Facebook Page redesign: 10 things admins should do RIGHT NOW.

Facebook announced a massive overhaul of its Pages for business today, and here's the most surprising part: It's awesome.

Don't listen to the angry mobs complaining about change. Today's shift is overwhelmingly positive and creates much-needed options for Page admins.

That said, you've got some work to do if you want to make the most if it. We've compiled 10 simple steps that will get you started on the right foot:

1. Turn on the new Page format.

Yes, it's opt-in. And permanent. But come on. Live a little. Plus, the rest of this post won't do you much good if you don't click that "Upgrade" button on your Page.

Tip: If you admin lots of pages, but only want to upgrade one or two for now, the upgrade system is wonky. After clicking "Upgrade," scroll through the subsequent list of your pages to find the one you wanted, then click "Upgrade" again. You can also "Upgrade All" if you're feeling gutsy.

Don't want to switch? Sorry, Facebook says you'll be dragged into the new format on March 1.

2. Set your Page's category and subcategory.

Here's the first cause for celebration. It used to be that once you selected a category for your Facebook page, it was locked in for life. Now you can not only set any category, but you can also select a more specific subcategory, which will change what kind of info is included in your Page's description.

Tip: First thing, click "Edit Page," then "Basic Inforrmation" to select your category and subcategory. Your page has probably been defaulted to the first subcategory in an alphabetic list, like "Appliances."

3. Check your e-mail notification settings for fan comments.

Facebook seems to be defaulting all upgraded pages to a setting that e-mails you when a fan comments. If you have multiple pages with multiple admins (I have dozens), this is probably a bad idea.

Thankfully, the setting seems to default to "off" if the Page is large (I'd guess the threshold is around 10,000+ Likes). But be sure to check your settings for all your Pages. To do so, go to "Edit Page," then "Your Settings." You'll see options for E-mail Notifications (uncheck it if you don't want comment notifications via e-mail), and a link to edit all your e-mail settings.

Tip: Be sure to follow that link, then click to "Change email settings for individual Pages." Strange that this option is so well hidden, but it's important.

4. Set your wall preference: Fans too or just you?

As you probably know, Facebook Page administrators have long had the option to keep fan comments off the "front page" of the wall. I generally prefer this setting, because it keeps "official" Page updates from getting lost in a fray of spam and typos.

Upgrading your page appears to force it back to the "Everyone" setting for the wall, which means you might want to re-select the option for "Posts by Page Only" in the "Manage Permissions" tab. I should note that Facebook has improved the "Everyone" setting by allowing it to sort popular posts to the top, but I'm still going to wait before handing over control of larger pages to the masses.

5. Want to occasionally post as yourself on Pages you admin?

Well now you can. in "Your Settings" in the "Edit Page" screen, you can select whether to "Always comment and post on your page as (PAGE NAME) even when using Facebook as (YOUR NAME)."

You can then select to log in as the Page itself, letting you jump between being a human with a name or just a brand. This is a nice new feature for small business owners and others who want audiences to know them by name.

6. Set your moderation and profanity blocklists.

This much-needed feature launched just before the new Page format did, so this is as good a time as any to set your preferences. Both settings can be found under "Manage Permissions."

The obscenity filter is automated, but you can select from three options: None, Medium or Strong. Facebook uses its collection of "reported" words to build these filters.

Moderation blocklists allow you to set specific words you don't want mentioned on your Page. Maybe a competitor, maybe a scandalous nickname for your product...the list is totally up to you.

7. Check out your Page's tabs.

They've moved! Instead of being up top, they're suddenly on the left side rail. And chances are, they don't look good. That's because Static FBML, the most common tab application, doesn't have a customizeable icon image. It's just that weird <-> symbol.

Sorry, I don't know a fix for that. BUT....

Tip: The switch to left-side navigation means you're no longer limited to brief titles for your apps. Instead of one or two words, you can now give your Page's apps pretty thorough titles.

To change your tab titles, click "Edit Page," then "Apps," then "Go to App" and you'll be able to change the name.

