Recently Facebook released a new kind of button. The “send” button and I believe this is a great button that replaces a lot of no longer supported or barely support functionality within Facebook’s FBML.

Unlike the “like” button, the “send” button is for specifically sending a message and a link to a group of people on your friends list. I believe this is a great replacement for the “Share” button and the “Suggest To Friends” FBML.

Why A Great Replacement?

Share Button

The share button has always been there to let people know of content you find that you want to let your friends know about. But when this was depreciated and replaced by the “Like” button it never really gave the same meaning. You might not actually like the content you are sharing but want others to see it and discuss it. The send button allows people to do this.

Suggest To Friends

Ever since the width of the Facebook fan page reduced to 520px there have been problems with the FBML suggest to friends functionality. With continuing issues now that FBML Facebook applications are depreciated, it is fair to say that the FBML suggest to friends functionality is a casuality of Facebook’s continuing improvements.

Now I recommend using the “Send” button. It serves the same purpose and can be easily embedded in your new iFrame apps.

Coding The Facebook Send Button

You can easily create your own by going to Send Button – Facebook.

1. Load The Javascript SDK (if you haven’t already)

<div id="fb-root"></div>

<script>
FB.init({
appId  : 'YOUR APP ID',
status : true, // check login status
cookie : true, // enable cookies to allow the server to access the session
xfbml  : true  // parse XFBML
});
</script>


2. Send Button Code

<fb:send href="example.com"></fb:send>

or a quick trick. If you have a Facebook like already on your website just add send=true to your fb:like code.

Hiding content on your Facebook welcome page can be a great incentive for people to like your page to get the hidden content. Since Facebook depreciated FBML we now have to use iFrames. This is pushing it further into the realms of developers rather than end users.

How To Do It?

Step 1 – Create A PHP file and create the iFrame

Step 2 – Insert Code into PHP file

1. You Need Quality Followers Over Quantity

Everyone says you need quality followers. That is true, without the quality followers you wouldn’t be able to engage and connect with potential customers.

But you need the quantity. You will most likely interact with 20% or less of your following. For that 20% to be bigger you need a larger list, which means you are going to have 80% or more non interactive followers. You need a large following to get to the quality following.

2. Things Go Viral

As Dan Zarrella has shown not 1 thing has ever gone truly viral on social media. Going viral means that 1 person shares with at least 1 or more people and eventually it consumes the world.

What actually happens is good, funny or bad content gets shared among a few people. They each have a number of friends but when they share it to 400 of their friends only 10 or less might pass it on. It keeps diminishing with each share. The only way it goes supposedly viral is when it hits a huge audience.

Take for example the Rebecca Black Friday song. Well over 70 million views now, but how many people was that originally introduced to? When you look at the fact it was shown on National TV and a large number of immensely popular blogs having an audience of 100′s of millions, why isn’t the views of that video over 100′s of millions? Because it didn’t go viral, it just had a large audience to begin with.

Going viral on Social Media means more about getting in front of a large audience, so someone at these media outlets picking something up. Nothing is yet to go truly viral online.

3. It Is There To Promote Me

Stop using your social media to tell everyone about your latest specials or ask random questions that no one cares about just to try and talk about yourself. Social media is there to engage with your customers or potential customers. Sure, an occassional plug won’t hurt but it’s not the main reason.

Start actually caring about your customers and people and HELP them. Where is the pitch in this article? There is none, I just love business development and helping other businesses use these tools more effectively.

4. Personal Interaction Isn’t Scalable

I used to think that personal interaction wasn’t scalable online but it can be. It just means you have to let go of the dream that you can put up content, get people to read and comment and then buy your stuff without you ever talking to them. Sure it might work but that will decrease in time as the people who are willing to put in this effort, build the relationships and create customer loyalty take over.

While it has been a little while I have personally looked at over 50 sites and made recommendations to increase conversions for anyone who asked. It took me 3 hours. It is far more scalable than 1 on 1 in person and there is a limit but it is far more scalable than offline communications.

5. Social Media Isn’t There For Selling

On to another myth on the other side that you can’t use social media to sell your products or services. You can, it just can’t be your primary goal online. You need to help people first and if you think that something you sell might benefit them, let them know about it. As long as you are there to help you can sell if needed. There is a line between what to give away for free and what to sell, that is up to you to decide. Just give value. I always judge one by what they give away for free. If it’s great stuff what they have to sell will be even greater.

If you have any questions please let me know. I answer all comments on the blog or Facebook page. (I check the Facebook page more often so you are likely to get a quicker response there).

1. You Like Short Lists

It’s common knowledge that people like short lists. It is quick and easy to take in information in this fast paced tech world. Any list of 3, 5, 7 or 10 always performs well. Though these lists tend to get a little repetitive over time.

2. Easy To Digest

Recent research by Dan Zarrella shows the lower your Flesch-Kincaid scale (oops, I think that just decreased this article’s readability by mentioning something hard to say)  the more shares and likes it will have. So make sure no one has to think hard about your post. On another level, the more complex your idea the less it will be read and shared. I have written content that would make a great impact on someone’s business but it hardly got any bites. Write a short list like this and I am a superstar.

