My current foster dog, Norman. What breeds, do you think?!?!

In last week’s webinar about creating custom tabs on your Facebook pages, we talked about inserting a Paypal donate button. Some of you were getting error messages from the donate button that wouldn’t let donors progress on to the donate page. NOT GOOD!

As near as I can tell, there is some piece of code in the code generated from Paypal that Facebook just doesn’t like. So I’ve come up with a workaround. It’s not that difficult, but there are a few steps, so you may need to watch the video a couple of times! As always, let me know if you have any questions by posting in the comment section below, or post on my Facebook page. That way everyone can benefit from the answers.

Hope this helps!

If you missed yesterday’s webinar where we learned how to create custom tabs for our Facebook pages, you can watch the recording here!

If you still have any questions, please post them in the comments below; I’m glad to help. And if you watch this video but it’s still not something you think you can do (or want to mess with), I can create your custom tabs for you, along with graphics and content. Just click here to find out more!

Thanks to everyone who attended the webinar, and please post in the comments below if you have any requests for other webinar topics to cover!

P.S. Have you heard about the Shelter Marketing Master Class at Sea? It’s going to be awesome….

Join me this Thursday, September 1, at 12:00 pm Central (1:00 pm Eastern/10:00 am Pacific)

If you haven’t already set up a Facebook page for your organization or business, you’ll need to do that first. You can learn how to create a Facebook page in this video.

This webinar will show you how to install custom tabs on your page with any content you want to share with your fans! You can also keep content hidden until someone becomes a fan, if you wish!

Facebook has changed a lot over the last six months, so join me to learn how to set up your own custom Facebook page–for Free.

You need to pre-register for the webinar, so please click here to register now!

Let me be clear: I am NOT selling anything on this webinar. And it’s not just a “here’s why you should have a Facebook page” kind of thing. I am going to walk you through the process, step by step, and answer your questions at the end. This is designed for beginners, not advanced computer users. Please join us–these tend to be really good webinars (if I don’t say so myself!)

If you couldn’t make it to the webinar, I recorded the whole thing, so you can watch it here. Keep in mind it’s about 1 hour long, so you certainly don’t have to watch the whole thing through; just skip around to the parts that interest you. In the coming days, I’ll try to cut it up into smaller videos by topic so you can more easily find what is relevant to your situation.

I got some great feedback, too. One person said it wasn’t quite basic enough, so in the next few weeks I’ll put together a SUPER remedial (just kidding!) Facebook webinar, going over the basic basic basics!

I also want to do one that’s a bit more advanced/intermediate, so you can see how to do some specific things, like create a custom Facebook page. Some new tools are available now that make this pretty easy and they are even better than old Static FBML!

So here’s the video. You’re seeing it recorded from my screen, so from time to time you’ll see the GoToWebinar control panel; just ignore it.

Please post below and let me know what webinars YOU would like to see in the future!

PS….have you heard about the Marketing at Sea Conference for animal welfare people? This is going to be incredible. Four days on a luxury ship with animal welfare marketing experts who will walk you through the process and share secrets for marketing your shelter–i.e. raising money, recruiting volunteers, doing more adoptions, more spay/neuter surgeries, etc.!! The price is very reasonable, and I’m one of the speakers! I’d love to hang out with you this February, poolside…so check it out!

So I am getting a lot of messages about the video I posted a couple of weeks ago about how to convert your profile to a page. THAT process is pretty simple, but people are confused about what to do with the data file they have downloaded, and how to get all the “stuff” that was on their profile, into their page!

Here are three videos that cover this process in detail.

In Video 1, we’ll talk about how to get your data out of Facebook once you get their email telling you it’s ready for download. (if you need to know how to initiate the download, check this video about that).

In Video 2, we’ll go over the actual process, step-by-step, of converting your profile into a page.

In Video 3, we’ll look at that ZIP file Facebook sent you, learn how to open it, look at what’s inside and what to do with it.

I want you to be totally informed about this whole process so you know exactly what to expect. Facebook gives us enough surprises, right!?

Please post comments below if you have any questions, or post on my Facebook page and I’m glad to help! As you know, Facebook changes frequently, so if there are updates, I’ll post here on the blog. And if YOU see anything new or different, let me know, too!

p.s. here are the links I mention in the videos, so you don’t have to write them down:

The post telling you how to get your data file out of Facebook

The link directly to the page on Facebook where you can initiate your profile to page conversion

Video 1: Metamorphosis: Getting your Data OUT of Facebook

Video 2: Converting your Profile to a Page

Video 3: That ZIP File and What to Do With It

This video shows you how to find your Petfinder ID and walks you step-by-step through the process of creating an adoptable pet list, including an explanation of what all the fields are. Please post below if you have any questions or comments!

As you may know, Facebook “profiles” are for individual people. “Pages” are for businesses and organizations.

Having a profile for anything other than an individual person is a violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. If you don’t convert your profile to a Page, you risk permanently losing access to the profile and all of your content. This means they can delete your profile, at any time, without warning, for being in violation–even if you aren’t doing anything “wrong.” It happened to a  rescue in Oklahoma just last month.

But NOW, if you accidentally set up your Facebook presence as a “profile,” you can switch it over easily, AND all your “friends” will automatically become “fans”!! Pretty exciting.

So, here is what you need to know, because (as with all things Facebook) it’s definitely possible to mess this up!

What will transfer over?

Right now, ALL your friends will become fans, and it will keep your same profile picture. That’s IT. So if you have notes, photos, videos, etc. it will NOT copy those over–UNLESS you do a couple extra steps, which I’m going to outline for you below.