8. Select which photos should be featured up top.

Just like the User Profile design that debuted recently, the new Page look includes a gallery of your images across the top of the page. Now's a good time to select the ones that look best by "hiding" the ones that don't. You can salvage the hidden photos later if you need to.

And yes, now's the time to do something crazy like this, although the order seems to be randomized each time you view the Page.

UPDATE: Just confirmed from one of our Facebook reps: "At the moment the photostrip of images at the top of the Page are completely randomized and there's no way for Page admins to edit this setting."

9. Pick your "Featured Likes."

You've long been able to add "Favorite Pages" to your Page, but it hasn't really meant much. Now the system is moving to "Featured Likes," which showcase other Pages that your Page has "Liked." The gallery of Featured Likes has to first be activated in the "Featured" tab of your Page settings.

This ability to Like as a Page fixes one longtime problem for Facebook Page admins: You had to personally Like a Page before you could tag it in a status update. Now, your Page can do the Liking, so that you won't personally have clutter up your personal news feed.

10. Want some credit? Add "Featured Page Owners."

Facebook's Page changes include an interesting addition that many will find appealing (and many others won't): a public list of admins. The good news is that admins get to pick which of their team members (if any) are listed.

Personally, I have a pretty firm wall between my personal Facebook account and pages I administer, even my blogs. But for those who want to gain more Facebook connections for themselves through Pages they run, this will be a welcome change.

Have you been playing around with the new Page design and functionality? We'd love it if you would share what you've learned in the comments.

David Griner is a social media strategist for Luckie and Company and contributing editor for Adweek’s blog, AdFreak.com. You can reach him by e-mail or on Twitter.

Comments

[amykiane]

Thanks for sharing. It certainly made my navigation around the new page format easier.

[I'm Domestic...not DEAD!]

Whew! You saved me about 5 hours! 2 minutes and done. Thank you!

[Kris Cain]

I do like the change... mostly. There are a couple of quirks that hopefully they get worked out in the next couple of days. Notifications is not working for me even though it is on. And the posts on my page seem to be all out of order.

[Lori]

Thanks David! I just updated one. Off to update the others!

[kelly]

Have you guys found a way to create a mobile email address for photos with the Fan Pages? Great article, thanks!

[Michelle]

Great info -- Thanks for making this so simple and easy!

[BenwayNet]

Thanks for the updates, I need to spend more time with my facebook sites. Its hard with multiple blogs.

[Arie Rich]

Great post. I recently upgraded my Facebook page too. And I love the new look. I also like that we can set our URL to make it easier to access and give to people, before pages had a special number now we can customize it to say http://www.Facebook.com/username just like personal pages. If you notice it still sends you to your FB page and the URL has the numbers. So I guess it's just a redirect URL or something.

Arie Rich

[Jason]

I'm having difficulty figuring out how to:suggest pages to other friends with the new format...any clues? Thanks for the info.

[Nona Carson]

I updated our page yesterday and the main "bug" I see is that I can't delete any featured page owners. The boxes aren't checked and both admins still show up. Help!

[Lori]

Very happy with the new page changes, especially since I manage multiple pages. I am annoyed by the lack of a "Suggest to Friends" button. Not sure where it went. Thoughts? Wish there were customizable icons for the FBML "tabs" but glad you can be more specific about title.

[Sam Collier]

I'm pretty happy with these changes, for too long the gap between the functionality of a page and a profile has been far too wide. My only concern is whether the change in layouts mean we all need to redesign our landing/welcome pages? Or is this a belibrate push to use iframes over FBML? Good news for the designers out there I guess!

[Sam Collier]

Oops typo alert - that meant to say delibrate.

[David Griner]

Thanks so much for the great feedback, everyone. I'll attempt to answers some questions:

@Kris Cain - Yes, e-mail notifications do seem wonky. I seem to only get every other comment or so. Also, the post-order issue you noticed is an attempt to make the "Everyone" comment feed on a Page seem more like your personal News feed, with highlighted/popular posts up top. I'm not in love with it, but I see the point.

