FANBlog

Tab title now set to "Welcome" by default

Due to overwhelming customer demand, we've changed the tab name from "FANBLDR" to "Welcome" by default. Let us know what you think of this change.

Great new tips on using social media in small businesses

Check out this great article on AppBistro: Social Media Strategies for Small Business. It goes into all the ways a small business can utilize Facebook to build their brand. A lot of the concepts are relevant to Twitter, too. Give it a read!

Many improvements to FANBLDR now live

We've just unleashed a number of major improvements to the FANBLDR editing interface. Mots notably, we've made it much easier to change your themes and dramatically improved the photo gallery section. Enjoy and as always email us at help@fanbldr.com if you have any problems.

Update: Due to overwhelming demand, we've re-enabled the ability to use thumbnails in the photo gallery. When you are editing your gallery, hit the "Show thumbnails below main photo" checkbox. Enjoy.

The Power of the Facebook Wall

AppBistro has a great, short post about making the Facebook Wall work for you. They outline three main points:

1. Update your status regularly
2. Let fans post
3. Add more and more content

Check out the article. It's a quick read.

"Gamification" - social gaming for the rest of the web

This month the industry rags have all been abuzz about gamification, the growing art of applying social gaming ideas to businesses that aren't gaming.

Here are some basic concepts evolved in social gaming that are taking hold in the web industry as a whole:

1. Make the path to success clear. When a user logs in to your site or app, make sure he has some indications of what he should do next. Don't make him think - guide him down the path.
2. Reward users for interaction, progress and positive achievements. If your user is a model user, the kind of interaction you'd talk about in a case study, reward him for that.
3. Make it social. Easily allow users to interact with others inside the community, or draw their existing friends in to the community. Think application invites, sharable badges, feeds, and broadcasts ("post to Twitter" and "Like this on Facebook").
4. Cheap, plentiful virtual goods and add-ons. Let users earn additional access and features. If they don't have the time, let them buy them.

My favorite article about gamification so far is this week's TechCrunch article about DevHub. It goes into detail about how this inventive web site building service applies gamification and how it's affected their business and strategy.

Should you buy a Facebook ad for your page?

AppBistro.com has posted an interesting item on their blog: Facebook Ads for Your Facebook Fan Page- A Risk Worth Considering?

Paying for each visitor (often known as "buying traffic") has had a long and checkered history. Many people have found that while the traffic can be obtained for a reasonable price, it's poor quality traffic and not likely to return to interact with the site again. 

But with Facebook it's a different story: if you can buy the "likes," you can continually reconnect with your fans through their feed. How does this change the game? Read the article to find out.

Welcome to the FANBlog

We'll be posting news, tips and tricks, and other important information here.