When setting out to build a Facebook page for my own company, I discovered the task not to be nearly as intuitive as I imagined it would be. I've had my own Facebook personal profile page for awhile and figured it would be as easy as that was. But not nearly.

Facebook seems to have made it not nearly as intuitive for building pages as it is for personal profiles. It took me some time playing around before I began getting the hang of when to click what. I think now I've gotten the hang of it though and wanted to post this to share some insight in case anyone else was going through the same pain. One of the first things you'll notice once you've set up the page initially is the addition of the "Boxes" tab. This tab is basically a playground for you to do whatever you want in. A big key to understanding this is by getting this application going on your page, Static FBML. Facebook Markup Language is basically CSS/HTML but written on Facebook. Same language. You install the app, which should then be visible in your settings area, and edit away (written in HTML or CSS language). You have the option there of adding more of these 'boxes' which means you'll add another section within that "Boxes" tab. Once you do that, you then have the option of moving each of those boxes in different order within the Boxes tab or even placing them on your Wall.

What took me awhile to understand here was you had to edit that FBML app within the settings area of your page, not in the normal view. If you are on your Wall, you'll see a little link underneath your picture that says "Edit Page", that's the settings area where you can physically edit that app (using HTML/CSS). Once done there, you have to go back to the normal (Wall) view and that is where you'll have location options for the box you created. You can change the location from within the default Boxes tab to either having it's own tab or placing it on your Wall. If you choose to let it live in it's own tab, then you can have that tab become the default landing tab for page for your visitors, see the ONE example. Like I said, once you get the hang of this app, it really opens up the possiblities for your page.

Resources

There is an overwhelming amount of resources out there for creating your pages. I've listed below some of the ones that I've referenced. Don't forget as well to look at some of the more common apps for Pages like the integration for your blog app and YouTube box app

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• Facebook for Business SuperGuide
• 5 Tips for Optimizing Your Brand's Facebook Presence - Mashable
• 5 Elelements of a Successful Facebook Fan Page - Mashable
• How To Use the New Facebook Fan Pages for Business
• 8 Essential Apps for Your Brand's Facebook Page - Mashable
• Facebook Marketing Page - Facebook
• Facebook Influencers Page - Facebook
• Facebook Developers Page - Facebook

Good luck out there and let me know if you find some of your own tips and tricks.

*This post has changed since it was originally authored.