Chelsea Hejny is a social media writer at ShortStack, a tab-designing tool that creates custom Facebook Pages. Hejny also works as a president of the American Marketing Association in Nevada.
Great Facebook Pages are easy to spot; however, the reasons for their greatness might not be so obvious. Visually appealing and well-designed tabs are good, but there are five traits that make a Facebook tab great.
- Purpose. With every Facebook tab, there needs to be an easily understood purpose of its existence. For example, a page’s landing tab, sometimes know as the welcome tab, should clearly and briefly introduce Facebook users to your brand. For created tabs that serve as host to a contest, a promotion, a subscription form or other content, make certain their purpose is real and measurable. Creating a Facebook-only promo code or listing a unique telephone number on your tab are two methods of tracking its metrics.
- Viewpoint. Great tabs make a statement. Tab elements that support a worthy statement usually include nice graphics, meaningful text and components such as video, a Twitter stream or even SoundCloud. Integrating features into your Facebook tabs not only allows for a statement to be made but also creates allure and can complement the intended purpose for a specific tab.
- Branding. Whether it be incorporating brand colors or integrating your business’ overarching message, great tabs always support their brand. Incorporating business logos, using consistent text styles and choosing graphics that support the brand imagery of your business are ways to ensure your custom-created tab stands out to Facebook users.
- Incentives. What most separates a good tab from a great tab is its “like” ratio: the number of tab views to the number of “likes” a page receives. The best Facebook tabs capture users’ interest and often allude to special offerings. “Fan-gating,” which gives page administrators the ability to create content that is viewable only to users who have “liked” their page, does exactly that.
- Timeliness. It’s often overlooked or forgotten that Facebook tabs can and do expire. Out-of-date content, seasonable graphics and limited-time promotion codes expire a tab. To avoid making a great Facebook tab a poor one, stay aware of the time sensitivity of the tab’s content and, when needed, update or delete the tab.
Not every Facebook tab embodies all of these five traits, but all of the great ones do. When creating a Facebook tab for your business’ page, keep in mind more than design. As much as aesthetics play a large role in whether a tab is great, the thought, meaning behind a design and content can prove more important.