@kelly - Sorry, I haven't played with mobile e-mail photo uploads for Pages. Let me know what you find, though!

@ArieRich - The custom URLs for Pages have been around a while, but they've slowly opened up the option to Pages with smaller audiences. The minimum is now something like 30 Likes.

@Jason and @Lori - "Suggest to Friends" was quietly discontinued in January, before the redesign launched. You could still do it as an admin, but even that seems gone now. Facebook likely wants you to use "Share," which allows you to send as a direct message. Pretty different process, though. I guess they were trying to make it less spammy and more personalized.

@Sam Collier - I don't think you have to ditch Static FBML tabs, since not a whole lot was "lost in the fire." But if you had a new one in the works, yeah definitely iframe all the way.

Thanks again, all.

[Jeff Abbott]

Thank you for the suggestions. Not sure I will be a big fan of this change. I don't like that the tabs are no longer so prominent (they were the best way to share a wide array of content) and not every business needs a focus on pictures at the top of its page. Fan pages and personal pages are being made to look the same when they serve different needs.

[Jeremy Woods]

Great Article! and I also like the Muscle Shoals, Alabama music stuff in the examples. Is "The Year of Alabama Music" your page? I have The Shoals Sound, just a local music news, album reviews, and events list for The (muscle) Shoals area.

[Julie Wurr]

Just wish they would update the information so when you update your smartphones with facebook the pages that you like would show up in contacts. Would be nice to have my favorite stores, restaurants, etc...phone numbers at my finger tips.

[Adrian Clermont]

@Jason and @Lori - I still have 'Suggest to Friends' on the right side of my page under the 'View Insights' option.

[David Griner]

@Adrian, thanks so much. You're absolutely right. "Share with Friends" is available on the right-side nav with Insights. Still admin-only.

[Jami]

I have a question on the wall posts - they seem to be out of chronological order. Is this happening to anyone else? Thanks for this post. Very helpful!

[Charlene @ Sweetchic]

Thanks, I found this super helpful and implemented some of your suggested changes :)

[Christina Hills]

Thanks for this awesome step by step guide to the new fan pages.

This new change from Facebook was the think I was looking for to separate my business friends from my personal friends.

:) Christina Hills
http://facebook.com/christinahillsbiz

[Boise Idaho]

I did this step by step and it worked , thanks. Now I need to figure out how to place my website within a tab.

[Sarah K.]

Extremely helpful list - thanks!

[Melissa Hourigan]

Do you happen to know where the apps go? i.e. YouTube, Causes etc. Are those also supposed to appear on the left and will I see them once I .... GULP... Make the switch?

[Louise]

I don't like showing the Admin on the page. How do I get rid of this information without eliminating the admin?

[Anne]

This is so helpful, and I'm thrilled I can finally post/share from pages as the brands themselves. However, one of my organizations has had a name change--not major, just removed one word--but there doesn't seem to be any option to change a page name if you have more than 100 fans. Have you heard of a workaround? I'd hate to have to recreate the page and rebuild the fan base entirely. Many thanks.

[Katie Huebschen]

Hi David,
Thanks very much for the great outline on the new pages. I am confused about something. I see the profile pictures on top of the business page (when I act as my brand) and when I act like me, it looks like the old page. When someone connects with us on the link from our home page, it goes to the profile with none of the new pictures. I would have thought it would go to the new. Right now the only way I see the profile pictures is if I am logged in as my brand. What am I doing wrong?

[tracy swanson]

just curious why my posts are not in order of time posted. they just appear random. is there a way to fix this?

[sam]

The nice thing is that you can now be creative with the page profile http://www.facebook.com/ohnuts

[Janet]

The thing that I don't like and not sure if there is a way to change it, the posts are all mixed up, I want it in date order and I have things from January 2010 showing up at the top.

[Alamantra]

Hi. Thanks for the pointers. They were a great time-saver. I really appreciate it!

Alamantra
http://facebook.com/alamantra

[Titus Built, LLC]

Thanks for sharing! Will update our facebook page now.

