Facebook Limits Landing Tabs To “Authenticated Pages”

Landing Tab Money Icon This afternoon Facebook announced via the developer forum that Facebook Pages now need to be authenticated in order to have landing tabs. This means any new visitor to your Facebook Page will not be able to land on a custom tab unless you have greater than 10,000 fans or the Page administrator has worked with an ads account representative. This is a massive blow to smaller companies (or individuals) looking to build their presence through Facebook Pages.

This update came as a massive blow to Page administrators who were looking to build their fan base organically on their own. As we’ve written about in the past, using landing tabs is critical in converting new visitors into fans. Here’s what was posted on the developer forum earlier today:

Hello all,

We apologize for not messaging this earlier. Facebook recently made a change requiring that Pages be authenticated before enabling the ability to set a landing tab beyond Wall or Info. To be eligible for authentication, a Page must have greater than 10k fans or the Page admin must work with their ads account manager. If you are already working with an account representative, please contact that representative to begin the authentication process. If you do not work with an account representative, you can use this contact form to inquire about working with an account representative.

Also, for advertisers who don’t have a representative or 10k fans, and want to run ads and land users on a specific tab, you can still do so with standard Facebook ads by making their Destination URL as the URL incl. your tab. Unfortunately, this currently will not work with “Fan” ads.

Thanks,
Matt Trainer

As you can imagine, developers (and marketers) are not happy. This means that the odds of building a popular Facebook Page are against the average Joe. Instead, administrators will need to spend money on Facebook Ads or alternatively, have a large traffic base on the company’s existing site in order to build a large following.

We’d assume that this change was made for two reasons: to combat spam and more importantly, to boost revenue. We’ll be sure to post any updates as we learn more about the changes. We’re currently trying to find out what impact this will have on third-party solutions (Involver, Sprout, Wildfire, etc) which enable companies to build custom landing tabs.

Thanks to Mari Smith for bringing this to our attention.

Inside Social Apps 2012 is Less Than Two Weeks Away

Mediabistro Event

Inside Social Apps, held on February 8-9 in San Francisco, is less than two weeks away. This is the third conference on the future of monetization on social and mobile platforms. Leaders from the industry will share their views on today's most formidable challenges affecting social and mobile apps and games in 2012. Inside Social Apps conferences sell out in advance, so take advantage of early registration pricing. Early bird rates end on February 1, so register today.

14441113 Comments2010-05-19+22%3A39%3A44Nick+O%27Neill »

Facebook goes and shoots themselves in the foot again. Moves like this, paired with the privacy fiasco, will create an opportunity for another social media site to topple them.

Comment by Shaun Nestor — May 19, 2010 @ 1:52 pm
OMG this is not good. Big big fail from facebook.

Comment by Boris Ung — May 19, 2010 @ 2:52 pm
http://www.allfacebook.com/2010/04/40000-facebook...

http://www.allfacebook.com/2010/05/alert-see-vvho...

Comment by Chris Pan — May 19, 2010 @ 3:00 pm
This really hurts small businesses, which are one of the largest growing groups on Facebook. Now they might not bother. I am kind of hoping an alternative does come along.

Comment by Kim Woodbridge — May 19, 2010 @ 3:01 pm
Now this must be a joke…

Well, I guess we'll have to use those ad vouchers to get in touch with an ad manager there.

Bad move facebook, bad move…

Comment by Alejandro — May 19, 2010 @ 3:03 pm
Thanks for the props, Nick. Whew, what totally insane timing on Facebook's part – amidst all the hoopla about privacy, etc. This sudden, unannounced change doesn't make sense at all.

Comment by Mari Smith — May 19, 2010 @ 3:16 pm
This is really bad news for small business owners…

Comment by Helen Todd — May 19, 2010 @ 3:16 pm
Why not put restrictions on pages that were created b unauthenticated users or users with a high karma? Why make the other page owners suffer from a few spammers?

Comment by Ryan Merket — May 19, 2010 @ 3:18 pm
This is going to be a significant blow to small and medium sized business owners. Not to mention the developers and agencies that are the ones contracted to design and develop the customized landing tabs for the small and medium sized businesses.

Seems like horrible timing given the whole privacy fiasco.

You'd think Facebook would be rolling out new features to lure in businesses, not push them away…

@joshgroth

Comment by Josh Groth — May 19, 2010 @ 3:21 pm
They are asking for it. As if folks weren't already seething from the privacy/trust flap. They just rubbed salt in an open wound.

Comment by Kerri Karvetski — May 19, 2010 @ 3:22 pm
I've been fuming about Facebook for a while, and how they deliberately make it difficult for small businesses to organically grow a following. This move further proves that Facebook is no friend of small biz. Unless you have an established brand and know how to find your customers on Facebook, it's fast-becoming a next-to-useless marketing "tool" for small business. Boycott I say!

Comment by Lucy Beer — May 19, 2010 @ 3:22 pm
We just found this out today and are now in the process of updating our documentation on FaceItPages.com. This is a real bummer and doesn't make sense.

Comment by Leah Thompson — May 19, 2010 @ 3:23 pm
This is really ridiculous – all the small businesses out there are now forced to pay to play. Not to mention that developers like us (http://www.facebook.com/welcometab) are now with 1/4th users overnight.

Another big evidence of why application development is a bad business model – you are at the mercy of platform owner for your livelihood.

Comment by Laura Gram — May 19, 2010 @ 3:25 pm
Aside of the marketing issue – Facebook in effect defeated it's own purpose by not allowing businesses to connect with customers on a more intimate level. By forcing "fans" to see only the wall or info tab upon entry, they learn nothing about who they are dealing with, other then the info Facebook allows them to see.

I understand any company's desire to increase revenue, but not at the expense of the users – small business is the back bone of Facebook.

Facebook is slowing taking the "social" out of its "social network"

Comment by Melissa Ward — May 19, 2010 @ 3:30 pm
I too was disappointed to hear this news, especially coming out of a small developer thread and not a policy announcement straight from Facebook, especially since it concerns much more than the immediate developer network. While the details for this move remain to be seen, it seems that Facebook is perhaps responding to app developers taking advantage of the functionality to spam or scam unsuspecting users. It seems unfair to shift the burden of this punishment straight to fan page owners and operators.

I think an alternative solution is to shift the screening process from fan pages themselves to the apps that can install themselves to fan pages as tabs. Applications can be held accountable for how they use the privilege of taking control of the default tab, leaving the scammers blacklisted as they rightfully should be. What Facebook is doing in this case seems like blaming the victim or bullying the little guy. It will be interesting to see what Facebook's actual rationale here is, and how they respond to a (hopefully) united voice of honest app developers and marketers.

Comment by Jason Anderson — May 19, 2010 @ 3:43 pm
Such a simple yet effective feature of Facebook pages and they decide to yank it unless you spend on ads…?!?! I couldn't agree more with Shaun's comment about this opening the door for other platforms to provide solutions that meet a business' needs. I'm all for them making money and all but this is a huge fail on their part. It's like giving candy to a baby, ripping it away and then tell them if they want it back they will have to pay for it. The message this sends is Facebook only cares about big businesses and less about the majority of its audience. Bad business decision for Facebook… Thanks Mari. Can't wait to hear how you address it in your upcoming SMSS10 presentation on Facebook pages!

Comment by Chris Sabbarese — May 19, 2010 @ 3:48 pm
Hey Nick!

Really bad news for smaller businesses.

On our fan page people are in an uproar over this decision.

See this discussion feed: http://www.facebook.com/smexaminer?v=wall&sto...

Mike

Comment by Michael A. Stelzner — May 19, 2010 @ 3:48 pm
What's the minimum add spend though? I would imagine that Facebook's top priority is combatting spam, not trying to milk small businesses. It might just be more about contacting an account rep to have the functionality enabled.

Anyone know the answer to this?

Comment by Lorenz Sell — May 19, 2010 @ 3:53 pm
@Lorenz – if you go to the 'contact form' they link to from the developer posting, you can't even send off your info to get an account rep unless you specify that your budget for advertising is over $25K.

Comment by Jason Anderson — May 19, 2010 @ 3:58 pm
I doubt your premise that a custom tab with a "strong call to action" is the best way to convert fans.

I find that a well-curated wall tab with the default view set to "all" is most effective.

There are too many spam pages out there right now which trick people into javascript suggesting the page to all their friends.

After you fan the page, the default view is always wall anyway, and if you can link direct to your custom tab from an ad, this is the least worst thing they could have done to protect the legitimacy of your pages.

Comment by Derek Pangallo — May 19, 2010 @ 3:58 pm
Unlike. Really disappointing.

Comment by Jodi Gersh — May 19, 2010 @ 4:06 pm
I'm glad I didn't just hire someone to shoot a video and pimp out a "welcome" tab for me.

