simply precede a name with the @ symbol and if you are a fan or friend of that person, Facebook turns their name into a link. And your post will show up on their page!
• Add an image or link to your wall posts when possible and appropriate. If you simply post text, your wall post will also become your status update. And an image will catch a reader's eye when scrolling through the posts on your wall, while text alone can blend and disappear.
• Make sure you are willing to monitor responses to each post that you publish. If your page becomes a 1-way broadcast, rather than a multi-directional conversation, you will lose fans quickly.

In the end, you have to determine this #1 important factor for yourself: what does your audience want to hear? Did they become fans of your page because you promised them something fro free once? Then you might not ever see or hear from them again, after they get their free prize. But if they became a fan expecting to hear from you, it's wise to give them what they want...YOU! No matter how many tips and tricks you study and learn, you will need to find your own special brand of personality and valuable content to deliver with flair on your page.

If you are interested in talking to us about strategy for your Facebook page, and making the most of your wall posts, contact me at (510) 339-6084. Read what other people have said about the effectiveness of our consulting services: