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The “What You get From Facebook Pages” Series: Default Widgets and Applications

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This is the first in a series of articles I will be posting on Facebook Pages and how they can benefit you and your organization. Facebook Pages are the “Profile” for your business on Facebook.

When creating Facebook Pages for clients, I’ve become very aware that there just isn’t any documentation as to what each type of Facebook Page is, and what will be included with each Page. So I decided to spend a little time going through each type of Facebook Page, and finding what the various widgets (or Applications, I don’t believe Facebook has given them an official term) you get by default. As you’ll see below, each Page is not created equal. It was an interesting research project and I hope you can benefit from it as well.

I have not organized the types of Facebook Pages in any particular way, but it should be important to note that Facebook organizes Pages by “Local”, “Brand or Product”, and “Artist, Band, or Public Figure”. What I found is that even with that organization, it does not really reflect what you get on each type of Page. Here’s what you get:

Note that each Page comes with a default set of widgets: “Picture”, “Info”, “Mini-Feed”, “Wall”, “Photos”, “Video”, “Discussion Board”, “Fans”, “Events”, and “Notes”. Beyond that, it varies on the extras you can get. You can see what the others provide in the diagram below.

With each widget listed, all you have to do to get that widget on your Page is to click on “add” in the upper-right of the widget. You can find the additional widgets just by looking on an existing Page that fits in the Page Type that gets that widget by default. So, for example, even though you run an Auto Dealership you can still add a Music Player or even Discography (if for some reason you want one) on your Facebook Page. You can also add any Application in the Applications directory that supports Facebook Pages. So the default widgets each Page Type gives you really doesn’t warrant switching Page types just to get the widget you want.

What may make you change your mind however is the type of information you can show in the “Information” widget. Remember that once you choose your Page type you cannot change it again! You must delete the Page entirely and re-create the Page in order to do such. So if you have several hundred fans of your Page already it just won’t make sense to delete the Page at that point just to change the Page type. Choose your Page Types carefully! In the next article of this series I’ll cover the breakdown of what you get in the Information section of each Page Type so you can choose wisely.

Need some help getting a Facebook Page set up for your Organization? I do consulting! Contact me at jesse at staynalive dot com and I’ll get you setup with a plan on how you can utilize Facebook to bring your company more customers.

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Tags: Applications, business, facebook applications, facebook business, Facebook Pages, facebook widgets, pages, widgets