Why use number of fans as the criteria? Facebook measures all of these other "insights", why not use one of the metrics that measures actual friend engagement as a criteria–post quality, interactions per post, etc.?

Comment by Chris Heiler — May 19, 2010 @ 4:11 pm
"This means that the odds of building a popular Facebook Page are against the average Joe. Instead, administrators will need to spend money on Facebook Ads or alternatively, have a large traffic base on the company’s existing site in order to build a large following."

Exactly. As others have commented already, this move hurts small businesses, as well as freelancers, bloggers, real estate agents, and anyone else who is unlikely to have 10k fans on their page. A small but loyal following is more "authentic" and valuable than 10k uninvolved fans.

Comment by FaceItPages — May 19, 2010 @ 4:11 pm
Makes you wonder what else they will "take away" with no notice. This is another good reason why you need your own website or blog where YOU call the shots not Facebook…

Comment by Michelle Hummel — May 19, 2010 @ 4:20 pm
Ouch, this really hurts for those of us that have contracts with businesses for work that we can no longer do.

Comment by Sean Weigold Ferguso — May 19, 2010 @ 4:20 pm
The spam issue was a really bad one that Facebook had to solve. What surprised me is the timing of this decision – given the recent privacy controversy.

For the record, I am confident that solutions will quickly emerge for small business. For instance, our firm theKbuzz currently serves hundreds of small businesses on Facebook through our Social Lift platform (http://thesociallift.com)

I expect companies such as ours, Involver, and Wildfire will soon have solutions which include Page authentications for local businesses.

Comment by Dave Kerpen — May 19, 2010 @ 4:40 pm
SRSLY? ugh… wtf FB?

Comment by Chuck Reynolds — May 19, 2010 @ 4:52 pm
As a small business owner, this is terrible news. I hope facebook re-evaluates this position.

Comment by Tandi Glenn Smith — May 19, 2010 @ 5:27 pm
Frankly, I can't stand landing at custom tabs. I much prefer landing at the wall and choosing to go to the other tabs, myself.

Comment by Michael Gregoire — May 19, 2010 @ 5:39 pm
I feel much better about my decision to quit Facebook.

Comment by Nathan Hangen - Digi — May 19, 2010 @ 5:44 pm
Major FAIL! Facebook what were you thinking (or not). @Derek, while its true that Fans are directed to the wall, a well crafted landing page is a great way to make a first impression. Secondly, if you want to link to the custom page via your e-newsletter of other main-stream advertising, there is now no way to send people to the custom Fan Page. It will be a two-step process and I bet result in fewer likes. Facebook has succeeded in un-leveling the playing field for small business/groups

Comment by sonali Shetty — May 19, 2010 @ 5:49 pm
This is really painful for me… I was just about to finish a custom landing tab for a small non-profit I volunteer for.

Comment by Doug Stinson — May 19, 2010 @ 5:50 pm
Why does NO ONE see this as an OPPORTUNITY!? You are stuck in a mindset guys! I am breaking my response to facebook and how this is GREAT for small businesses tomorrow on facebook.com/fanpagefactory …

I am SO pumped for this!

Comment by Nathan Latka — May 19, 2010 @ 6:05 pm
Well, FACEBOOK certainly seems to have thought this whole thing through rather shrewdly!

1. Get people hooked on FACEBOOK

2. Generate FACEBOOK'S stats everywhere so that business

owners flock to FACEBOOK to capitalize on the business and

networking opportunities there.

3. Fan the flame of "FACEBOOK APPEAL" to the point where

businesses are built around satisfying the demand for

a business presence on FACEBOOK. Service and products

created just to satisfy, assist, and service this appeal.

4. Suggest coyly that FACEBOOK advertising is a nice way to

promote your fancy, creative fan pages.

5. Take away the advantage of a custom fan page tab…

unless you've built a fan base of 10,000 fans or spend

at least $10,000 in FACEBOOK advertising…

6. MySpace… now it's YOUR turn!!! Lots of unhappy

FACEBOOK users!!

Comment by Wendy Herndon — May 19, 2010 @ 6:11 pm
Well, FACEBOOK certainly seems to have thought this whole thing through rather shrewdly!

1. Get people hooked on FACEBOOK

2. Generate FACEBOOK’S stats everywhere so that business

owners flock to FACEBOOK to capitalize on the business and

networking opportunities there.

3. Fan the flame of “FACEBOOK APPEAL” to the point where

businesses are built around satisfying the demand for

a business presence on FACEBOOK. Service and products

created just to satisfy, assist, and service this appeal.

4. Suggest coyly that FACEBOOK advertising is a nice way to

promote your fancy, creative fan pages.

5. Take away the advantage of a custom fan page tab…

unless you’ve built a fan base of 10,000 fans or spend

at least $10,000 in FACEBOOK advertising…

6. MySpace… now it’s YOUR turn!!! Lots of unhappy

FACEBOOK users!!

Comment by Wendy Herndon — May 19, 2010 @ 6:16 pm
Big business wins again. They simply have more $$ to spend. So – It is what it is. Back to the drawing board for me. So much for *social* media.

Comment by Brenda — May 19, 2010 @ 6:20 pm
There is no question that the best way to grow a fan base is from engaging content and smart marketing– not from a snazzy looking page. It's all about the stream. A custom welcome tab is a nice touch, but not a necessity. Do you need a custom landing tab to have a conversation with your customers? Most cant access tabs from mobile phones anyway. This is not the nicest move by Facebook, but it is not the end of the world for small businesses– in fact, I hope this encourages them to think about stream and platform solutions versus replicating website content on their welcome tabs. -Carrie

Comment by Carrie Kerpen — May 19, 2010 @ 6:20 pm
"As you can imagine, developers (and marketers) are not happy"

;

You mean "Idiot children and adults who can't read that fan pages are for legitimate BUSINESSES are not happy".

-

I for one am happy, but they still need to sort through all the bogus crap that has been created over the past 3 years and delete them so that redundant and fraudulent/copycat/squatter pages do not interfere with the legitimate ones.

-

FB was never about business, but now that they allowed fan pages, they got a lot of people abusing the feature. Charging is one way, but a better way would be for those idiots to not allow page creation until they verify the identity of the person and business.

-

"small business is the back bone of Facebook" May be, but not the way they operate. Remember FB was at first open to only elite schools then trickled down. They did the same thing for businesses.

Comment by Guest — May 19, 2010 @ 6:40 pm
Its not quite as dramatic as it first appears. Previously it was only possible to set the default landing tab as your custom fan page for "Non Fans" all current fans would automatically land at the wall anyway.

Utilising compelling content and notifying fans of this via the wall is a great way to keep them coming back. see this great new page we've just created for Usher for inspiration:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ushers-New-Look-Fou...

You could also considering adding a custom box to the narrow column of your wall displaying new content and linking directly to your custom tab as we have here:
http://www.facebook.com/ifan.page.design

Agreed its not the most positive move by Facebook and once again they show there greed b ut with a well thought out, well designed and well administered Fan Page small and large businesses alike can still continue to thrive thanks to Facebook.

Regards Tony – MD iFan Design

Comment by Tony Faria — May 19, 2010 @ 7:06 pm
On second thoughts, its not as bad as it originally sounded. Just link to the custom tab URL rather than vanity URL. Should work for all external links and wall postings. Will not however work in Like Ads (as referenced in Matt Trainer's comments above)

Comment by sonali Shetty — May 19, 2010 @ 7:33 pm
This is LAME-O. I was fine with the privacy crap, but crushing the small business and marketers out there is just lame.

Comment by Ryan Burns — May 19, 2010 @ 7:37 pm
While I genuinely feel for small businesses, we have people putting together pages and using these tabs to violate FB terms of use, collect user info, etc. Hopefully this will make pages more secure.

Comment by Jeff Howden — May 19, 2010 @ 7:40 pm
oh men.. this is just crazy…..

Comment by Iceman — May 19, 2010 @ 8:23 pm
This is pathetic, yet again the small businesses get screwed!!! Seriously facebook when are you going to man up and stop making ridiculous changes like this!

Comment by Bec — May 19, 2010 @ 8:28 pm
Is it taking some time to populate through the system? All of my custom landing pages for NON-fans are still working and we're under 10k. Anyone?

Comment by Brian Leimone — May 19, 2010 @ 8:42 pm
This is what pages needed since Day 1. Ever since Pages existed, ridiculous teenagers abuse the system by creating Pages such as "Oh, if you once broke your nail and cried over it, then join!" Now, when FBML launched, scammers began using it to "trick" users into "liking" their page to view the hidden content. Later on, they exploited the system further and tricked the users into injecting a Javascript into their address bar to automate the process of liking the page, suggesting it to friends, and so on. Idiots.

This does not affect small businesses in any way. In fact, it helps them grow better, it clears the grounds of millions of useless pages and leaves it off for authentic ones. Moreover, for a business to be successful, it needs advertising, thus eventually gaining more fans.

