ArtbyHerbie.com » Internet

Facebook Pages – My New Welcome Tab and How You Can Get Yours

Herbie Hysteria — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 13:37:57 +0000

It’s a no-brainer. Your business NEEDS to be on Facebook. You’re missing out on some serious marketing potential and exposure if the only reason you’re using Facebook is to stay in touch with friends you’ll never meet, or to stalk that ex girl / boyfriend of yours you wish you never cheated on(!) The first stop for you as a business owner should be to create a Facebook page. This is easy enough and is really the most basic step to your career as a Facebook marketing genius, but how can we get our pages standing out from the millions of other pages? Que the ‘Welcome’ tab.

Facebook allowed integration and development of applications using it’s own version of HTML called FBML. It was great for a time and developers flocked to understanding and mastering it, only to find out early 2011 that Facebook had decided to pull the plug on it and that all webmasters and Page Admins should revert their FBML tags and code BACK to HTML. Bit of a silly merry-go-round but, ya know, it’s not as if we have a say in what Zuckers and Co decides to do. This resulted in a cartload of information on the internet referring to FBML which is now defunct, useless, space-sucking, call it what-you-want. So, I’ll reveal the most up-to-date way of achieving it, using an iframe tab and HTML.

Dedicated landing pages are used to steer your page visitors to a single image or page. This page can be used to further promote your brand, product or service, remind your visitors to ‘Like’ your page and anything and including therafter, dependent on your coding skills. Most pages go straight to the wall or photo albums, which is boring because it’s the default view, so this little tweak will make your page shine out amongst the cannon-fodder(!)

I just changed mine, here’s what all non-fans and first-time visitors see:

A little reminder for all non-fans and new visitors...

Then, to all the wonderful homies who ‘Like’ my page:

...then a little 'Thanks!' for all those who 'liked' my page.

Yeah, yeah, I know. You may be thinking ‘that design is f****ing awesome, ha ha ha, Herbie you are just too sick!’, but ya know, don’t wanna blow my own trumpet and all that but, yeah, I knocked the images up in a few minutes whilst juggling eight tennis balls, lickin’ a Cornetto ice-cream and balancing on my head – all at the same time. Who says it’s only women who can multi-task?

See, Dick? It’s pretty simple but a very slick trick(!) Here’s how you do it:

1) Install ‘Static HTML’ App on Your Page

You need the ‘Static HTML: iFrame Tabs’ app for your page. Go to https://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=190322544333196 and click the ‘Add to my page’ link which can be found on the bottom left of the application’s page.

2) Create and Upload Images

This is important. The width of your images can only be 520px. This will ensure you use all the allocated space whilst keeping everything flush and neatly positioned. The height can be anything you want. My images above are 739px in height. Export your images as gifs, pngs or jpegs. Use 96dpi pngs for optimum web performance and appearance.

Save your image(s) in your own web directories or by using the many free image-hosting services available such as Flickr and Photobucket. Make sure you know the full directory paths to your image(s).

3) Enter App Code

Click the new ‘Welcome’ tab you see on your page after you have installed the app. You can decide here if you just want one image to show everyone, or two images to show non-fans and fans alike. Be slick like me and go for the double-combo meat-fist sandwich (ie. two images). Enter the following code into the boxes:

Make sure you enter the correct image dimensions in the code and also the url to where you saved your images. Repeat this step in the second box if you wish to show a different image for users who have already ‘liked’ your page. Click ‘Save and view tab’ at the top right corner and view your new welcome page in both forms, as a non-fan and also as a fan.

As a final check, go to your page> Edit Info> Manage Permissions and ensure the ‘Default Landing Tab’ is selected to ‘Welcome’. Get your Facebook rudies to check your new welcome tab and report back. Everything should be working smooooth!

Here’s what mine looks like on my page:

'Live and kicking'

4) Become Overwhelmed With The Flood Of New Fans(!)

That’s it! Now your page stands out from everyone else’s and reaches a new-level in the ‘slickness chart’. Notice all the big boys and pros have already had this sussed. Welcome to the ‘Player’s Club’ homie! My page received a humongous SIX new likes within the 24 hours since I created my new Welcome tab, and I salute each one of my new fans. I have an earth-shattering 102 likes on my page now and I’m proud because each one of these people actually acknowledged my shizzle by clicking the ‘like’ button.

Now, to everyone else who HASN’T liked my page, what the f….??!! Us bloggers share secrets, tips and tricks for the benefit of others who may not have the skills we do. The LEAST you can do is ‘like’ my Facebook page here….jheeeeze!

Till the nex’ time, kids!

PS: You can comment using your FB profile below, without having to enter email address etc. Let me know what you think.

Facebook Display Picture – Introducing ‘Bookface’

Herbie Hysteria — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 21:49:48 +0000

The recent NSPCC campaign to raise awareness of child cruelty and neglect by encouraging everybody to change their Facebook display picture to a childhood cartoon seems to have worked! Although there are reports that the whole thing is a scam, it’s done rather well to get the point across to the masses. My Facebook friends-list seems to have turned into the cast for a Disneyland pantomime. I, too, changed mine to a group-shot of the characters from ‘Rude Dog and the Dweebs’ (a childhood favourite) because I believe it’s a worthy cause for minimal effort.