[Tim]

I disagree with your statement that "Facebook has improved the "Everyone" setting by allowing it to sort popular posts to the top" - I run a very collaborative page and have always defaulted to the "everyone's posts" settings. The new facebook-controlled ordering is very disruptive to the conversations we have with our users.

To me, this is really the only downside to the upgrade. Everything else is a win.

[goodlaura]

I also dislike the feature of sorting popular posts to the top. The Pages I admin work much better with "most recent" at the top. My organizations are very events oriented so having comments about past events at the top of the feed is unhelpful.

[goodlaura]

I've found this post to be extremely useful and much better than the 3-4 other articles on the same topic I read before reading this one. Great tips!

[Olga]

Thank you for sharing this recap. I started playing around with this yesterday with my client. Now I see there is so much more than I realized. Cheers!

[Tom R.]

Thanks for the heads up. This will make adapting to the changes sooooo much easier.

[Nikki]

Although I am normally a huge fan of FB changes and updates I have 1 huge complaint about this change. I need to be able to sort my rss feeds in chronological order/everyone. I do not need fB to decide which of my customer's posts are most important. I can do that on my own. Other than that I love the change. I am hoping they will offer a drop down so admins/fans/customers can chose which view they see. Chronological or relevant.

[Melanie Nelson]

Thanks for a really great article, David. I shared it with many of my FB fans today and they appreciated it too.

As I'm testing things out, I see the value of being able to post as yourself or as the page (especially since I share admin of several pages, but I don't always want to post as admin on those pages). What I find, though, is that you still can't share links via the FB browser toolbar as a page; you have to be logged in as you. It would be so much easier to be able to share those links on the fly instead of having to go to the FB page and share the info there. (Of course, I realize you don't have anything to do with this, just venting a peeve.)

[Ruth Maude]

Thanks so much this was really helpful. At first glance I think these changes will really improve business pages.

[David Griner]

@jami, @tracy swanson and @janet- Yep, the new "Everyone" setting on wall posts isn't purely chronological. It's more like your personal News feed, which doesn't seem to be going over well with most admins.

@Melissa Hourigan - If you're talking about tab apps, yes, they should move to the left-side navigation on the Page. Let me know if they don't!

@melanie nelson - Interesting point. I don't use the toolbar, but I'm glad you pointed that out. Thanks!

@Louise - Are you sure you're not just seeing the admin view, which always shows the admin list? Try viewing your page after logging out of Facebook and see if the admin list is still visible.

@Anne - Sorry, I don't think they've enabled name changing for Pages after the initial growth stage. Hopefully that'll change, because you're definitely not alone.

@Katie Huebschen - Uhhhhh.....sorry, haven't seen that. Have you tried closing the browser and trying again? Might be a caching issue? (And I'm totally making this answer up as I go.)

[Missy @ marketing mama]

I'm struggling with item #2 option - I tried changing my page from a local business to "people" category and no matter how many times I save it as such, it keeps defaulting. I can't figure out why and I'm frustrated. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know! :)

http://www.facebook.com/themarketingmama

[Lynn]

OK... I just switched. I get how to remove photos from the little picture section up top, but how do you tell it which ones you want? It seems random to me. AND each time I go back to my page, the pics are in a different order.

[David Griner]

@Lynn - You can't really "select" which ones to feature. Just have to keep hiding ones you don't want until you like the picks. And yes, it's constantly rotating the order of the five, which is truly annoying when you're trying to select your five.

[Gillian@Friend2Friend]

@David and Katie Heubschen - If you are only seeing the new profile when you're "using Facebook as your brand" then you probably haven't upgraded that page yet. Once you upgrade one page and browse Facebook as your brand, every page you see is in the new format, even those that haven't upgraded. It's very interesting, actually a great way to preview pages to see what they'll look like in the new format. But switch back to yourself and they'll look the way everyone else would see them.

[Gillian@Friend2Friend]

btw, great post David!