Know why Facebook created Community Pages? In hopes of stopping idiot teenagers from creating such useless pages, that didn't work, so let's see now what happens.

Comment by George Saadé — May 19, 2010 @ 8:57 pm
Wow, this is a real bad idea from Facebook.

First they have ugly looking pages and now the only way to get around this problem is taken away (without any official warning).

I understand the spam page issue George and others are raising, but I think they need to find a better way other than hurting everyone else.

Comment by Bora — May 19, 2010 @ 10:13 pm
When the introduced custom URL's they set the bar at 1000 fans basically excluding a lot of people who would benefit from that feature to promote their page. Now this has been reduced down to 25.

I would suspect a good move on their behalf would be to reduce the threshold for authenticated pages down to 500 or 1000 fans, making it a lot easier for small businesses to take control of their fan page and also incentivise them to spend for FB ads while they reach this limit

This would still cut out the majority of the spammy pages.

I agree with Tony, the change is annoying but there are ways to work around it, like placing your call to action within your Image like we have done on our Crowd Conversion Page – http://www.facebook.com/crowdconversion

Comment by Ian David Chapman — May 19, 2010 @ 10:19 pm
I agree with Tony above…it's not as bad as it sounds since once a fan likes your page, they no longer see the landing page other than in your tabs.

Since I use multiple tabs anyway and promote my landing page and fan page all the time, I can live with this if once I contact the account rep and they require me to pay for this special landing page authenicacian.

My question is…has anyone that is under the 10K and not running any paid ads contacted an account rep yet and what have they said and what is the process? I submited my inquiry and received notice that I would be contacted in 48 hours.

Angela

Allographics & Design
http://allographics.com http://www.facebook.com/Allographics

Comment by Angela — May 19, 2010 @ 10:22 pm
Given that this feature affects so many businesses who spent time and money creating custom welcome tabs, it's a shame Facebook didn't communicate this properly. Yet again this is proving not to put all the eggs in one basket and be prepared to adjust and readjust quickly. I'm really curious to see how quickly third-party solutions (Sprout, Wildfire, etc) will adjust to this change.

Welcome tabs are effective, but Carrie has a good point that a good looking tab won't substitute for a great conversation that you'll have with your customers on the wall. Focus on that, and make sure each of your posts is a statement in itself of why people should be liking your page and coming back for more.

Elena

Comment by Elena Golovchanskaya — May 19, 2010 @ 11:36 pm
Could you explain how this is a 'massive blow' when all of the other allfacebook.com posts on fan pages suggest landing on the wall, not a custom tab?

Comment by Anon — May 20, 2010 @ 12:22 am
10,000? My gosh. No wonder my landing tabs doesn’t seem to work any longer.

Just means we’ve gotta make do with the wall again (lazy lazy).

Comment by Daniel — May 20, 2010 @ 12:28 am
okay, that's it, facebook can go fcuk themselves, i'm off

Comment by gover — May 20, 2010 @ 12:31 am
Hi,

Thanks for the post. This is just another piece of unhelpful tinkering by Facebook. As some commenters point out, there are sub-optimal workarounds, but having to constantly keep abreast of these developments only really works if you're a specialist FB marketer or work for big brands.

As a UK-based online marketing operation, we're only just starting to encourage mid-cap brand clients onto Facebook. As a result, the biggest issue posed by all these changes is that we look kinda stupid to clients that we're encouraging to try FB, when our 'proposals' face regular 'redundancy' through FB policy changes, rather than platform improvements.

Comment by Andrew Atkins — May 20, 2010 @ 12:55 am
I've got to say I'm very disappointed with this news and the way they've announced it, and think it may discourage organisations and brands from pushing their Facebook presence. It really reduces the free value of Facebook business pages, and forces spend that may not be justifiable.

Poor long term move from Facebook in my opinion, but we'll see where this goes.

Comment by Joel — May 20, 2010 @ 1:18 am
Interesting, so all the small business that are gathering "fans" and drawing traffic to Facebook, will now be reduced. And this plan is supposed to generate more revenue? LOL!

As a small business owner who has a fan page, this is terrible news. As my form of boycott, Facebook will not be receiving any money from me via Facebook ads. I loved promoting my business with these ads. I will not support and give money to a company who is trying to block any effort I make to grow my small business.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/?id=8712697242...

Comment by Kimberly Kantharaj — May 20, 2010 @ 3:09 am
I think a lot of the comments are overreactions and hyperbole. Obviously this isn't specifically "good" news for small businesses, but it isn't the death blow that everyone is yammering about. Facebook will still remain a fantastic platform with which to promote your business, and the removal of the custom tab for these under 10k pages, although annoying, isn't the end of the world.

The reasoning here ostensibly, seems to be that these custom tabs are where the scammiest of scammy pages do their dirty work, and subjecting the pages to limits and monitoring, will clean this mess up. The fan pages promoting fake Ikea gift cards, spyware installs, forced affiliate offers, etc. are the real scourge of facebook right now, and hundreds of thousands of users per day are falling victim to them. So the net net, is that the small annoying effect on hundreds of small biz owners (and it is a very very small effect) is outweighed by the upside of protecting the hundreds of thousands of individual users that are getting hammered with these scammy pages.

Comment by Andrew — May 20, 2010 @ 4:24 am
Interesting… As of 8:00am EST my landing pages are again operational.

Comment by Kathy Drewien — May 20, 2010 @ 4:37 am
@Nick, when is this supposed to take effect? The profiles I administer still have the option. Can you give us a link where you found this? I checked on the developer site and did not see it posted.

Thanks!

Comment by Bryan Coe — May 20, 2010 @ 5:26 am
Looks like Facebook decided not to follow this strategy. I can show my custom tab to non-fans, and I only have 768 connections: http://facebook.com/inboundzombie

Comment by John Haydon — May 20, 2010 @ 5:26 am
Is this for real or just an hoax? Because everything seems to work as normal on my Facebook's pages…

Would be great to have a more official information than a post on a forum…

Please let us know if you have more information.

Comment by Renee — May 20, 2010 @ 5:57 am
Facebook has been degrading its brand badly; I never saw a brand that is so bad at listening to its customers. They need to wake up and realize that the "Atilla the Hun" approach to building a brand is out of fashion. For me to have to explain this to a social brand is mind-boggling–haven't they been analyzing their chatter? What's up with these doofuses?

End of rant. But… sheesh.

Comment by TheMarketArtist — May 20, 2010 @ 6:07 am
This is really a bad news for all business owners.

Comment by Vikash Singh — May 20, 2010 @ 6:23 am
It seems greed is most famous for creating new policies. I agree with another comment I read. They will face themselves and and just like My Space, they will loose a huge segment of their market share to the latest and greatest. More than likey it's being developed as we speak, by a 12 year old, or who knows it may be the Tech Savvy Agent's son, who I think is two.

Comment by Agi Anderson — May 20, 2010 @ 6:26 am
I just posted "2 Easy Ways To Still Get People To Your Facebook Landing Tab" on our blog http://blog.firebellydigital.com/2010/05/facebook...

Comment by Chad Richards — May 20, 2010 @ 6:39 am
This sucks for small companies and small agencies trying to help companies. Facebook is selling out like AdWords did for the almighty dollar.

Comment by Neil — May 20, 2010 @ 6:44 am
Not meaning to be at all rude, but I cannot quite understand those people who are slating Facebook for this and saying "Facebook is not a friend of small businesses"…

My understanding was Facebook was a social networking site – I didn't realise it had to be friends with small businesses to achieve this?

Perhaps Facebook are listening to all the complaints they receive from their users who think that there are more than "a few" spammers out there and that Facenook needs to take steps to stop them.

Personally I use Facebook to keep in touch with my family and friends. I don't feel the need to be fans of small businesses.

Now please understand I'm not having a go at anyone, just saying that I don't agree with blaming Facebook for this. After all, if a small business wants to advertise, why can't they pay for it? Either on Facebook or somewhere else?

Just wondering.

Comment by Martin O'Neil — May 20, 2010 @ 6:53 am
There back to the old ways now. This news was old when posted – we all made them turn the things back to way it were

Comment by Jouni Juhola — May 20, 2010 @ 6:55 am
The real offense here is that it was done without warning. we suddenly woke up one morning and things were different. A company that really cared about it's customers would have a roadmap and share it.

Isn't it ironic that the biggest names in social media are so disengaged from their customers.

Comment by Dave — May 20, 2010 @ 7:19 am
A crushing FAIL.

Comment by duncan — May 20, 2010 @ 7:26 am
A Grandfather clause??

Comment by Cindi — May 20, 2010 @ 7:26 am
Cash is always KING. When money is on the table, true colors come out. This is a lesson that social media is NOT free. We must remember that the use of the tools comes at a price. Enjoy it while it last, and be prepared for change. Have a contingency for everything you do in business:)….

