Adding Static FBML Application for Facebook Surveys Deployment

http://www.LeadPro247.com/Surveys/ http://www.SurveyBuilder.info

Online Surveys Builder Software Solution

Adding Static FBML Application to Facebook Page Tab and

Providing Online Survey Links

Updated: June 2010

www.LeadPro247.com/Surveys/

www.SurveyBuilder.info

Specification Document


Adding Static FBML Application to Facebook Page Tab and

Providing Online Survey Links

Static FBML applications can be added as tabs on Facebook business pages and used for

providing links to your online surveys. With millions of users, Facebook has become a major social

media source for attracting and recruiting consumer panel members. Businesses and market researchers

are using social media tools such as Facebook in a big way to attract survey participants.

Setting Up Facebook Fan Pages

Note that you should be setting up one or more business pages (also known as fan pages or brand

pages) for your organization, depending on the number of products or service promoted. Your Facebook

profile pages should not be used for business purposes. Also, Facebook has withdrawn the Static FBML

Tab features for profile pages.

Setting up a basic fan page takes only a few minutes. Use the Ads and Pages link available in the left

panel on your profile page after logging into the Facebook account. To start with you may specify some

basic information such as name, brief description, website name, etc.

The above screenshot shows the view of the wall page after adding some postings on the wall.


Once the page is setup, by default tabs such as Get Started, Wall, Info, Discussion, etc. will be displayed

automatically. The basic page will look like the following picture (note: Get iPhone4 tab will not be

listed; it was added later on).

One or more Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language) applications can be added to a page as

described in the following section. Click on the Edit Page link on the left panel of your page. You should

have logged into the Facebook before starting the above process.


Adding Static FBML Application

When the Edit Page is clicked, a page with long list of tabs and other applications will be displayed. The

Static FBML application link will be available at the bottom of the page under More Applications section.

Clicking on the Static FBML application link will take you to the Static FBML application page. This is a

standard, special purpose application created by Facebook which can be added to your pages; it is

similar to any other third party applications. Once the Static FBML application page is displayed, you can

add the same to your (fan / business) page.


Click on the Add to my Page link (highlighted in the above picture) available on the left panel of the

Static FBML application page.

A popup window will be displayed with a list of all the pages associated with your Facebook account.

Now your page where you would like to add the Static FBML application should be in the list.

Select the right page by clicking on the Add Page button provided against each page name.

In this example, we are adding the Static FBML application to a business page named Great Products for

Fun, Inc.


Updating Static FBML App Properties

Once the Static FBML app is added to the selected page, you can view the FBML App in the applications

list under the same page. Use Edit Page option of the respective page to view the applications. In the

following example the new application is displayed as FBML1 (generally it will be displayed as FBML).

Now that you have created and added a Static FBML app to your business page, the rest of the settings

and parameters can be specified. Use Application Settings link and enable the Tab (if it is not enabled by

default).


Then click on the Edit link (under the FBML app) and update the Title of the Static FBML app (which will

become the title of the tab) on your page. Hence the title text should be short.

Note that the title has been shortened below to reduce the tab name width.

Note: Though the sample text above says “embed the survey on this page”, the survey cannot be

embedded on a Static FBML page; Facebook has changed the specifications recently. “iframe”

embedding is possible only with a Facebook Canvas Application. Only a survey link can be placed on the

static FBML tab.


The following screenshot shows the view of the page after adding the Static FBML app as a tab. You can

change the properties or update the content on the static FBML tab by clicking on the Edit Page option

displayed on the left panel.

Clicking on the Get iPhone4 tab (we just added) shows up as below with some sample text. Notice that

the survey link is not yet added on the page; only some static information is added.

You can add any content as long as it is FBML compatible. FBML is a simplified form of HTML with some

specific exceptions. For example, it used to support iframe embedding, which is not allowed now.

The following picture shows the addition of other relevant information and the Survey URL on the FBML

page. The Save button at the bottom of the screen should be clicked to save the updated content. When

the changes are saved, respective message will be displayed.

Clicking on the page name (Great Products for Fun, Inc., in this case) will take you to the respective tab.


The final page after completion of FBML content update is shown below.

Contents such as Images, YouTube videos, MP3 audio recordings and Flickr photo slideshows can also be

added to the FBML page. Note that all contents (images, videos and audio) should be hosted outside of

the Facebook system and only the links will be embedded in the system.


Changing the Default Tab

When a visitor (i.e. fan) visits the business page, generally the wall page will be displayed by default. if

you are creating a Static FBML based tab for linking the Survey URL, it is essential to direct the user to

that page by default, so that maximum visibility will be ensured.

In order to change the default landing page, go to the Wall tab and click on the Settings link included in

the right side of the wall page on Facebook.

Then click on the dropdown for “Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else” property. Multiple tab names

will be displayed in the dropdown list.

Select the newly created Static FBML based tab name (Get iPhone4, in this example) from the

dropdown.

The following screenshot shows the required tab in selected position. The selection will be saved

automatically; no need to save this change explicitly.


The final view of the Static FBML based Tab as seen by the fans is shown below. A visitor will arrive at

this landing page, with the Get iPhone4 tab in open position.

The survey link is included fully, so that the users can also copy and paste the same into the browser.


Getting Survey URL Link from LeadPro247 Survey Builder

The following screenshot shows the Survey Response Data Collector list page (accessed from Survey

Definition module by clicking on the Collectors icon link).

Click on the View icon against the respective data collector. It is suggested that a separate data collector

can be defined for linking the survey URL on Facebook. Note that the system supports any number of

data collectors for each survey.

The survey URL link can be viewed and copied from the Survey Link section displayed at the bottom of

the collector definition view page. This link is copied and used in the FBML contents page described

above.