Businesses used to use Facebook tabs to customise their pages and link to information on their website.

When Facebook changed to tab apps, many businesses stopped using them because they weren’t sure how or how to benefit.

The benefits are still there. Facebook tab apps are the perfect way to engage fans on the site while tying your website to Facebook. With a few custom tab apps, you can increase visitors on Facebook and your site.

Tab Apps Explained

These aren’t tabs in the traditional sense. Instead, they’re either links or apps using an iframe system. This means business pages now have far more control over what they use their tabs for. Facebook allows pages to have up to five tabs under the cover photo and three along the left side of the page. This is prime real estate to add new features to a page or link the page to the business’s website.

Takeaway: Facebook tab apps are more powerful than the original Facebook tabs. Utilise them to make more engaging pages.

Creating Tabs

Facebook offers some tab apps for businesses to implement without needing any coding knowledge. These let businesses basically fill in the blanks to create a static page or link back to their site. For more advanced or custom tabs, businesses must use the Facebook Developers system.  It does require a little coding expertise and configuration to make the tab app work.

Takeaway: Use custom created tab apps to give a business page a more personalised look and feel. Consider using a professional developer to ensure the apps function correctly.

Drive Traffic To A Website

One of the main purposes of a Facebook page is to drive traffic to a business’s website. This leads to more site visitors and conversions. For most businesses, Facebook is just a way to attract new customers and interact. Their main website is where they sell products and services. Tab apps can link to specially created pages on a business’s website. They can even be linked to update the tab as information is updated on the website, such as listing most recent blog posts on a Blog tab.

Takeaway: Businesses often link their tabs to landing pages, email sign-ups, special promotions and blogs. Tie at least a few of your tabs to the most important pages on your site. Use an experienced developer to ensure all pages link correctly.

Create Microsites

A tab can serve as its own microsite. This could be a condensed version of a business’s site, a landing page, highlights from the main site or anything other type of content. These microsite tabs usually resemble the business’s website to create a uniform look when the visitor goes between the two. It’s a good way to create an extra website for a business via Facebook.

Takeaway: Create a secondary microsite to represent your brand on Facebook. Consider hiring a developer to make the site easy to use and uniform with your main website.

Hold Competitions

One of the more popular uses for tabs is competitions. These engage visitors and get them to share your page with friends and family. The tab app includes all details about the competition along with a way for visitors to enter.  It should also include a way for anyone entering to share the contest. For instance, a page may load in place of the entry form with share links.

Takeaway: Add in a competition tab to give away a product, service or discount. They’re fun for visitors and increase traffic to the page. Professional developers know how to create custom competition tabs to ensure it’s easy to enter and share.

Placement Is Everything

Choosing where to place tabs is important. Visitors are drawn to the tabs under the cover photo first. Businesses have space for five tabs. Some of the default ones can be deleted to make room for more important ones. Place the most valuable tabs in this location, such as links to a store or newsletter sign-up page to build a contact list. Other tabs should be placed on the left side of the page. These may not get as many clicks, but they’re still visible to visitors.

Takeaway: Experiment with the placement of tabs to see how visitors react. You can change the placement at any time to improve results. You can test performance with Facebook analytics. Consult a professional developer about placement.

Conclusion

Facebook tab apps are a powerful way to customise a Facebook business page and give more to visitors. Think of them as an extension of your website. It does take some technical knowledge to make them work properly. Most businesses opt for a mixture of Facebook and custom tab apps to give their fans the best experience possible.

Thinking of using Facebook tab apps yourself? Contact StuartMedia today for professional apps to take your Facebook page to the next level.

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