Is it permanent? Can you switch back?

Yes, it’s permanent. No, you can’t switch back.

So how do you do it?

If you have extra content on your profile, like notes and other photos (besides your profile photo), you can easily download this to your computer, and then re-upload it once you convert your profile to a page. So you have to save this information first. If you just recently created your profile, you don’t need to worry about this.

To do this, Watch the video below or follow these steps:

1. Click on Account Settings (upper right corner).
2. Click on “learn more” next to “Download Your Information.”
3. Click on “Download.”
4. They will send you an email with a link to download the file when it’s ready.

 

 
DO NOT start converting your profile to a page until you’ve downloaded that file!!

So, if you’re ready to convert your profile to a page, click here to start. (the link will open in a new window so you can still see the instructions here)

Are you not sure what kind of page you need to create? Watch this video to understand what kind of Facebook page is right for you.

BE SURE you are logged in to the account that you want to convert! If you maintain your own personal account, plus one for your shelter, be sure you’re logged into the right account, because there’s no going back.

This account you’re logged into will become a Facebook “Business Account,” and will be the admin for the new page that it’s creating. So now you an add other people as admins to your page. It’s really important to have other people as admins on your page, age least one other person, just in case something happens to you. So make sure you set up some other admins on the page!

If you’re having trouble, comment below or on my Facebook page, and I’ll be glad to help!

This process has changed. Facebook no longer supports FBML, which was how we created the button interface in the past. If you already have FBML installed on your Facebook page, you’re good to go–you can continue on with this tutorial, as Facebook will continue to support FBML indefinitely. You just can’t do new installations of it anymore.

So if you have a new page, or you just didn’t install FBML in time, you can STILL have lots of stuff on your Facebook page. You can collect email signups for your newsletter, you can put a calendar, you can collect donations, you can display your adoptable animals–the list goes on and on! See some examples: Pflugerville Animal Shelter, Dorothy O’Connell Pet Adoption Center, Miami Animal Alliance, to name a few.

How?

I’ll be honest: it’s more difficult than FBML. What you have to do first is create a developer account with Facebook, because you have to create your own Facebook application, that contains all this stuff, and then install this on your page. All the images, scripts, pages, etc. that you want to display on your page, have to be hosted somewhere by you–on your site.

There are lots of services that will do this for you; the charge is an average of about $25 per month. We have a set up here at TheSocialAnimal.com that is just for nonprofits, and for a one time fee of $97 we’ll set up your application (with any or all of those features I mentioned above) and install it on your page. We’ll set you up with a login and a simple editor so you can make changes to your page whenever you need it.

It’s just too code-intensive for us to be able to do it for everyone for free, but we’re trying to make it not too hard on your checkbook. If you have any questions, just let me know! If you would like to order, just click here to get started!

This video will walk you through (step by step) how to insert a Paypal “donate” button on your Facebook page for your shelter, using the FBML app for Facebook. You need to have your button code ready; I show you how to create a Paypal donate button in a previous post.

Let me know if you have questions or there’s anything I need to explain better!

All pages will be updated by March 10–so look for yours to be changing sometime soon. If you want to know how to go ahead and upgrade your page RIGHT NOW, post a comment here and I’ll write out instructions if enough people are interested.

The coolest thing is that you’ll now have the ability to interact with other pages and participate on Facebook “as” your page. So you can go to other pages, make comments, “like” stuff, etc. all posting “as” your organization, not yourself. Pretty awesome!

The reverse is also true. You know how if you’re an admin on your Facebook page, you can’t post on your page as “yourself”? Well, now you can!! All you have to do is switch back and forth (watch the video to learn how).

The MOST IMPORTANT THING to remember, though, is to switch back when you’re done.

When you’re rolling around Facebook, commenting on ASPCA posts, interacting with other shelters, promoting legislation, etc. you’re acting in an official capacity, representing your company or organization.

So use that power wisely!

What I might say, “like” or post on Facebook as “Emily” might be really different than what I would post as “TheSocialAnimal.com” or as a representative of my humane society clients. You can see how things might get a little unpleasant if you forgot to switch!

Just remember to do like Mr. Rogers. Change out of those work clothes and into your own cardigan and houseshoes when you’re ready to “be yourself” on Facebook!
You also get the row of photos at the top of your page, just like you have on your personal profile.

Facebook will pull in the most recent photos that you’ve posted on your page (it WON’T pull in photos that your fans have posted). So if you don’t want those photos up there, or you want an assortment, just click on the “x” on each photo and choose “remove.” It won’t remove the photo from your Facebook page–just from the bar at the top.

Here are some of the notes from Facebook:

Use Facebook “as” Your Page

• You now have the flexibility to interact with the other areas of Facebook as a page.
• Get notifications when fans interact with your page or posts
• See activity from the pages you like in your news feed
• Like other pages and feature them on your page
• Make comments as your page on other pages

New settings

• You can set defaults for your email notifications and how you post to your page – as yourself or your page. You can also select which featured pages appear in the left column.
• To manage your settings for email and posting preferences, go to Edit Page and Your Settings. To select which pages appear in Likes, go to Edit Page and Featured.

Featured Photos

• The most recent photos that you post to your Wall or photos that you tag your Page in will appear here. This area will not include any photos posted by your fans.
• To hide a photo, roll over it and click X.

Navigation Where People Expect It

Navigation links are now on the left, just like on people’s profiles.

There are some other more subtle changes, but these are the biggest ones. if you have any questions or can’t figure something out, just post and we’ll help you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgZc1Y_be9Q