My Most Successful Facebook Page Tweak to Date

A few months ago, someone wrote me (or maybe Facebooked me or tweeted me?? Ah! can't remember but I wish I could because then I could link to her) and said she had been keeping tabs on my Facebook page and noticed I had jumped in Likers in a huge way. She also asked me what I did.

Well, other than doing my best to interact and be helpful, I did notice a significant increase in Likers after making a change to my landing page one random Friday. If I remember correctly, I had 777 Likes when I implemented the change and by the end of the weekend, it had jumped to well over 900. (I would give you some cold, hard statistics…if I had them. I seem to do things on a whim and then only later think, Oh wow! Didn't know how well THAT would work. Should have kept better track!) What can I say.

First, know how to create a landing page

Do you remember my tutorial about making a Facebook landing page using iframes? If not, that's a great place to start because you'll need it for what I'm about to say next.

The tweak that made the difference:

I created a "reveal" page.

What is a reveal page? Let me show you…

When someone new (a non-fan) visits my Facebook page, they see this:

Then, when they click the "Like" button, they see this:

I suppose there's not a lot of explanation needed here; it's pretty straightforward. Basically, I give them a hint of some free information and then deliver as soon as they click the "Like" button. (A recent post on HyperArts, 5 Most Common Mistakes on Facebook Fan-Gated Reveal Tabs lists one of the mistakes of fan pages as "Just asking fans to "Like My Page!" without any incentive." I agree.)

How to create a reveal page

1. What kind of free information can you give to others that is likely to be interesting and helpful?

In my case, whenever I'm in a conversation with my IRL (in real life) friends and tell them I work online as a blogger, they always want to know how one makes money as a blogger. Because Facebook is full of my IRL friends (and people not necessarily familiar with blogging), I figured this would be interesting information to many Facebook types.

2. How will you present your information?

I knew I wanted to direct people back to my blog, so I wanted to include links on my reveal page. To do this, I simply used HTML (again, refer to my tutorial in which I use the Static HTML app). And actually, the way I came up with the HTML was to write my reveal page in WordPress. I used the "Add new post" window's "Visual" tab and then grab the HTML from the HTML tab. I wrote the whole thing just like I would a regular blog post, including the "Thanks" image I created separately. (Of course, I didn't publish this on my blog but just used WordPress so I didn't have to write the HTML from scratch.) I then pasted the HTML into the Static HTML app on Facebook. I had to tweak it a bit once I stuck it in there but it wasn't a huge deal.

3. Grab the image of your reveal page.

Once I put in the HTML of my reveal page into Static HMTL, I previewed it. I grabbed a screenshot of the preview and saved it as a jpg. (I use Skitch for screenshots and L.O.V.E. it. Skitch only works on Macs, though, so if you have a PC, try the snipping tool or something similar.)

4. Create the landing page image.

I fired up my image editing software. I used Gimp, but you could also use Pixlr (which I just started using recently and have really enjoyed), Photoshop, Illustrator, Photoshop Elements or whatever else works for ya. (Remember, images on Facebook can be no wider than 520 pixels so keep that in mind when creating your image.)

I simply uploaded my image from Step 3 and made the text unreadable using the blur tool. Then I added another layer on top containing the simple call to action box (a key component! Tell them what you'd like them to do!) which encourages them to click the "Like" button to in order to see the info below. I added that image to the Static HTML app and it was done!

Things to put on your reveal page

I obviously used my reveal tab to offer free information but you could also consider offering a coupon code for a product or service, a free copy of your ebook, a link to a printable, a podcast, webinar, etc. Be creative!

Have you liked my Facebook page yet?

How 'bout you? Have you seen any creative Facebook landing pages that you just couldn't resist Liking?

ShareTweetBuffer