Comment by Tiffany Odutoye — May 20, 2010 @ 7:27 am
It's okay if Facebook would have taken away the Fan Page option for small businesses. Trust me, there are enough brilliant people out there that someone would have figured out a work-around method. That method might have even turned out to be a better than what most of are currently using.

Comment by Sherrie Slopianka — May 20, 2010 @ 7:30 am
Wow! Facebook done this for only one reason,Facebook needs more revenue as if they are not earning from their ads. Brutal!

Comment by Mano Page — May 20, 2010 @ 7:34 am
This isn't good for the little guy, or even the medium guy. I guess FB just doesn't need us to promote it as a tool for communication any more, it just wants our money…

Comment by Nik Hewitt — May 20, 2010 @ 7:35 am
they just changed back to allowing the default tab this morning, looks like Facebook heard us this time…

Comment by Michelle — May 20, 2010 @ 7:44 am
Can someone please clue me in on what they mean by a "landing tab". I have a facebook page and group. Just emailed all of y group to convert to my fan page. Did I screw up?

Not sure I ever utilized my "Landing tab" – whatever that is….

Comment by Janet DeVito — May 20, 2010 @ 8:53 am
Based on the article, it seems that many of your readers believe that custom tabs are going to be fully disallowed.

As to the grave implications that everyone is bickering about… "Massive blow…"

Sure it'll likely have a negative impact on conversions, but just like the privacy "riot" that started after f8, complaining isn't going to get anything done. Instead

Mari already shared one workaround–just link to the tab in your marketing collateral. You should be tracking traffic anyway, so it's a simple solution to just switch the target of your links. Potential problem: with existing print collateral, you're still screwed.

Second, the maximum dimensions of a profile image is 200×468. That's larger than most profile images and, accordingly, if you're not taking advantage of the extra space, you're wasting screen real estate. Put your call to action there. Examples: http://www.webmarketingnerd.com/wp-content/themes... http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/object2/638/105/n1701...

You have no control over the changes that Facebook–or any other social network–is making. That's the risk you accepted when you invested in a platform that you don't control.

May we have less whining and more problem solving, please?

Comment by Rob Laughter — May 20, 2010 @ 8:58 am
FFS. You’re all a bunch of drama queens. Please explain how this is a blow to small businesses? Ridiculous. Is it because the article said it? For shits sake.

If it’s that big of an issue and your Facebook presence is that important to your business model then you SHOULD be spending money on Facebook advertising. And they didnt say how much you need to spend. $10 a month. Go for it, you can do it. God forbid Facebook encourage you to pay to advertise yourself on a free service they are offering you.

If you are using Facebook as a serious tool in your marketing model, then expect to be treated seriously.

Use your minds.

Comment by mkid — May 20, 2010 @ 10:35 am
Here's the rub:

1) How many people have clients who have paid for custom landing pages to enhance their Fan experience, only to see those made null?

2) How does this go to better serve the business owner in engaging with its audience?

3) Why does the public find out about this via a Developer's Forum post?

4) I'm an admin on 12 FB Fan Pages and received no notice, half of which have custom landing pages and 3 with landing pages in development which now have to be paid for even though they can't be used.

Again, we shouldn't expect very much from a social platform with no Customer Service department. I'm exhausted, however, with the 'through the grapevine' communication of what's touted as the current social media behemoth on the street.

Comment by Erika Napoletano — May 20, 2010 @ 11:58 am
FB is not known for problem solving, only creating problems.

Comment by Guest — May 20, 2010 @ 2:26 pm
And this coming from a person who's been using it since 2005, who knows the website better than all of you.

Comment by Guest — May 20, 2010 @ 2:27 pm
Facebook isn't going anywehere, guess its gonna end the entire business soon!

Comment by Aditya Gupta — May 20, 2010 @ 9:29 pm
Dreadful news

The small business of today could be the big business of tomorrow

Seriously bad decision

Comment by Phil Hook — May 21, 2010 @ 3:05 am
When you're as big as Facebook you can do what you want, but most giant-market-share corporations know better than to risk their brand by constantly zig-zagging their policies. FB has pulled the rug from under the very business customers it so publicly courted and the Fan Page cottage industry it created.

Comment by Christine — May 21, 2010 @ 6:28 am
I have been trying to get in touch with a Facebook ad rep and can't get anyone to respond. Is there a phone number to call? Please help ASAP!!!

Comment by Rachael — May 21, 2010 @ 7:14 am
Way to go Facebook. Just when I thought you couldn't get any worse, you go and prove me wrong. I love how he signs off with a "thanks." Yea, no problem buddy.

Comment by Gareth Rees — May 21, 2010 @ 9:18 am
As a small business owner with a large fan base, this is absolutely wonderful. Facebook is trying to get rid of all of the garbage fan pages that plague Facebook's culture and push it further towards the Myspace doom. I say bravo Facebook, and thx AFB for the article.

Comment by Anon Ymous — May 22, 2010 @ 1:59 pm
The Facebook developer community is full of brilliant people and wish they would have talked to use prior to implementing this rule.

I am all for restrictions on FBML tabs in fan pages, but they way they went about it was all wrong. It is the scammers who will have 10k+ fans and meet the requirements, the ones they are trying to get rid of.

I proposed to Facebook that in order to have your tab set as a landing page it needs to be approved just like getting any application approved. They also need to make reporting fan pages easier. This shouldnt concern any legitimate business with a company fan page.

Comment by Mike — May 23, 2010 @ 5:39 am
I guess I'll have to stop writing blog posts talking about how easy it is to get free traffic from Facebook.

Comment by Teasastips — May 23, 2010 @ 3:24 pm
Thanks for posting this Josh. Yet another blow to business from Facebook (and snuck in under the radar).

Comment by Tia Fisher — May 24, 2010 @ 1:37 am
I dont know what's up with facebook… Facebook will bring about its own downfall… I have already started looking for an alternative… wtf??

Comment by Spnkychnk — May 25, 2010 @ 7:04 am
I'm looking for a few good men and women to build the next "Facebook-like" social media website. The mighty facebook has now fallen and needs a replacement.

Comment by Paul — May 25, 2010 @ 2:42 pm
This is BS each page of a person is their identity and who they are now if you want to go after crap posted on Facebook I suggest look where there is violence and explicit post and pics…trust I have seen worse on here so Bring Back Tartuffe's Folly and Mark Dylan Sieber Photos least there was some intelligence and education posted.

Comment by Chime — May 26, 2010 @ 8:05 am
Glad to see them go! Facebook landing pages are just about as annoying and ineffective as website landing pages and people in their good sense stopped using those years ago.

Comment by BryanG — May 30, 2010 @ 11:20 am
What am I missing? I have a custom tab for one of my clients, Silver Mountain Sports Club and Spa, with only 125 fans (so far – become a fan!) When I search on it, the landing page is the custom tab.

Comment by Sue Ann Kern — August 2, 2010 @ 2:20 pm
Facebook back tracked on this one fairly quickly so you can select a customised tab as the landing page.

Comment by Jonathan Pollinger — August 8, 2010 @ 3:04 am
This is a way to increase the business with the help of fb social ads !

Comment by Honey Singh — September 20, 2010 @ 9:35 am
For me Facebook Fan page at ShoutMeLoud http://www.facebook.com/Shoutmeloud
Is taking me to Welcome tab..
I believe they are rolling out this new policy in batches.. I Call it as a bad move from Facebook and specially bad for medium Facebook Fan page admin like us…

Comment by Harsh Agrawal — September 20, 2010 @ 11:59 am
is that mean it wont be possible to add a tab with static fbml?

Comment by roisrael — September 21, 2010 @ 5:25 am
Unlike Unlike Unlike!
This is really bad news for facebook account holders and small business.
Pls If there is any alternative to create landing page.

Thank you

Comment by RAM — November 30, 2010 @ 7:10 am
You guys are all stupid….works fine for all 10 pages i manage none over 1000 fans

Comment by only in america — December 29, 2010 @ 10:43 am
Not stupid, FB has changed this few months ago!!

Comment by Noir — February 8, 2011 @ 6:46 am
This sucks…

Comment by Alex — March 21, 2011 @ 12:06 pm
Can someone please clue me in on what they mean by a "landing tab". I have a facebook page and group. Just emailed all of y group to convert to my fan page. Did I screw up?

Not sure I ever utilized my "Landing tab" – whatever that is….

Comment by Aliza Shehpati — April 14, 2011 @ 7:07 pm
Is all about Money.

Comment by Miguel — April 16, 2011 @ 1:33 pm
Very informative site:
Regarding Facebook FBML… I have tried to use this to create a custom page – but get response from FB – FBML is not available…
Anyone know more about this?