3. Great Headline

Headlines make or break an article. It is the deciding factor on whether people will want to click on it or not. List posts (like this one) or How To’s are great examples of well converting headlines.

Don’t you just love my headline?

4. It Has Something To Do With Facebook

Again Dan Zarrella and many other studies, including mine show if you mention the social platform you are trying to spread it on, it will get shared far more. So I mentioned like’s and Facebook, I am in with a good chance here.

5. I Have Like Buttons Everywhere

Making your article easily sharable and even asking for the like will make a difference. As you can see I have 3 places you can like or share this article as well as other social media platforms.

Also like my article please!

We all know that Google has been hopeless in trying to get a foothold in social media. Their new offering (something that has been in the works for a while) might finally be the foothold they have been looking for.

Google has announced it is doing a public trial of their +1 button.

How Does The +1 Button Work?

When you do a search on Google you will see a small +1 box beside each search result and advertisement. Clicking on this indicates you like the page. If you have other people who are connected to your through Google then you will see their +1′s as well.

It is essentially a copy of the Facebook like button.

How Can You Access It?

Right now it is only available to those who opt into it (it is still in its experimental stage). If you want to give it a go: http://www.google.com/experimental

What This Means For SEO

If you have been following Binkd for a while, you would know we believe SEO, in the traditional sense, is dying and dying fast. The link back and other strategies used in the past have been easily gamed and to get to the top of the search engines now it is who can hire the most people to get the most link backs.

A trend has been occurring at both Bing and Google’s level to use more social information to determine rankings such as Facebook likes or amount of twitter shares. This is much harder to trick as it is people determining what is the best content on the web (the way it always should have been).

While not specifically stated, it has been implied that the more Google +1′s you have the better your search engine ranking will be. As such I believe this is why it will become popular for website owners.

Can I Add A +1 Button To My Website?

Not yet. Google is still in the works with this, so it is coming, but most likely in several months (so still a long wait in the tech world).

You can sign-up to be notified when it is available at this link: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/plusonesignup/

Social SEO Revolution Is Picking Up Speed

With more social data being created and accessed on a daily basis by search engines, results are only ever going to rely more on what people think is the best content and not how many link backs it has. Content is fast becoming King again. With this in mind many of the past touted SEO techniques are soon to be obsolete. I would even go so far as to see a massive shrinkage in the SEO industry due to the fact most of the work will now be done by people like you and me in deciding great content.

1. Create An iFrame Application Tab

All the instructions are located here under How To Add An iFrame Application Tab To Your Facebook Page

Note: Please record the Application Id when setting up your iFrame application, you will need it below.

2. Edit Your Html File

NOTE: Please rename your .html file to a .php file and change these settings in your iFrame application as well. This is due to a “405 – HTTP verb used to access this page is not allowed.” error that will occur if you use the extension .html. You can also rename it to .aspx or another scripting or web language depending on your server.

Enter this in your file. Please remember to insert your Application Id that you recorded in the 1st step.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css" />
<style type="text/css">
body {
width:570px;overflow:scroll;
margin:0; padding:0; border:0;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js"></script>
<script>
FB.init({
appId:'ENTER YOUR APPLICATION ID',
cookie:true,
status:true, xfbml:true
});
</script>
<fb:serverfbml width="570">
<script type="text/fbml">
<fb:request-form action="http://www.facebook.com/binkd" method="POST" invite="true"
type="Binkd" content="Some Content Here. <fb:req-choice url='http://www.facebook.com/binkd' label='Binkd Label' />">
<fb:multi-friend-selector showborder="false" bypass="cancel" cols=3 actiontext="Invite Friends To Binkd"/>
</fb:request-form>
</script>
</fb:serverfbml>
</body>
</html>

Download the code here

NOTE: Since this is FBML, I can not change any part of the popup screens, only Facebook can. Due to the fact the popup screens are cropped, the only way to get around this at the moment is to set the width of the page to 570px and the overflow to scroll. At least this way people can scroll across the page to see the remainder of the popup. I have already done this for you in the code examples above.

3. Your Suggest To Friends Tab

I don’t know why my limit of suggesting to friends is 40, others report, 12, 8 or 6. There is currently no way I know off to manually set this limit.

As of the 11th of March 2011, Facebook will officially depreciate FBML. Existing FBML applications will still work but you will no longer be able to add new ones. Facebook will now be recommending and focusing upon iFrames.

Note: In order for this to work you need to upgrade your Facebook page. Or if it is past the 10th of March it would have been upgraded automatically for you.

Step 1 – Create An Html File

Create a text file and call it what-ever-you-want.html. Inside this text file place in any html code. Here is a sample to get you started.

DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
<head>
<title>A Title</title>
<style type="text/css">
body {
width:520px;
margin:0px;
padding:0x;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
Insert your html here
</body>
</html>

Step 2 – Upload It To Your Hosting Provider

FTP to your web host (place where your website is hosted) and upload the newly created html file in the root public directory. This may be straight into “/” or “/public_html” or something else depending on your hosting provider.

