Adding an App to a Facebook Page

If you want to add an app to your Facebook page and for some reason you can't find View App Profile Page at the left part of the page when you registered it at http://www.facebook.com/developers, you can do it by typing in the addess bar the following:

http://www.facebook.com/dialog/pagetab?app_id=YOUR_APP_ID&next=YOUR_URL

where YOUR_APP_ID and YOUR_URL can be found in your app settings. 

Implementing Facebook Share in 2 different ways

Well, how often do we see in every website the commonly used "Share" button?

Don't you know how to integrate it into your website? Don't worry, I suggest you 2 ways, you can choose the one that suits you most!

Facebook Share button - No1

You can render the Facebook Share button in an anchor (a) tag that takes the following 3 attributes:

1. name: You must specify fb_share for this attribute.
2. type: The type of Share button or link to render, with or without a count included
3. share_url: The URL for the page you want to share

You can do this by firstly including following lines in the head section of your code:

and then by using the anchor tag with the appropriate attributes, exactly where you want it to appear on your page.



From the above attributes, only first one- name - is mandatory, the other ones are optional.

The "type" attribute can have one of the following values:

• box_count
• button_count
• button
• icon_link or
• icon

If none of them is specified, then the button defaults to the "button count" type. Experiment with them, and see which you like most!

Finally, regarding the anchor tag, if you don't specify a share_url, then this attribute defaults to the current page.



Facebook Share button - No2

Are you working with graphic designers, that want every button in your page to be customized according to the general design of your website?

Well in this situation, you can include your own button this way:

Let me explain a little bit. As you can see, you have an anchor tag, which, on click, calls a javascript function "fbs_click". Inside img tag, you locate your own image!

In your head section or just above the anchor tag, you define "fbs_click" function the way I did. The function, takes the url of your current page.

The url that is passed to the Facebook servers looks up certain HTML tags within it. If you don't tag your page, Facebook Share will grab the title of your page as specified in the title tag, and will create a summary description from the first text that appears in the body of your page. A list of thumbnails will all be selected from available images on your page.

In order to control the exact title, description, and thumbnail that Facebook Share uses, add the following meta tags to the head element in your page:




Conclusion
If you want to do this the simple way, use the first solution! If you want to put your own button, just use the second way!

There is also a third way to include a share button in your website. You have to include the Facebook JS SDK and invoke stream.publish or stream.share from the FB.ui() method. But I will explain it in more detail, in another post!


***You can read more about "Share button" at the official Facebook site.

How to backup your information from Facebook

Are you afraid of loosing your photos, videos and posts you share on Facebook? You can simply backup all this information by following the steps below:

1. Click the account menu at the top right of any Facebook page
2. Choose Account Settings
3. Click on "Download a copy" of your Facebook data
4. Click the Download button on the following page

Useful links for doing Business on Facebook

For those you want to get their Business on Facebook and start using Facebook's tools to achieve their business objectives, I would recommend following links:

• http://www.facebook.com/business
• http://www.facebook.com/FacebookPages
• http://www.facebook.com/FacebookAds

If you have a look at these links, you will see that you have to follow 4 basic steps to achieve your business goals.

• First of all you have to create a page for your business. 
• By using Facebook Ads, you can reach exactly the people you want. 
• To amplify word of mouth, take advantage of friends talking to their friends with sponsored stories
• Last but not least, use plug-ins and custom apps to customize your page and attract more visitors.

I will explain to my next post in more detail, how you can create your Facebook pages from scratch giving some useful tips for your Facebook marketing strategy.

Then I will make a tutorial on how to customize your landing pages using html and css to create an attracting imagemap with clickable areas.

How to permanently delete your Facebook account

For those you want to permanently delete their Facebook account, I found this.

You have to deactivate your Facebook account and NOT USE FACEBOOK IN ANY WAY FOR 2 WEEKS.
If you login to your account during these 14 days, you cancel this way your deletion request. You should also not click "Like buttons" on other websites, or any other embedded Facebook features!

I don't know it from personal experience, cause I don't tend to deactivate my Facebook account, but I found this topic here, and I wanted to post it to my blog!

New features for Facebook

Facebook has added many new features.


Facebook homepage

First of all users' Facebook homepage has changed, showing the most important and interesting news feeds to every single user. Previously, news appeared in chronological order, but now top stories will show on the top of the page. Even if someone hasn't visited facebook for a week, he will have at once a summary of all the news he is interested in! It will be like his "personal newspaper"!



Facebook timeline

Timeline will be a collection of all your photos, posts and applications that tell your story to your friends. In order to find and read your previous posts, you had to click "Older posts" again and again. Now with facebook timeline, all your stuff just don't vanish.

You can read here, how to get Facebook timeline right now!


Friend lists 

You can easily see updates from and share with different lists of friends.

Facebook Timeline

Facebook Timeline will be available very soon. Many new features will be added.

First of all facebook timeline is wider than the old profile and reminds more of a personal website with slideshows, collection of videos, personal information, posts and applications.

At the top everyone will have the opportunity to place a big picture as a cover, and of course remove it or update it. As you scroll down, you see posts, photos, videos as they happen in time. In other words, you tell your story to your friends!

Do you want to get Facebook's new Timeline now?

If you want to get Facebook's new Timeline right now and not in a few weeks, all you need to do is just become a developer!

• Type 'facebook developers' in facebook's search field or click on the link https://developers.facebook.com/apps
• On the page that appears click on the "Create new App" button
• Then give an App display name, a name for the App Namespace and tick the “Agree to Privacy policy” checkbox.

• Security check is also required, by completing the Captcha popup
• On the screen that appears on the left side, click on the 'Open Graph' link 
• On this screen you start by defining one action and one object for your app. Just type whatever  and click on the "Get started" button.
• On the following screen, there are 3 tabs : "Edit your action type", "Edit your object type", "Create an aggregation". Just click 'Save changes and next' to each of them.
•  After that you are complete. Go to your facebook profile and on the top part of the page, you'll see a notification to enable Timeline. Enable this and start enjoying your new Facebook Profile!

Create a custom page in Facebook with iFrame

In order to encourage your visitors to "like" your Facebook page, you should customize it and make it more attractive.

Let's suppose that you have already created a custom page and want to put it into Facebook, but you don't know how to do it. Things are easy. Follow the steps below!

• Enter https://developers.facebook.com/apps or just type "Facebook Developers" in the search field
• Click button "Create new App" and complete the following form

• Security check is required

• Next, you complete all basic information, 'App Display Name', 'App Namespace', 'Contact Email'. 

The most important section is "App on Facebook", where you complete the "Canvas URL" and "Secure Canvas URL". This is the url, where you have uploaded your page. Don't forget to write symbol "/" at the end of the url, otherwise facebook will let you know about the errors.

In Page Tab section you give a name for your tab as well as page url.

• After that you are ready to include your custom application to your Facebook page. Click "View App Profile Page" at the left part of the page and then click "Add to my page".

In another post I will explain, how you can create something custom from scratch and I think it is going to be an imagemap with clickable areas using html and css!