Loop-the-loop, fly backwards: dragonflies and Facebook

photo by Karen Nichols

An excellent and strong flyer, the fast-moving dragonfly can loop-the-loop, hover  and fly backwards.  Its eyes contain up to 30,000 individual lenses.

It would have been easy for an acrobatic dragonfly  to keep a bead on Facebook’s  manoeuvres this week as they first created, then removed restrictions on landing page tabs. A struggle, though, for a mere human to follow.

Of course the news of the  restrictions broke right after I’d given myself a high-five for  adding a custom landing tab to my brand new “dogs who love posties” Page,  a personal YEAH, I did it! moment.

@MariSmith’s tweet sounded the alarm, tanking my success. The  story continued to knit over the next 12 hours or so, until a Social Media Examiner post declared that:  “Facebook seemed to have backtracked on custom landing tabs for pages. I think your loud & clear voice of opposition made a difference.“  Later Tweets from additional  sources confirmed it and Facebook issued an apology .    WHEW!

Use a custom landing page to deliver strategic messaging

I won’t be personally coding their Pages but to advise others I do need to understand the best options.  Custom landing tabs give Page owners the means to deliver a strategic, targeted message to first-time visitors and provide them with incentive to join/like your Page.  Without it, first-time visitors land on your wall, without any context, like being dropped in the middle of conversations.  You want to be able to influence your visitors’ first impressions.