Designing for Facebook

Stuart Horton-Stephens | 8/10/2010

Its often surprising that the amount of companies out there who spend alot of time, effort and money on their online status tend to forget about what can be achieved within facebook. Facebook’s template probably does need a change, however, with the use of Facebook Markeup Language (FBML), the landing page for your business or the countless promotions you can set up have the ability to look pretty snazzy!

Have a look at this example. Its for Heinz Tomato Ketchup. Nicely laid out, reflects their brand beautifully and makes use of the facebook space very effectively. The end result is one that suggests a bold statement for their brand plus also lets the viewer know that they are within the facebook application.

And if you explore the McDonalds Facebook page, you’ll see that they have effectively used the top navigation as if to mirror their current site, making use of rich media throughout the pages.

And the Nokia site steers the user to specific local communities personalising the user experience. Pretty impressive!

And then you can go down the track of Redbull and use the creative to play with your audience...

And if you wish to be somewhat arrogant and greedy about it, why not tease the audience into ‘liking’ your page by dangling a juicy carrot in front of their digital noses...

http://www.facebook.com/windows

So don’t let the Facebook ‘template’ drive your presence, get creative and start thinking outside the triangle.