Please note the url of your new html file. It will be something like: http://www.yourdomain.com/newfile.html

If you do not have hosting, it is fairly cheap and easy to setup. Take a look at web hosting for only $3.99 per month.

Step 3 – Create An App On Facebook

Go to http://facebook.com/developers. You may need to allow permission if you haven’t already created an app on Facebook before.

Press “Set Up New App” (top right hand corner of the page)

Step 4 – Enter Application Name

Once you press the “Create Application” button it will have a CAPTCHA there to ensure you are human.

Step 5 – Add Details

Make sure you fill in the description as it makes it easier to recognize what your applications/pages are for later.

Also, inserting an icon is crucial to make sure your page looks good. The icon will be displayed next to the tab link when it is added to your page. If you do not enter an icon you will get the default cogs (not a pretty sight).

Step 6 – Facebook Integration

Press the Facebook Integration Tab in the side menu.

1. Fill out the canvas url and the secure one if you have an SSL certificate on your site.

Note: Put the directory of where the html file is and not the .html itself.

2. Enter in the default .html file you uploaded at the bottom of the screen.

3. Press the Save Changes button.

Step 7 – Application Profile Page

1. Press the Application Profile Page link on the page you are now on.

2. Press The “Add to my Page” link in the left hand column.

3. Add the application to the page you want.

Final Result

1. Create Offer / Prize

2. Finding An Application To Host It

	Binkd Promotion Platform- A social media contest platform for Facebook or your website. Many different contest types and custom integrations. Create free account Free Twitter contest app and low cost Facebook contests.
	Wildfire - Facebook contest app and social media analytics, their lowest package costing $5 per campaign and 99 cents per day.
	Votigo – again not free and possibly very expensive but another option to look into if you are serious about contests.
	Involver – a huge range of applications and one that hosts contests.
	Bulbstorm – an interesting twist on contests where people submit and vote ideas.

3. Installing Your Application

4. Get A Promotion Strategy

1. Your website
2. Ask others to promote it to their lists
3. Pay Per Click Advertising
4. Facebook Advertising
5. Email

Well it is finally here, the new look Facebook pages. Admins have until the 10th of March to upgrade by themselves or they will automatically be upgraded. If you want to upgrade yourself right now, here is how.

The Upgrade Button

1. Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/status/

2. Press the Tour button to make sure you page looks good in the new page.

3. Now press the Upgrade button

It will give a little warning just making sure you realize you can’t revert, not that you will be able to in a month anyway.

The Old vs The New

The Main Differences

1. Navigation. You will notice there are no more tabs. The navigation is in the left hand column.

2. Photos at the top of the page, just like the new personal profiles.

3. The ability to post as the page or yourself. This has actually been enabled for a little while, I noticed it about 1 week ago. There is a link to toggle this on the right hand side. This is a feature I have been waiting for as when they are multiple admin’s of a page it makes it hard for the fans to distinguish which ones they are talking to.

4. Left hand profile picture is smaller to give way to the larger right hand side column.

I personally like the new look Facebook pages, what do you think about the new look? Leave comments below or on our new look Facebook page.

In this post I am going to show you how to hide content on static FBML pages from people who are not a liker or fan of your page, also known as a fan-gate. Only by pressing the like button can they get access to your hidden content.

This is a great way to entice people to become a follower of your page.

The best place to put this is in your “Welcome Page”, the first page that people see when they come to your Facebook page. If you don’t have a welcome page check out: http://www.binkd.com/social-media/how-to-create-a-facebook-welcome-page/

1. Edit Your Welcome Page

First, you need to edit your welcome page or Static FBML page. Check with the post above regarding how to create a welcome page if you need a reminder on how to get back there.

2. Enter In The FBML

Enter this code where you want your coupon or other hidden content to show.

<fb:visible-to-connection>
This is when people have ‘Liked’ your page and this is where the coupon or special offer for fans should be
<fb:else>Non-likers will see this content. Give them an enticement to become one.</fb:else>
</fb:visible-to-connection>

For example I have done this

<fb:visible-to-connection>

<h1>Here is your coupon code</h1>
<img src=”coupon-visible.png” alt=”visible” />

<fb:else>
<h1>Like The Page And Get Your Coupon Code</h1>
<img src=”coupon-non-visible.png” alt=”non visible” />
</fb:else>

</fb:visible-to-connection>

3. What The Admin Will See

Now when you go to your “Welcome Page” you will see something similar to this below. You will see both the non-fans and fans text/images. This is normal.

Note: Yes it is the page of Awesomesauce. Unfortunately due to its extreme awesomeness it could not be left on Facebook.

 4. What Non-Fans Will See

You will notice a gap above where the other image and text is meant to be (a whitespace). In order to remove this you need to wrap each element in a div tag and set absolute positioning to 0px for both top and left;

 5. What Fans See

When the like button is pressed then the tab will refresh and you will get this screen.

5 Ways To Use The Reveal Only To Fans

1. Give them a coupon code
2. Give them access to an e-book
3. Access to specialized information on the page (e.g. may a time for your next sale, only available to fans)
4. A link or code to access something special on your website
5. Give them access to a hidden article or write the article or information on the Facebook tab