See, there ARE the usual cynical air-heads who choose to whinge and whine about it with statuses such as ‘Instead of changing a picture, go and donate’. I believe it’s about raising awareness, which it obviously has, which would then result in increased donations ANYWAY. Also, if the LEAST we can do is acknowledge such a campaign by changing our display pictures, then so be it. Some people are ‘fucked-in-the-head’, as they say in my neighbourhood.

Anyway, my mind floated towards ‘facebook display pics’ and a little concept just ‘came’ to me last night and envisioned itself within my head, plain and simple, creative and clear. I did a little ‘research’ to see if the concept had been used already, but nothing significant came up. I created it and exported it as a png, had a little laugh whilst doing so. So ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my latest ‘one minute wonder’ – ‘Bookface’:

Your new Facebook default display picture..

Feel free to save the image, in-fact, use it as your Facebook display pic and add me, now that I WOULD get excited about. Anyways I’m off, this was just a quickie, watch out for this month’s portfolio updates and stuff.

Cool Web Apps – Create An Oil Spill On Any Website!

Herbie Hysteria — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:28:48 +0000

Howdedooda, nippers!
I know I’ve been away for a while, but I’m busier than a fox in a chicken-farm with work and all the various projects I’m involved in. Worry not, my portfolio is currently being updated to show you all everything I’ve been doing these past few weeks. Some great projects and work for you to see. There’s a lotta content and posts to be published on my blog as a result, so bear with me.

Meanwhile, I thought I’d make my first post in a month less about me and my business, but more about what’s been happening in the news – with a sprinkle of creativity and original media.

So we’ve all heard about the recent BP fuck-up with the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s been deemed as the biggest oil and ecological disaster since records began. Altogether, the financial repercussions of the disaster will cost BP billions, not millions, for the clean-up operation, lost revenue, share-value and compensation. Oh, how the mighty fall!

The effects the leaking oil has had on maritime life and the environment will be with us for years. The effects the disaster has had on BP’s position as one of the ‘global heavies’ will put BP back by years. Liability for the disaster lies strictly in BP’s lap and they know it.

It’s been big news recently, so everyone knows about it (unless you live in a cardboard box in the middle of the Amazon jungle). However, to raise further awareness of the effects, causes and facts about oil spills, I came across a nifty website at instantoilspill.com which creates a graphical oil spill on any website or webpage you want. The rendering and special effects are awesome, I must say and very realistic. It starts from the bottom of the page and slowly creeps upwards – finally resulting in the complete disappearance of the webpage to a black ‘abyss’. The site also helps to convey a more serious message about the environmental impacts of such events.

Oil Spill on ArtbyHerbie.com

Here’s some screenshots whilst spillin’ the oil all over my blog:

Going...

going...

gone!

As an ambassador of creativity and originality, my beady eyes are always on the look out for such things. Hats off to it’s creators for such a ‘slick’ application (forgive the awful pun, gang!). I just HAD to share this one with you! You can check it out here.

Back on track, soon!
Enjoy and ‘Bonjour’!

View Your Website or Blog on the Apple iPad, Without an Apple iPad(!)

Herbie Hysteria — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:58:02 +0000

Just a quickie, for all those of us who haven’t yet purchased / seen / tried / tested / stolen an Apple iPad. So, Apple sold 300,000 iPads on the first day of release. Not bad for a day’s work, Steve! Die-hard Apple fans would probably have had multiple orgasms when they opened their boxes, the device promises to change the way we think about PCs and computers in general. Without a keyboard or mouse, it comes with less ‘clutter’ than a conventional PC.

The ‘climax’ (forgive the pun) to the launch of the device obviously proved successful with that many shifted on the first day. Not doubting it’s technological capabilities, don’t you think it just looks like a bigger iPhone? Kinda like someone has loaded an image into PhotoShop and dragged the corners to increase the size. Or maybe it looks like the iPhone’s mother, giving birth to little copies of itself.

I’ve not tested the iPad yet, but I came across a great substitute for those of us who are wondering what their websites or blogs would look like on it. It was thanks to John Chow I discovered this little treat. It’s basically a webpage created to resemble the new iPad, in which you can enter any web address and it loads up within the iPad screen area, showing you how your webpage would be rendered on it. Pretty cool, if you ask me! The user base for the iPad is gonna grow quick, so I think web developers will be particularly interested to see how their site or blog is rendered. Here’s a screenshot of what ArtbyHerbie.com looks like on the site:

ArtbyHerbie.com on the iPad

I think it’s a handy tool. For example, if you can see the right side ‘Twitter-Follow Me’ button, it overlaps the Herbie Hysteria logo. It doesn’t do this in FireFox or Chrome, but it would in Internet Explorer. I think it’s about time I changed that image to a more narrower one, so it doesn’t overlap. After all, these iPads ARE selling like hot-cakes! There, the site has already helped me! You can try yours at ipadpeek.com.

Your Comments and Feedback

Are you one of the lucky ones to own an iPad, right now? What do you think of the Safari browser and it’s surfing abilities? Apparently, the iPad has had some wireless connection issues. Has this affected you? I’d love all your feedback and responses to this post. If you’re from Nelson, Burnley, Colne or the surrounding areas, or even if you’re half way across the world, your comments are much appreciated.