In my post last week, Where Did Facebook Groups and Pages Go?, I mentioned how frustrating it is that the new design makes it really difficult to find the Pages that you're a fan of. I also said, "[Pages] updates do appear on your News Feed, but [they] have additional features as well, that you can only access from their main page."

Reader Cheryl wrote this comment in response:

I just migrated the fan site for my blog from a Group to a Page at my husband's suggestion. Other than having my links now appear as status updates in my fans' feeds (which is great), what other functionality do the Pages offer that I might not know about?

To be honest, I'm pretty new to Pages myself. (Note that Pages are also referred to as Public Profiles.) I've actually created several over the last year or so—one for my freelance writing business, one for a nonprofit I'm involved with, and a couple more—but have never gotten around to making them public for a variety of reasons.

However, it looks like more and more organizations are beginning to use Pages in one way or another, so it behooves me to learn some more about them. So... I've created a new Tech for Luddites Page, and I invite any of you with a Facebook profile to become one of my "fans." (Mainly so I'm not all by myself there... :)

As I set this up, I was shocked (SHOCKED!) to discover that a lot of things about Pages are confusing, so I'm going to do a series on them in the near future that can help people get started with them. However, for this post, I'm simply going to answer Cheryl's question and point out a few of the Pages benefits I've discovered.

Post updates to your fans' News Feeds.

Cheryl mentioned this in her question, but it really is one of the best features. With the recent Facebook redesign, Pages are now a lot more like regular profiles than they used to be (hence the new term, Public Profiles...).

So, just like when you post a Status update and it goes to your friends' News Feeds, when you post an update on your Page, it will automatically appear in your fans' feeds. The only difference is that instead of saying "What's on your mind?" the Page text box says "Write something..." (Note that your fans can hide your updates just like your friends can as well.)

This is an advantage over Group functionality, where you're limited to the number of people you can send a message to (I think it's 5,000) and, if you do so, it goes to their Inbox rather than the News Feed. I think this makes it more conducive to dashing off a quick note to your fans.

At the same time, I think it's also somewhat less intrusive because your updates blend in with all the other ones on your fans' home page.

Note: Anything that gets posted to your Wall will appear on your fans' News Feeds. I haven't really had a chance to investigate all the privacy controls that might be available, as compared to individual profiles, but there are some basic Wall settings you can adjust, like what people see when they first come to your Page and whether or not fans can post stuff on your Wall.

Automatically import your blog posts.

This functionality is available for personal profiles as well. You can import one RSS feed into your Notes application so each new blog post becomes a separate post and then is automatically added to your Wall—and therefore your fans' News Feeds. (At the moment, this is pretty much ALL I have on my Wall...)

Here are the steps to do this:

• In the left-hand nav bar, click Edit Page.
• Scroll down to the Notes application, click the pencil icon in the top right, and click Edit from the menu that appears.

• In the right-hand panel, click Import a Blog.
• Enter your blog's URL or feed, check the box, and click Start Importing.
  

Add applications to your Page.

This is probably the biggest benefit of a Page—you can add virtually any application to it to enhance its value for your fans. Some apps can be added to your Wall, some to your Boxes tab, and some can be used to create a separate tab (or some combination of all three).

Now, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of apps on Facebook, so deciding which ones to add might be a bit of a challenge. But think creatively. For example, most companies probably wouldn't want to add the "What is Your 80's Song?" quiz to their Pages but, if yours is music-related, it might be something that your fans would enjoy.

Here are a few apps I've added to the Tech for Luddites Page.

Note: While this is one of the best features of Pages, it also appears to be one of the buggiest. I ran into a lot of glitches trying to add some of these apps. I'll write separate posts about some of these, but I just wanted to say you should be forewarned (and patient!).

RSS-Connect

As mentioned above, you can import one blog into your Notes, but only one. RSS-Connect allows you to include five feeds in a box on your Page. In my case, I've added it to my Wall and you can click on the headers to switch between feeds. So far I've only got three: T4L (although I'm not sure I'll keep that...), Mashable, and ProBlogger. You can also set it so that their posts automatically appear on your Wall.

There are other RSS-related applications as well. I tried one of the other ones and just couldn't get it to work, so I stuck with RSS-Connect, which I also use on my personal profile page.

Static FBML

This is a nice app. It just puts a box on your Page where you can put any type of HTML content you want, making it extremely flexible. And, unlike some applications, you can use it more than once. I have one on my Wall that lists the top three topics that people search on that drives them to my blog and another one my Boxes tab that provides links to Help resources for a number of sites.

     

This Day in Tech

This was a fun app I discovered when I searched through the Applications list for "Tech". It posts a tech-related item that happened on this day in history, so I figured it might be interesting to people who follow my blog. This is one of the apps that I could only add as a tab.

Well, I think that's enough for now... :) As I said, I plan to post a lot more about Pages in later posts but, in the meantime, here are some links to additional resources that you may find helpful.

• Facebook's Help section on Pages
• Facebook Pages/Public Profiles Page
• Facebook Marketing Solutions Page

Thanks for asking the question, Cheryl. I hope this post has given you a few ideas if things you can do with your new Page.

If anyone has any other Page-related questions, please send them to me at F1@TechForLuddites. And I'll certainly be happy to pass on any tips you care to share!

Posted in Facebook, Reader Questions, Social Media