[Cari Chauss]

Hi, I like a lot about the new layout. I was wondering if you can help me figure out how to add to my menutab for our pages. Thanks.

[Style Maniac]

Nice post! Could you expand a bit on how to change the Title of a Tab? I've tried following your instructions but see no place in any of the Apps to change the name. Thanks!

[Maya]

Thanks so much for this! So, if I change it from "everyone" to "only posts by page," does this mean my fans will no longer be able to post anything on my page's wall?

[spacemonkey]

Anyone know how to set the wall to sort by chronological order??? I have the wall set to everyone, and we used to be able to answer any comments/qustions our customers post on our wall pretty quickly, but this new non-chronological order is making it extremely difficult to figure out when our customers post questions on our page!!! HELP!!!!

Also, less important but still annoying, how do you select which 5 photos to use, besides clicking on the little x to remove one? I have over 300 photos and I don't want to have to cycle through the photos one by one! And if I clicked on remove by accident, is there a way to unhide single photo instead of unhiding all and starting this process over?

[Heather @ Queen Bee Coupons]

Thank you so much, I found this article super helpful. Saved me a ton of time.

[Brad]

I'm still on the fence about a few things especially the ugly FBML icons / tabs on the left now. I have a feeling less people will be clicking on those icons as opposed to going straight to the wall. Not good if you want to run promotions, etc using additional tabs. The options for running FB ads is better now though.

http://www.facebook.com/OperationTechnology

[Martin Kubler]

Very useful info! A friend send me a link to this post after switching her page over and it certainly saved me a lot of time. Thank you!
I still don't understand why FB displays the 5 little pics on top of the page in random order - I liked my little FB profile pic hack I put in place a while ago. Ah well, maybe they will bring it back in the future.

[Stasia]

Has anyone had any success in getting a Bing Map changed in Facebook Places? I manage close to 20 pages, and there are several of them that the maps are off by an alarming distance.

One is a small NY pub, and the map is off by more than 4 blocks, which may as well be 14 miles NYC. With the change in business pages, there seems to be a renewed campaign to merge your Place Page with the Business page, which I want to do, but I don't want to claim the map that is wrong.

I have reported the problems to Bing dozens of time, but have yet to see any resolution, and the few posts that I was able to get at in FB help have seemed to disappear.

Any insights on a solution?

[Milo]

Hi... Is this mix up posts going to be fixed or we'll live with it
It kinda sucks?

[Milo]

Hi... Are the mixed up posts going to be fixed or we'll live with it? It kinda sucks.

[IamDavid]

I really liked the old FB pages with the nav at the top, but this post did a good job explaining why you should just go with it. Thank you for the tips, you saved me a few hours!

[Michael Vallez]

David,

very nice thorough article, which was very helpful. Facebook does not do a great job at explaining the many changes they implement so kudos to you for taking the time to share.

Mike

[Mike]

Great post. Can't wait to dig around and revamp my pages as a lot of the existing functionality was hindering what I really wanted to do as a Page. Good to see Facebook are listening to what we really want from a business perspective as well as a personal networking tool.

[Srinivas]

Very useful information, though i upgraded to new design i was not aware of the great feature it offered. Very informative post.. thanks

[Invenio Marketing Solutions]

Thanks so much for the step by step to do list - I'm going to dive in today and tailor our page based on all these new options.

[Nicole]

Is there an option to disable the 'everyone' feature for wall posts so they revert to chronological order? This is very frustrating and my supervisor would like me to delete all old posts... I do not want to resort to that so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Jenny]

I don't see a way to sort my wall by most recent. It's defaulted to most popular and my newest posts are being buried by the popular stuff.

Any tips?

[Jacki]

Has anyone figured out how to reorder the left navigation under the profile picture? Any ideas?

[Susan]

Please help...I set up our facebook page with an e-mail address and a birthday. Since the "upgrade" I have not been able to update our page. Is this because I now need a personal profile page?

[Leslie]

Sending invites to friends from my page doesn't seem to work--the button is there, and I've gone through my friend list now three times and the invites don't go out. I tested it with inviting my husband, and he doesn't get notification.

