What are the key elements in a good Facebook landing tab?

Thanks to Robyn for this question.

If you are a regular reader of my posts you will know that I am a big believer in the landing/welcome tab on a Facebook page.

Why?  Because research shows that potentially twice as many people will LIKE your page if you have one.

For those of you who aren’t sure what I am talking about, a landing tab is the place people who don’t LIKE your page first go to when they visit your page.

Once they LIKE the page they will always land on the wall.

Here’s what I think makes a good landing tab:

1. A reveal. An image that non-LIKErs see and when they LIKE the page the image changes to something else. This works really well if combined with a giveaway, for instance a checklist, a page of tips, a discount voucher, etc.

2. Simple. This may sound odd but so many people try to cram as much as they can onto the landing tab that it just confuses people. You want it to tell them:
a. Who you are.
b. What you do,
c. Why they should LIKE your page – for instance, what are they going to get, advice, tips, etc.

3. Easy to read. That does not mean you use 12-point text, you don’t want people to have to squint to see what you’ve written. Think of it as a powerpoint slide – less is more.

4. Eye catching. Obviously you aren’t competing with much else, but unless it’s visually appealing people aren’t going to give it a second glance.

5. Fill the Space. You have 520 pixels wide to play with so make sure your image fills that. In terms of down the page you can make it as long as you like, but be aware that people are not going to scroll for miles.

6. Doesn’t link. Often you go to a landing tab, which is one image (doesn’t change when you LIKE the page) and it is hyperlinked to a website. What tends to happen there is that the visitor may click on the image on purpose or by mistake before they LIKE your page. You don’t want that, you want people to LIKE your page then go elsewhere, because you want to keep talking to them.

Below are three examples, two good ones and a not-so-good one, where I have blurred the logo and name so they save face. Can you see the difference?

Lara Solomon is the founder of Mocks, mobile phone socks www.MyMocks.com, founder of Social Rabbit – your guide in the world of social media www.Facebook.com/SocialRabbit and author of ‘Brand New Day – the Highs & Lows of Starting a Small Business’. Lara’s business LaRoo was the winner of the NSW Telstra Micro-Business Award in 2008.