Comment by Graphiclineweb — June 15, 2011 @ 10:00 am
I am an unauthenticated user but not a spammer. Why am I unauthenticated? Because they demand either a cell phone or a university email address to send the code you need to authenticate. I do not own a cell phone and I graduated university well before the email era and I don't feel like getting an email address from my alumni association just for Facebook to authenticate my account. I have other email addresses they can write to or call my landline, I would give them that phone number.

Comment by Kellia — June 18, 2011 @ 12:47 pm
I'm glad this isn't a concern now. It would be challenge and dramatically limit reach of facebook fan pages. It hurts the amount of visibility and hurts user engagement

Comment by Carrie Ann — July 11, 2011 @ 9:39 pm
I really like your idea. We use multiple different Facebook business pages for support on our different brands and this app looks like a great way to streamline that. Thanks for posting

Comment by Blackberry App — July 20, 2011 @ 6:27 am
I love the idea behind this app. this is really fantabulous

Comment by Facebook App — July 20, 2011 @ 7:07 am
Last post 5 weeks ago. Any new news? Any apps for a work around? Thanks…

Comment by Danny — August 25, 2011 @ 6:55 pm
this is really bad i am very disappointed

Comment by naeem — August 27, 2011 @ 3:34 am

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Facebook goes and shoots themselves in the foot again. Moves like this, paired with the privacy fiasco, will create an opportunity for another social media site to topple them.

Comment by Shaun Nestor — May 19, 2010 @ 1:52 pm

OMG this is not good. Big big fail from facebook.

Comment by Boris Ung — May 19, 2010 @ 2:52 pm

http://www.allfacebook.com/2010/04/40000-facebook...

http://www.allfacebook.com/2010/05/alert-see-vvho...

Comment by Chris Pan — May 19, 2010 @ 3:00 pm

This really hurts small businesses, which are one of the largest growing groups on Facebook. Now they might not bother. I am kind of hoping an alternative does come along.

Comment by Kim Woodbridge — May 19, 2010 @ 3:01 pm

Now this must be a joke…

Well, I guess we'll have to use those ad vouchers to get in touch with an ad manager there.

Bad move facebook, bad move…

Comment by Alejandro — May 19, 2010 @ 3:03 pm

Thanks for the props, Nick. Whew, what totally insane timing on Facebook's part – amidst all the hoopla about privacy, etc. This sudden, unannounced change doesn't make sense at all.

Comment by Mari Smith — May 19, 2010 @ 3:16 pm

This is really bad news for small business owners…

Comment by Helen Todd — May 19, 2010 @ 3:16 pm

Why not put restrictions on pages that were created b unauthenticated users or users with a high karma? Why make the other page owners suffer from a few spammers?

Comment by Ryan Merket — May 19, 2010 @ 3:18 pm

This is going to be a significant blow to small and medium sized business owners. Not to mention the developers and agencies that are the ones contracted to design and develop the customized landing tabs for the small and medium sized businesses.

Seems like horrible timing given the whole privacy fiasco.

You'd think Facebook would be rolling out new features to lure in businesses, not push them away…

@joshgroth

Comment by Josh Groth — May 19, 2010 @ 3:21 pm

They are asking for it. As if folks weren't already seething from the privacy/trust flap. They just rubbed salt in an open wound.

Comment by Kerri Karvetski — May 19, 2010 @ 3:22 pm

I've been fuming about Facebook for a while, and how they deliberately make it difficult for small businesses to organically grow a following. This move further proves that Facebook is no friend of small biz. Unless you have an established brand and know how to find your customers on Facebook, it's fast-becoming a next-to-useless marketing "tool" for small business. Boycott I say!

Comment by Lucy Beer — May 19, 2010 @ 3:22 pm

We just found this out today and are now in the process of updating our documentation on FaceItPages.com. This is a real bummer and doesn't make sense.

Comment by Leah Thompson — May 19, 2010 @ 3:23 pm

This is really ridiculous – all the small businesses out there are now forced to pay to play. Not to mention that developers like us (http://www.facebook.com/welcometab) are now with 1/4th users overnight.

Another big evidence of why application development is a bad business model – you are at the mercy of platform owner for your livelihood.

Comment by Laura Gram — May 19, 2010 @ 3:25 pm

Aside of the marketing issue – Facebook in effect defeated it's own purpose by not allowing businesses to connect with customers on a more intimate level. By forcing "fans" to see only the wall or info tab upon entry, they learn nothing about who they are dealing with, other then the info Facebook allows them to see.

I understand any company's desire to increase revenue, but not at the expense of the users – small business is the back bone of Facebook.

Facebook is slowing taking the "social" out of its "social network"

Comment by Melissa Ward — May 19, 2010 @ 3:30 pm

I too was disappointed to hear this news, especially coming out of a small developer thread and not a policy announcement straight from Facebook, especially since it concerns much more than the immediate developer network. While the details for this move remain to be seen, it seems that Facebook is perhaps responding to app developers taking advantage of the functionality to spam or scam unsuspecting users. It seems unfair to shift the burden of this punishment straight to fan page owners and operators.

I think an alternative solution is to shift the screening process from fan pages themselves to the apps that can install themselves to fan pages as tabs. Applications can be held accountable for how they use the privilege of taking control of the default tab, leaving the scammers blacklisted as they rightfully should be. What Facebook is doing in this case seems like blaming the victim or bullying the little guy. It will be interesting to see what Facebook's actual rationale here is, and how they respond to a (hopefully) united voice of honest app developers and marketers.

Comment by Jason Anderson — May 19, 2010 @ 3:43 pm

Such a simple yet effective feature of Facebook pages and they decide to yank it unless you spend on ads…?!?! I couldn't agree more with Shaun's comment about this opening the door for other platforms to provide solutions that meet a business' needs. I'm all for them making money and all but this is a huge fail on their part. It's like giving candy to a baby, ripping it away and then tell them if they want it back they will have to pay for it. The message this sends is Facebook only cares about big businesses and less about the majority of its audience. Bad business decision for Facebook… Thanks Mari. Can't wait to hear how you address it in your upcoming SMSS10 presentation on Facebook pages!

Comment by Chris Sabbarese — May 19, 2010 @ 3:48 pm

Hey Nick!

Really bad news for smaller businesses.

On our fan page people are in an uproar over this decision.

See this discussion feed: http://www.facebook.com/smexaminer?v=wall&sto...

Mike

Comment by Michael A. Stelzner — May 19, 2010 @ 3:48 pm

What's the minimum add spend though? I would imagine that Facebook's top priority is combatting spam, not trying to milk small businesses. It might just be more about contacting an account rep to have the functionality enabled.

Anyone know the answer to this?

Comment by Lorenz Sell — May 19, 2010 @ 3:53 pm

@Lorenz – if you go to the 'contact form' they link to from the developer posting, you can't even send off your info to get an account rep unless you specify that your budget for advertising is over $25K.

Comment by Jason Anderson — May 19, 2010 @ 3:58 pm

I doubt your premise that a custom tab with a "strong call to action" is the best way to convert fans.

I find that a well-curated wall tab with the default view set to "all" is most effective.

There are too many spam pages out there right now which trick people into javascript suggesting the page to all their friends.

After you fan the page, the default view is always wall anyway, and if you can link direct to your custom tab from an ad, this is the least worst thing they could have done to protect the legitimacy of your pages.

Comment by Derek Pangallo — May 19, 2010 @ 3:58 pm

Unlike. Really disappointing.

Comment by Jodi Gersh — May 19, 2010 @ 4:06 pm

I'm glad I didn't just hire someone to shoot a video and pimp out a "welcome" tab for me.

Why use number of fans as the criteria? Facebook measures all of these other "insights", why not use one of the metrics that measures actual friend engagement as a criteria–post quality, interactions per post, etc.?

Comment by Chris Heiler — May 19, 2010 @ 4:11 pm

"This means that the odds of building a popular Facebook Page are against the average Joe. Instead, administrators will need to spend money on Facebook Ads or alternatively, have a large traffic base on the company’s existing site in order to build a large following."

Exactly. As others have commented already, this move hurts small businesses, as well as freelancers, bloggers, real estate agents, and anyone else who is unlikely to have 10k fans on their page. A small but loyal following is more "authentic" and valuable than 10k uninvolved fans.

Comment by FaceItPages — May 19, 2010 @ 4:11 pm

Makes you wonder what else they will "take away" with no notice. This is another good reason why you need your own website or blog where YOU call the shots not Facebook…

Comment by Michelle Hummel — May 19, 2010 @ 4:20 pm

Ouch, this really hurts for those of us that have contracts with businesses for work that we can no longer do.

Comment by Sean Weigold Ferguso — May 19, 2010 @ 4:20 pm

The spam issue was a really bad one that Facebook had to solve. What surprised me is the timing of this decision – given the recent privacy controversy.

