Last week Facebook, made some big changes to its Pages platform.
We covered the news and talked about its implications for businesses
working to leverage Facebook as a marketing channel. In the wake of these Pages updates, another major change has taken place: this one will impact any business that creates custom tabs for their Facebook Page.
Through its developer site, Facebook offically announced that businesses can now use iframes to build custom tabs for Facebook pages instead of Facebook Markup Language (FBML). In addition to the roll out of iframe support, Facebook also announced that it is phasing out FBML and that starting
March 11, 2011, businesses will no longer be able to create new FBML apps
and Pages will no longer be able to add the Static FBML app.
How Do iFrames Benefit Facebook Marketers?
While you may not be the person that actually does the code for your cusotmer Facebook tabs and applications, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be informed about the new advantages that iframes bring to Facebook Pages. This change has many implications, but lets look at some of the major issues marketers need to understand:
1. Better Design - Using iframes for custom tabs and applications means that marketers can use their own CSS, the code used to determine the design of a webpage, to make custom tabs more consistent with brand guidelines and design. This changes has removed any design limitations that were present in FBML.
2. Better Tracking - Content within an iframe actually resides on your own site, but is displayed on your Facebook Page. Because the content is on your site, you can use your own web analytics and lead tracking software , such as HubSpot. Leveraging your lead tracking and analytics will help you better measure your Facebook marketing efforts and determine most effective tactics for your business.
3. Better Selling - If you are an eCommerce company, then the move to iframes helps you to become better at selling through Facebook. You can now easily add product pages to your Facebook page and create calls-to-action to drive more sales directly through Facebook.
Are you excited about the switch to iframes for pages?
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Paul Roetzer 4:18 PM on February 15, 2011
Great breakdown. Thanks, Kipp.
Charlie 4:28 PM on February 15, 2011
Will existing FBML tabs vanish from Fan Pages on March 11th?
Quay 4:29 PM on February 15, 2011
I like this idea, and I'm glad that Facebook is *finally* going to get rid of FBML. Why reinvent the wheel, in a sense, is the way I always thought about it.
Sonja Foust 4:37 PM on February 15, 2011
Thanks for the info! I was wondering about that, since the Boxes for Pages no longer exist. I think that was the only way to put tracking code on your FB pages before (FBML box).
Juan Carlos 4:40 PM on February 15, 2011
Can one get started on this already? Got tons of ideas to implement on Facebook.
Mark Mathson 4:44 PM on February 15, 2011
Yea, this is a welcome change, thanks Kipp!
sashtinathan 4:55 PM on February 15, 2011
They started this process in August 2010.....http://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/402
Septimiu 5:16 PM on February 15, 2011
Social Network going to Sales Network :)
MISSIcom 6:33 PM on February 15, 2011
Thank you Kipp: Phasing out FBML is surely a very good thing and long overdue.
Originally, we had incorporated the xfbml version of the "Like" button on our landing page and had tested on a variety of browsers on several different pc's running different versions of Windows. All appeared to work fine: However all of these pc's were running on our Windows 2003 network. Nonetheless, we checked further by visiting a neighbouring business and viewed the pages as being Ok there.
What we did not know was that anyone running IE7 instead of IE8 on an XP pc that was connected to a different Windows 2003 network with strict security levels set resulted in a completely blank page being presented and a convoluted and varying ?xfbml..... fragment being added to the page URL which the user could not circumvent. Even one of our own clients had 2 pc's that could not paint the landing page because of the fragmented URL while several other pc's in their office could.
We subsequently noticed that we had had several hundred "hits" to our site that Google Analytics showed referenced this fragmented URL - meaning they were all lost potential.
After posing this issue on the FB Developers Forum and not receiving any workable solutions plus an indication back then that Fb planned to phase out FBML, we switched to using the iframe solution and the problem went away.
Happy to say that all is now well in our FB interlinking using iframe coding so happy to hear this news.
HubSpot does a really good service by posting these kinds of informational updates. Thank you all.
Ralph Vugts 7:05 PM on February 15, 2011
What will be the new process for creating a landing page? Right now I use FBML to check if they have already liked the page, if not show the landing page.
ross 10:54 PM on February 15, 2011
FBML to iFrames converter: bit.ly/fAiICq
Perfect tool for this change. Thanks for the post!
Ross
Julian 12:08 AM on February 16, 2011
Thanks for sharing! Very helpful non-techie explanation of what these FB changes mean. Based on FB's track history, they have a longer-term plan/reason for implementing these changes that will not be obviously for a few months or longer. Taxing all ecommerce that is transacted through these frames, perhaps?
Jens Murer 12:34 AM on February 16, 2011
So... how will I do a "a fan/Not a fan"-detection, the single one thing I ever used in FBML?
Giulia 10:26 AM on February 16, 2011
What about existing FBML tabs? Are they going to cancelled or iframe tabs and FBML tabs will cohexist? Thanks
Jeff A. Jones 1:30 PM on February 16, 2011
iFrames seem to be a better option to FBML for marketers. I'll be looking into iFrames for my new fan page!
Dee Reinhardt 5:09 PM on February 16, 2011
Kipp,
Do you have a suggestion on where I can find a tutorial on iFrames and an easy source to update my existing fbml pages?
Kelly 10:33 PM on February 16, 2011
This announcement really is a "trickle down" announcement for businesses with fan pages. It is really mostly aimed at developers who create applications for the facebook app store.
1) If you have the FBML tab, it won't go away or change at all.
2) You can't add an iframe into the FBML tab.
3) Once developers use the new iframe capability to create new apps/tabs, business owners should start seeing a lot of new capabilities for their pages.
As of yet, i haven't been able to find anyone who has created a simple "iframe tab" app, so that us non-developers can start adding iframed content. Has anyone else found one?
Dhana 5:46 AM on February 19, 2011
Good news !. Hoteliers can connect their booking engine directly to Facebook page !
Harmy G 1:41 AM on February 21, 2011
"Last week Facebook, made some big changes to its Pages platform."
Why did you, use a comma there.
Anonymous 11:43 AM on February 21, 2011
http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/adding-iframe-application-to-facebook-fan-page/
Good tutorial on setting up an iFrame page...
Mathalis Web Services 3:40 AM on February 23, 2011
It's a good things to open FB to standard. Better for marketter, better for designer
Natural Retreats 6:45 AM on March 02, 2011
Thanks for this. We are looking to futher out Facebook page and this will come in handy
Susie 4:21 PM on March 04, 2011
Will we still be able to use the current FBML tabs with the new FB pages and make changes to the content?
Thanks,
Susie
Dee Reinhardt 5:22 PM on March 04, 2011
Susie, The FBML pages still show up, but you can no longer make any edits to them.