Facebook's recent switch from FBML to iFrame support for Pages means that you have a lot more flexibility with how you design your page. You can effectively display anything that you would normally have on a typical website - email opt-in forms, multiple pages within your Facebook Page and even order buttons.
But there's one problem with the iFrame support that only going to get worse as time goes by - people browsing on a secure connection. Facebook has a setting that turns on secure browsing using https: instead of http: for the page URLs. There are only a small number of users who have this setting turned on at the moment, but as people become more security-conscious that number will no doubt increase.
The trouble is, if you're using an iFrame to display content on your Facebook Page, and the content that is inside that iFrame is not coming from a secure connection, anyone who lands on your Page with a secure connection is going to see a message that the content is not secure.
Facebook gives them the option to turn off secure browsing so they can see your Page, but many people won't, especially if they don't really know much about you or your Page. If they're concerned enough to turn on secure browsing, they're probably not going to switch to an unsecured connection to view content that they don't know if they can trust or not.
The solution to this is to set up an SSL certificate on your domain so you can serve the content to your iFrame from an https: connection. You can buy certificates for as little as $9 per year, so it doesn't have to cost a lot of money.
When you install the certificate on your domain, you can access it through https: to get the secure version. When you're setting up the iFrame for your Facebook page, it gives you an option to enter a secure URL for the iFrame contents, so you would put your secure URL in there.
eg. If your iFrame content is at http://www.mydomain.com/fbpage.html you would use https://www.mydomain.com/fbpage.html as the secure version.
As long as you have a certificate installed, this will work properly and anyone who arrives on your Page through a secure connection to Facebook will see the contents without any kind of error message or warning.
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No matter what type of business you own, a Facebook Fan Page can help you find more customers, make more sales to the ones you already have and make more profit. In this article, we're going to look at five reasons you should create a Facebook Page for your business.
Reaching Your Market
There are over 600 million registered users on Facebook and roughly half of those log in to the site every single day. That's about 300 million users that are on the site daily, a much larger reach than any other type of advertising can ever reach.
Analytics
Facebook Insights lets you see all kind of demographic information about the people visiting your Page, such as gender, age, location and more. This will give you the ability to target your message much more effectively, both on Facebook and elsewhere.
If you know the demographics of the people who are most interested in what you have to offer (ie. the people "liking" your Page) you'll be able to use that information in all your marketing channels.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Facebook gives you access to a huge potential audience, but that doesn't mean that you should ignore Google and other search engines. They can still send you plenty of traffic and potential customers.
Fortunately, your Facebook Page is "visible" to the search engines and they can index and rank your Page. This means that you can generate more free traffic through the search engines.
Interaction
Your Facebook Page lets your customers and prospective customers interact with you directly. They can ask questions, leave comments on things you post or - if you allow it - post their own items to your Page.
This helps your customers feel more "connected" with you, and this will help strengthen the relationship. They will grow to trust you and therefore be more likely to act on your recommendations (many of which will result in revenue for you!)
Move People Into Other Channels
You can create a "mini" version of your website on your Facebook Page, giving people the opportunity to join your email list or even buy something from you. This lets you use Facebook to get noticed, and then move those people into other channels where you have more control over the entire process.
Facebook might have started out as a way of keeping in touch with friends and family, but it has grown into a valuable business tool. Make sure you're not missing out on all the potential it offers.
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