For the record, I am confident that solutions will quickly emerge for small business. For instance, our firm theKbuzz currently serves hundreds of small businesses on Facebook through our Social Lift platform (http://thesociallift.com)

I expect companies such as ours, Involver, and Wildfire will soon have solutions which include Page authentications for local businesses.

Comment by Dave Kerpen — May 19, 2010 @ 4:40 pm

SRSLY? ugh… wtf FB?

Comment by Chuck Reynolds — May 19, 2010 @ 4:52 pm

As a small business owner, this is terrible news. I hope facebook re-evaluates this position.

Comment by Tandi Glenn Smith — May 19, 2010 @ 5:27 pm

Frankly, I can't stand landing at custom tabs. I much prefer landing at the wall and choosing to go to the other tabs, myself.

Comment by Michael Gregoire — May 19, 2010 @ 5:39 pm

I feel much better about my decision to quit Facebook.

Comment by Nathan Hangen - Digi — May 19, 2010 @ 5:44 pm

Major FAIL! Facebook what were you thinking (or not). @Derek, while its true that Fans are directed to the wall, a well crafted landing page is a great way to make a first impression. Secondly, if you want to link to the custom page via your e-newsletter of other main-stream advertising, there is now no way to send people to the custom Fan Page. It will be a two-step process and I bet result in fewer likes. Facebook has succeeded in un-leveling the playing field for small business/groups

Comment by sonali Shetty — May 19, 2010 @ 5:49 pm

This is really painful for me… I was just about to finish a custom landing tab for a small non-profit I volunteer for.

Comment by Doug Stinson — May 19, 2010 @ 5:50 pm

Why does NO ONE see this as an OPPORTUNITY!? You are stuck in a mindset guys! I am breaking my response to facebook and how this is GREAT for small businesses tomorrow on facebook.com/fanpagefactory …

I am SO pumped for this!

Comment by Nathan Latka — May 19, 2010 @ 6:05 pm

Well, FACEBOOK certainly seems to have thought this whole thing through rather shrewdly!

1. Get people hooked on FACEBOOK

2. Generate FACEBOOK'S stats everywhere so that business

owners flock to FACEBOOK to capitalize on the business and

networking opportunities there.

3. Fan the flame of "FACEBOOK APPEAL" to the point where

businesses are built around satisfying the demand for

a business presence on FACEBOOK. Service and products

created just to satisfy, assist, and service this appeal.

4. Suggest coyly that FACEBOOK advertising is a nice way to

promote your fancy, creative fan pages.

5. Take away the advantage of a custom fan page tab…

unless you've built a fan base of 10,000 fans or spend

at least $10,000 in FACEBOOK advertising…

6. MySpace… now it's YOUR turn!!! Lots of unhappy

FACEBOOK users!!

Comment by Wendy Herndon — May 19, 2010 @ 6:11 pm

2. Generate FACEBOOK’S stats everywhere so that business

3. Fan the flame of “FACEBOOK APPEAL” to the point where

unless you’ve built a fan base of 10,000 fans or spend

6. MySpace… now it’s YOUR turn!!! Lots of unhappy

Comment by Wendy Herndon — May 19, 2010 @ 6:16 pm

Big business wins again. They simply have more $$ to spend. So – It is what it is. Back to the drawing board for me. So much for *social* media.

Comment by Brenda — May 19, 2010 @ 6:20 pm

There is no question that the best way to grow a fan base is from engaging content and smart marketing– not from a snazzy looking page. It's all about the stream. A custom welcome tab is a nice touch, but not a necessity. Do you need a custom landing tab to have a conversation with your customers? Most cant access tabs from mobile phones anyway. This is not the nicest move by Facebook, but it is not the end of the world for small businesses– in fact, I hope this encourages them to think about stream and platform solutions versus replicating website content on their welcome tabs. -Carrie

Comment by Carrie Kerpen — May 19, 2010 @ 6:20 pm

"As you can imagine, developers (and marketers) are not happy"

;

You mean "Idiot children and adults who can't read that fan pages are for legitimate BUSINESSES are not happy".

I for one am happy, but they still need to sort through all the bogus crap that has been created over the past 3 years and delete them so that redundant and fraudulent/copycat/squatter pages do not interfere with the legitimate ones.

FB was never about business, but now that they allowed fan pages, they got a lot of people abusing the feature. Charging is one way, but a better way would be for those idiots to not allow page creation until they verify the identity of the person and business.

"small business is the back bone of Facebook" May be, but not the way they operate. Remember FB was at first open to only elite schools then trickled down. They did the same thing for businesses.

Comment by Guest — May 19, 2010 @ 6:40 pm

Its not quite as dramatic as it first appears. Previously it was only possible to set the default landing tab as your custom fan page for "Non Fans" all current fans would automatically land at the wall anyway.

Utilising compelling content and notifying fans of this via the wall is a great way to keep them coming back. see this great new page we've just created for Usher for inspiration:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ushers-New-Look-Fou...

You could also considering adding a custom box to the narrow column of your wall displaying new content and linking directly to your custom tab as we have here:
http://www.facebook.com/ifan.page.design

Agreed its not the most positive move by Facebook and once again they show there greed b ut with a well thought out, well designed and well administered Fan Page small and large businesses alike can still continue to thrive thanks to Facebook.

Regards Tony – MD iFan Design

Comment by Tony Faria — May 19, 2010 @ 7:06 pm

On second thoughts, its not as bad as it originally sounded. Just link to the custom tab URL rather than vanity URL. Should work for all external links and wall postings. Will not however work in Like Ads (as referenced in Matt Trainer's comments above)

Comment by sonali Shetty — May 19, 2010 @ 7:33 pm

This is LAME-O. I was fine with the privacy crap, but crushing the small business and marketers out there is just lame.

Comment by Ryan Burns — May 19, 2010 @ 7:37 pm

While I genuinely feel for small businesses, we have people putting together pages and using these tabs to violate FB terms of use, collect user info, etc. Hopefully this will make pages more secure.

Comment by Jeff Howden — May 19, 2010 @ 7:40 pm

oh men.. this is just crazy…..

Comment by Iceman — May 19, 2010 @ 8:23 pm

This is pathetic, yet again the small businesses get screwed!!! Seriously facebook when are you going to man up and stop making ridiculous changes like this!

Comment by Bec — May 19, 2010 @ 8:28 pm

Is it taking some time to populate through the system? All of my custom landing pages for NON-fans are still working and we're under 10k. Anyone?

Comment by Brian Leimone — May 19, 2010 @ 8:42 pm

This is what pages needed since Day 1. Ever since Pages existed, ridiculous teenagers abuse the system by creating Pages such as "Oh, if you once broke your nail and cried over it, then join!" Now, when FBML launched, scammers began using it to "trick" users into "liking" their page to view the hidden content. Later on, they exploited the system further and tricked the users into injecting a Javascript into their address bar to automate the process of liking the page, suggesting it to friends, and so on. Idiots.

This does not affect small businesses in any way. In fact, it helps them grow better, it clears the grounds of millions of useless pages and leaves it off for authentic ones. Moreover, for a business to be successful, it needs advertising, thus eventually gaining more fans.

Know why Facebook created Community Pages? In hopes of stopping idiot teenagers from creating such useless pages, that didn't work, so let's see now what happens.

Comment by George Saadé — May 19, 2010 @ 8:57 pm

Wow, this is a real bad idea from Facebook.

First they have ugly looking pages and now the only way to get around this problem is taken away (without any official warning).

I understand the spam page issue George and others are raising, but I think they need to find a better way other than hurting everyone else.

Comment by Bora — May 19, 2010 @ 10:13 pm

When the introduced custom URL's they set the bar at 1000 fans basically excluding a lot of people who would benefit from that feature to promote their page. Now this has been reduced down to 25.

I would suspect a good move on their behalf would be to reduce the threshold for authenticated pages down to 500 or 1000 fans, making it a lot easier for small businesses to take control of their fan page and also incentivise them to spend for FB ads while they reach this limit

This would still cut out the majority of the spammy pages.

I agree with Tony, the change is annoying but there are ways to work around it, like placing your call to action within your Image like we have done on our Crowd Conversion Page – http://www.facebook.com/crowdconversion

Comment by Ian David Chapman — May 19, 2010 @ 10:19 pm

I agree with Tony above…it's not as bad as it sounds since once a fan likes your page, they no longer see the landing page other than in your tabs.

Since I use multiple tabs anyway and promote my landing page and fan page all the time, I can live with this if once I contact the account rep and they require me to pay for this special landing page authenicacian.

My question is…has anyone that is under the 10K and not running any paid ads contacted an account rep yet and what have they said and what is the process? I submited my inquiry and received notice that I would be contacted in 48 hours.