[Art]

Can you use the Share feature with FB users that are not friends.... for instance to announce a school reunion to alot of former classmates that you don't necessairly want as FB friends if you re managing a school amumni page ??

[Kim]

Thank you for the very thorough post. I was dreading walking through all the changes and missing something and your post helped cut through the stuff.

I tend to agree with many of the posters on here that I hate the non-chronological new Everyone wall. It seriously hampers honest communication. Hopefully FB listens and either gives us back the ability to control chronology or at least the ability for us to favorite some of the user posts to the top. Just today I had a post from one of our partners that I wanted everyone to see and FB buried it. I had a bunch of people comment on it to see if it floated it to the top and even that didn't work. How is FB determining popularity for what posts float to the top?

[Christina Ing]

Strange...under my 'edit page' and then 'basic information' there is nothing that shows up for setting the Page's category and subcategory.

[Crittle]

I can't seem to figure out how to post to business wall since upgrade. The news feed/publisher is no longer at the top. I've tried looking in settings, edit page, manage perm, etc. Any suggestions? Facebook name: Wickless Aromas. Thanks!

[Gerald Weber]

This is a really good quick guide for a Facebook noob like myself.

I just went down the list and made the adjustments.

Thanks for the info.

[SattlerArt]

Hi Dave, thank you for your well explained summery of the facebook page changes.

I am desperate, however, for help with a problem connected to these changes.
My page doesn't have an administrator!
In retrospective, I know I have contributed to this problem by removing myself as an administrator. I added a different email address with which I opened another account assuming it will default to being the administrator of the page. But it didn't leaving the page without an administrator.

I wrote the facebook/helpteam asking to look in to this problem and helping me to restore an administrator, but they are not responsive.

If your creative wheels are interested to chew this, I would be most grateful for your help.
warm regards,
basia

[CCHS]

In the old page the people who liked your page pictures showed on the left hand side for everyone to view. Now under the new format all you can see is a number. How can this be changed to see pictures again?

[Cathy Reisenwitz]

Just saw that this article got Sphunn! Congrats!

[Michele]

I am an admin for a page. How can I share an article to facebook and have it show up on the fan page and not as the person? It defaults to the person and I'm not sure how to post it onto their fan page. Thanks!

[SEO Web Designs]

Another great benefit of the new Facebook upgrade is now you can post on Facebook as your main website. The implications for building link authority is huge.

[Nikki]

Hello - I went to my page to try and update an App Tab Name and when I click on Edit Settings all I see is a Profile tab with "Tab: Added (remove)" without any way to change the name. Any thoughts on why that might be? Any help is appreciated!

[Graeme Benge]

Hi David
Is there a staggered release? I can't seem to find the upgrade options.
g.

[Insa]

Hi David,

Really helpful article, thanks very much.

Insa

[Jovana]

Hey David! Really terrific post.

One question. I seem to have noticed that as of the new redesign, I can no longer post notes as my Facebook page. :-( Sadness. Any idea why this is so? Do I just need to change something in my settings? Thanks.

[Walter Silva]

Thank you:)

[Jasmine A. Davis]

This is *awesome*, I love the upgrades. This post definitely saved me a lot of time trying to figure this out on my own.

[Cathy Danhauer]

Thanks for the outline. I think I'm now brave enough to do this. Want to share that I found a site in beta testing called HyperAlerts.no. It has some additional features beyond Facebook's email alerts for fan page postings. The immediate setting doesn't seem to be as quick as Facebook's but the other feature include being able to specify the alert timing and getting alerts for any Facebook URL.

[River-Rose]

Yes, but how does one allow posts from others to be sorted by most recent?

[DragonSearch]

This is a good outline for using the new page features. One question though. Maybe others have experienced this as well. Have page suggestions not been working for anyone since the new pages rolled out? For us, it has not.

[bake love not war]

i have also been having trouble. i send page suggestions to my friends but they don't receive them. any ideas why? x