Angela

Allographics & Design
http://allographics.com http://www.facebook.com/Allographics

Comment by Angela — May 19, 2010 @ 10:22 pm

Given that this feature affects so many businesses who spent time and money creating custom welcome tabs, it's a shame Facebook didn't communicate this properly. Yet again this is proving not to put all the eggs in one basket and be prepared to adjust and readjust quickly. I'm really curious to see how quickly third-party solutions (Sprout, Wildfire, etc) will adjust to this change.

Welcome tabs are effective, but Carrie has a good point that a good looking tab won't substitute for a great conversation that you'll have with your customers on the wall. Focus on that, and make sure each of your posts is a statement in itself of why people should be liking your page and coming back for more.

Elena

Comment by Elena Golovchanskaya — May 19, 2010 @ 11:36 pm

Could you explain how this is a 'massive blow' when all of the other allfacebook.com posts on fan pages suggest landing on the wall, not a custom tab?

Comment by Anon — May 20, 2010 @ 12:22 am

10,000? My gosh. No wonder my landing tabs doesn’t seem to work any longer.

Just means we’ve gotta make do with the wall again (lazy lazy).

Comment by Daniel — May 20, 2010 @ 12:28 am

okay, that's it, facebook can go fcuk themselves, i'm off

Comment by gover — May 20, 2010 @ 12:31 am

Hi,

Thanks for the post. This is just another piece of unhelpful tinkering by Facebook. As some commenters point out, there are sub-optimal workarounds, but having to constantly keep abreast of these developments only really works if you're a specialist FB marketer or work for big brands.

As a UK-based online marketing operation, we're only just starting to encourage mid-cap brand clients onto Facebook. As a result, the biggest issue posed by all these changes is that we look kinda stupid to clients that we're encouraging to try FB, when our 'proposals' face regular 'redundancy' through FB policy changes, rather than platform improvements.

Comment by Andrew Atkins — May 20, 2010 @ 12:55 am

I've got to say I'm very disappointed with this news and the way they've announced it, and think it may discourage organisations and brands from pushing their Facebook presence. It really reduces the free value of Facebook business pages, and forces spend that may not be justifiable.

Poor long term move from Facebook in my opinion, but we'll see where this goes.

Comment by Joel — May 20, 2010 @ 1:18 am

Interesting, so all the small business that are gathering "fans" and drawing traffic to Facebook, will now be reduced. And this plan is supposed to generate more revenue? LOL!

As a small business owner who has a fan page, this is terrible news. As my form of boycott, Facebook will not be receiving any money from me via Facebook ads. I loved promoting my business with these ads. I will not support and give money to a company who is trying to block any effort I make to grow my small business.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/?id=8712697242...

Comment by Kimberly Kantharaj — May 20, 2010 @ 3:09 am

I think a lot of the comments are overreactions and hyperbole. Obviously this isn't specifically "good" news for small businesses, but it isn't the death blow that everyone is yammering about. Facebook will still remain a fantastic platform with which to promote your business, and the removal of the custom tab for these under 10k pages, although annoying, isn't the end of the world.

The reasoning here ostensibly, seems to be that these custom tabs are where the scammiest of scammy pages do their dirty work, and subjecting the pages to limits and monitoring, will clean this mess up. The fan pages promoting fake Ikea gift cards, spyware installs, forced affiliate offers, etc. are the real scourge of facebook right now, and hundreds of thousands of users per day are falling victim to them. So the net net, is that the small annoying effect on hundreds of small biz owners (and it is a very very small effect) is outweighed by the upside of protecting the hundreds of thousands of individual users that are getting hammered with these scammy pages.

Comment by Andrew — May 20, 2010 @ 4:24 am

Interesting… As of 8:00am EST my landing pages are again operational.

Comment by Kathy Drewien — May 20, 2010 @ 4:37 am

@Nick, when is this supposed to take effect? The profiles I administer still have the option. Can you give us a link where you found this? I checked on the developer site and did not see it posted.

Thanks!

Comment by Bryan Coe — May 20, 2010 @ 5:26 am

Looks like Facebook decided not to follow this strategy. I can show my custom tab to non-fans, and I only have 768 connections: http://facebook.com/inboundzombie

Comment by John Haydon — May 20, 2010 @ 5:26 am

Is this for real or just an hoax? Because everything seems to work as normal on my Facebook's pages…

Would be great to have a more official information than a post on a forum…

Please let us know if you have more information.

Comment by Renee — May 20, 2010 @ 5:57 am

Facebook has been degrading its brand badly; I never saw a brand that is so bad at listening to its customers. They need to wake up and realize that the "Atilla the Hun" approach to building a brand is out of fashion. For me to have to explain this to a social brand is mind-boggling–haven't they been analyzing their chatter? What's up with these doofuses?

End of rant. But… sheesh.

Comment by TheMarketArtist — May 20, 2010 @ 6:07 am

This is really a bad news for all business owners.

Comment by Vikash Singh — May 20, 2010 @ 6:23 am

It seems greed is most famous for creating new policies. I agree with another comment I read. They will face themselves and and just like My Space, they will loose a huge segment of their market share to the latest and greatest. More than likey it's being developed as we speak, by a 12 year old, or who knows it may be the Tech Savvy Agent's son, who I think is two.

Comment by Agi Anderson — May 20, 2010 @ 6:26 am

I just posted "2 Easy Ways To Still Get People To Your Facebook Landing Tab" on our blog http://blog.firebellydigital.com/2010/05/facebook...

Comment by Chad Richards — May 20, 2010 @ 6:39 am

This sucks for small companies and small agencies trying to help companies. Facebook is selling out like AdWords did for the almighty dollar.

Comment by Neil — May 20, 2010 @ 6:44 am

Not meaning to be at all rude, but I cannot quite understand those people who are slating Facebook for this and saying "Facebook is not a friend of small businesses"…

My understanding was Facebook was a social networking site – I didn't realise it had to be friends with small businesses to achieve this?

Perhaps Facebook are listening to all the complaints they receive from their users who think that there are more than "a few" spammers out there and that Facenook needs to take steps to stop them.

Personally I use Facebook to keep in touch with my family and friends. I don't feel the need to be fans of small businesses.

Now please understand I'm not having a go at anyone, just saying that I don't agree with blaming Facebook for this. After all, if a small business wants to advertise, why can't they pay for it? Either on Facebook or somewhere else?

Just wondering.

Comment by Martin O'Neil — May 20, 2010 @ 6:53 am

There back to the old ways now. This news was old when posted – we all made them turn the things back to way it were

Comment by Jouni Juhola — May 20, 2010 @ 6:55 am

The real offense here is that it was done without warning. we suddenly woke up one morning and things were different. A company that really cared about it's customers would have a roadmap and share it.

Isn't it ironic that the biggest names in social media are so disengaged from their customers.

Comment by Dave — May 20, 2010 @ 7:19 am

A crushing FAIL.

Comment by duncan — May 20, 2010 @ 7:26 am

A Grandfather clause??

Comment by Cindi — May 20, 2010 @ 7:26 am

Cash is always KING. When money is on the table, true colors come out. This is a lesson that social media is NOT free. We must remember that the use of the tools comes at a price. Enjoy it while it last, and be prepared for change. Have a contingency for everything you do in business:)….

Comment by Tiffany Odutoye — May 20, 2010 @ 7:27 am

It's okay if Facebook would have taken away the Fan Page option for small businesses. Trust me, there are enough brilliant people out there that someone would have figured out a work-around method. That method might have even turned out to be a better than what most of are currently using.

Comment by Sherrie Slopianka — May 20, 2010 @ 7:30 am

Wow! Facebook done this for only one reason,Facebook needs more revenue as if they are not earning from their ads. Brutal!

Comment by Mano Page — May 20, 2010 @ 7:34 am

This isn't good for the little guy, or even the medium guy. I guess FB just doesn't need us to promote it as a tool for communication any more, it just wants our money…

Comment by Nik Hewitt — May 20, 2010 @ 7:35 am

they just changed back to allowing the default tab this morning, looks like Facebook heard us this time…

Comment by Michelle — May 20, 2010 @ 7:44 am

Can someone please clue me in on what they mean by a "landing tab". I have a facebook page and group. Just emailed all of y group to convert to my fan page. Did I screw up?

Not sure I ever utilized my "Landing tab" – whatever that is….

Comment by Janet DeVito — May 20, 2010 @ 8:53 am

Based on the article, it seems that many of your readers believe that custom tabs are going to be fully disallowed.

As to the grave implications that everyone is bickering about… "Massive blow…"

Sure it'll likely have a negative impact on conversions, but just like the privacy "riot" that started after f8, complaining isn't going to get anything done. Instead

Mari already shared one workaround–just link to the tab in your marketing collateral. You should be tracking traffic anyway, so it's a simple solution to just switch the target of your links. Potential problem: with existing print collateral, you're still screwed.

Second, the maximum dimensions of a profile image is 200×468. That's larger than most profile images and, accordingly, if you're not taking advantage of the extra space, you're wasting screen real estate. Put your call to action there. Examples: http://www.webmarketingnerd.com/wp-content/themes... http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/object2/638/105/n1701...

You have no control over the changes that Facebook–or any other social network–is making. That's the risk you accepted when you invested in a platform that you don't control.

May we have less whining and more problem solving, please?

Comment by Rob Laughter — May 20, 2010 @ 8:58 am

FFS. You’re all a bunch of drama queens. Please explain how this is a blow to small businesses? Ridiculous. Is it because the article said it? For shits sake.

If it’s that big of an issue and your Facebook presence is that important to your business model then you SHOULD be spending money on Facebook advertising. And they didnt say how much you need to spend. $10 a month. Go for it, you can do it. God forbid Facebook encourage you to pay to advertise yourself on a free service they are offering you.

If you are using Facebook as a serious tool in your marketing model, then expect to be treated seriously.

Use your minds.

Comment by mkid — May 20, 2010 @ 10:35 am

Here's the rub:

1) How many people have clients who have paid for custom landing pages to enhance their Fan experience, only to see those made null?

2) How does this go to better serve the business owner in engaging with its audience?

3) Why does the public find out about this via a Developer's Forum post?

4) I'm an admin on 12 FB Fan Pages and received no notice, half of which have custom landing pages and 3 with landing pages in development which now have to be paid for even though they can't be used.

Again, we shouldn't expect very much from a social platform with no Customer Service department. I'm exhausted, however, with the 'through the grapevine' communication of what's touted as the current social media behemoth on the street.

Comment by Erika Napoletano — May 20, 2010 @ 11:58 am

FB is not known for problem solving, only creating problems.

Comment by Guest — May 20, 2010 @ 2:26 pm

And this coming from a person who's been using it since 2005, who knows the website better than all of you.

Comment by Guest — May 20, 2010 @ 2:27 pm

Facebook isn't going anywehere, guess its gonna end the entire business soon!

Comment by Aditya Gupta — May 20, 2010 @ 9:29 pm

Dreadful news

The small business of today could be the big business of tomorrow

Seriously bad decision

Comment by Phil Hook — May 21, 2010 @ 3:05 am

When you're as big as Facebook you can do what you want, but most giant-market-share corporations know better than to risk their brand by constantly zig-zagging their policies. FB has pulled the rug from under the very business customers it so publicly courted and the Fan Page cottage industry it created.

Comment by Christine — May 21, 2010 @ 6:28 am

I have been trying to get in touch with a Facebook ad rep and can't get anyone to respond. Is there a phone number to call? Please help ASAP!!!

Comment by Rachael — May 21, 2010 @ 7:14 am

Way to go Facebook. Just when I thought you couldn't get any worse, you go and prove me wrong. I love how he signs off with a "thanks." Yea, no problem buddy.

Comment by Gareth Rees — May 21, 2010 @ 9:18 am

As a small business owner with a large fan base, this is absolutely wonderful. Facebook is trying to get rid of all of the garbage fan pages that plague Facebook's culture and push it further towards the Myspace doom. I say bravo Facebook, and thx AFB for the article.

Comment by Anon Ymous — May 22, 2010 @ 1:59 pm

The Facebook developer community is full of brilliant people and wish they would have talked to use prior to implementing this rule.

I am all for restrictions on FBML tabs in fan pages, but they way they went about it was all wrong. It is the scammers who will have 10k+ fans and meet the requirements, the ones they are trying to get rid of.

I proposed to Facebook that in order to have your tab set as a landing page it needs to be approved just like getting any application approved. They also need to make reporting fan pages easier. This shouldnt concern any legitimate business with a company fan page.

Comment by Mike — May 23, 2010 @ 5:39 am

I guess I'll have to stop writing blog posts talking about how easy it is to get free traffic from Facebook.

Comment by Teasastips — May 23, 2010 @ 3:24 pm

Thanks for posting this Josh. Yet another blow to business from Facebook (and snuck in under the radar).

Comment by Tia Fisher — May 24, 2010 @ 1:37 am

I dont know what's up with facebook… Facebook will bring about its own downfall… I have already started looking for an alternative… wtf??

Comment by Spnkychnk — May 25, 2010 @ 7:04 am

I'm looking for a few good men and women to build the next "Facebook-like" social media website. The mighty facebook has now fallen and needs a replacement.

Comment by Paul — May 25, 2010 @ 2:42 pm

This is BS each page of a person is their identity and who they are now if you want to go after crap posted on Facebook I suggest look where there is violence and explicit post and pics…trust I have seen worse on here so Bring Back Tartuffe's Folly and Mark Dylan Sieber Photos least there was some intelligence and education posted.

Comment by Chime — May 26, 2010 @ 8:05 am

Glad to see them go! Facebook landing pages are just about as annoying and ineffective as website landing pages and people in their good sense stopped using those years ago.

Comment by BryanG — May 30, 2010 @ 11:20 am

What am I missing? I have a custom tab for one of my clients, Silver Mountain Sports Club and Spa, with only 125 fans (so far – become a fan!) When I search on it, the landing page is the custom tab.

Comment by Sue Ann Kern — August 2, 2010 @ 2:20 pm

Facebook back tracked on this one fairly quickly so you can select a customised tab as the landing page.

Comment by Jonathan Pollinger — August 8, 2010 @ 3:04 am

This is a way to increase the business with the help of fb social ads !

Comment by Honey Singh — September 20, 2010 @ 9:35 am

For me Facebook Fan page at ShoutMeLoud http://www.facebook.com/Shoutmeloud
Is taking me to Welcome tab..
I believe they are rolling out this new policy in batches.. I Call it as a bad move from Facebook and specially bad for medium Facebook Fan page admin like us…

Comment by Harsh Agrawal — September 20, 2010 @ 11:59 am

is that mean it wont be possible to add a tab with static fbml?

Comment by roisrael — September 21, 2010 @ 5:25 am

Unlike Unlike Unlike!
This is really bad news for facebook account holders and small business.
Pls If there is any alternative to create landing page.

Thank you

Comment by RAM — November 30, 2010 @ 7:10 am

You guys are all stupid….works fine for all 10 pages i manage none over 1000 fans

Comment by only in america — December 29, 2010 @ 10:43 am

Not stupid, FB has changed this few months ago!!

Comment by Noir — February 8, 2011 @ 6:46 am

This sucks…

Comment by Alex — March 21, 2011 @ 12:06 pm

Comment by Aliza Shehpati — April 14, 2011 @ 7:07 pm

Is all about Money.

Comment by Miguel — April 16, 2011 @ 1:33 pm

Very informative site:
Regarding Facebook FBML… I have tried to use this to create a custom page – but get response from FB – FBML is not available…
Anyone know more about this?

Comment by Graphiclineweb — June 15, 2011 @ 10:00 am

I am an unauthenticated user but not a spammer. Why am I unauthenticated? Because they demand either a cell phone or a university email address to send the code you need to authenticate. I do not own a cell phone and I graduated university well before the email era and I don't feel like getting an email address from my alumni association just for Facebook to authenticate my account. I have other email addresses they can write to or call my landline, I would give them that phone number.

Comment by Kellia — June 18, 2011 @ 12:47 pm

I'm glad this isn't a concern now. It would be challenge and dramatically limit reach of facebook fan pages. It hurts the amount of visibility and hurts user engagement

Comment by Carrie Ann — July 11, 2011 @ 9:39 pm

I really like your idea. We use multiple different Facebook business pages for support on our different brands and this app looks like a great way to streamline that. Thanks for posting

Facebook Limits Landing Tabs To “Authenticated Pages”

Recommended Articles

Inside Social Apps 2012 is Less Than Two Weeks Away

14441113 Comments2010-05-19+22%3A39%3A44Nick+O%27Neill »

Leave a comment

Follow AllFacebook

Send us a Tip

Social Media Jobs

Let your next job find you!

Featured Company

Jobs of the Day

Digital Strategist

Digital/Social Media Manager - Entertainment

Social Media Coordinator

See all jobs

Upcoming Events

Facebook Limits Landing Tabs To “Authenticated Pages”

Recommended Articles

Inside Social Apps 2012 is Less Than Two Weeks Away

14441113 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.allfacebook.com%2Ffacebook-limits-landing-tabs-to-authenticated-pages-2010-05Facebook+Limits+Landing+Tabs+To+%22Authenticated+Pages%222010-05-19+22%3A39%3A44Nick+O%27Neillhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.allfacebook.com%2F%3Fp%3D14441 »

Leave a comment

Follow AllFacebook

Send us a Tip

Social Media Jobs

Let your next job find you!

Featured Company

Jobs of the Day

Digital Strategist

Digital/Social Media Manager - Entertainment

Social Media Coordinator

See all jobs

Upcoming Events

14441113 Comments2010-05-19+22%3A39%3A44Nick+O%27Neill »