40 Highly Effective FaceBook Business Pages

August 15, 2010 76 Comments
Topics]Inspiration / Web Apps / Web Design / Web InspirationAuthor]

Facebook is huge. With the average user connecting to 80 community pages, groups and events and with over 900 million (!) objects that users love to interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages), Facebook pages are massive and with a well thought layout they will prove to be a very valuable business asset and a great experience for the user.

There are no clear design standards for Facebook pages, but there are good practices and that is what this article explores. The Holy Grail of Facebook page interaction is called FBML (Facebook Markup Language). FBML allows you to enter fully into Facebook World and build Facebook applications that deeply integrate into a user’s experience. You can hook into several Facebook integration points, including the profile, profile actions, and canvas. It allows you to create great things that will make your fan page prominent among others and provide some high value to fans.

This article takes a look at some highly effective and well developed Facebook pages and shows what can be built using FBML, just scroll down and see yourself:

Call to Action

No matter what your Facebook page is about, the purpose of your custom landing tab should always be conversion of visitors to your fans. Between a visitor and the fan there’s a tiny click on that “Like” button, and sometimes it’s a good practice to remind people about it. Here are some good examples on how to attract attention:

Redbull

Redbull

Britney Spears

Britney Spears

The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries

Fox News

Fox News

BMW

BMW

Kleenex Brand

Kleenex Brand

Incentive

Often it’s far not enough to just ask people to become your fans, you need to offer them something in return. There’s a cute FBML code to hide content from non-fans and show it when they click “Like” button. By using the code you can have people like your page just out of human curiosity. When you multiply this tip on creativity, here’s what you get:

Teesey Tees

Teesey Tees

Jeff Dunham

Jeff Dunham

GAP

GAP

Playboy

Playboy

Windows

Windows

Avon Products

Avon Products

Pages With Video

Does video have any effect on your visitors? The study by eyeviewdigital.com reveals the fact that using a video can increase your conversion to up to 80%. That’s really huge! So let’s take a look how successful companies and famous brands are using videos on their Facebook pages:

Twillight Saga

Twillight Saga

Oxelo

Oxelo

Cranium

Cranium

Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus

Guitar Hero

Guirar Hero

Inglorious Basterds

Inglorious Basterds

Budweiser UK

Budweiser UK

Sony

Sony

Car Manufacturers

While going through Facebook in a quest for cool custom FBML pages I’ve noticed that lot’s of well known car manufacturers have nicely designed Facebook pages. Some of which are pretty sophisticated ones. So I decided to combine them into a separate little section:

Porsche

Porshe

VW

VW

Mercedes Benz

Mercedes Benz

Honda

Honda

Ford Explorer

Ford Explorer

Nissan

Nissan

Buick

Buick

Cadillac

Cadillac

Random Well Designed Facebook Pages

If you don’t have an effective call to action, incentive or a great video – the last thing that will make people “like” your page is an impressive design. Today, if your Facebook page does not have a decent design – you are no longer interesting to anyone. Design it yourself (if you can), hire someone or purchase one of FBML templates, but please just don’t let your potential fans stare at your boring Wall. Look what you are missing:

Daddy Design

Danny Design

Desigual

Desigual

Aerosmith

Aerosmith

Dunkin Donuts

Dunkin Donuts

Chanel

Chanel

NHL

NHL

Hooters

Hooters

L’oreal

L'oreal

Heinz

Heinz

Canon Spain

Canon Spain

Nox Edge

Nox Edge

Above & Beyond

Above & Beyond

That’s enough for the Facebook pages showcase. If you want more – try to do a search on Facebook for your favorite brand. I’m sure many of them already have cool landing pages.

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About the Author: (1 Articles)

Michael Vreeken is a blogger and social media addict. You can follow him on Twitter for never-ending tips on Social Media Marketing.

Comments and Reactions

  • http://loneplacebo.com Tony

    Stupid Playboy Facebook page…

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  • http://www.eastdevonit.co.uk Dan

    Great piece, thanks.

    Some real food for thought here…

    I love the big “click like” call to actions…

    This really appeases my minimalist design inner pixie !

    • Carienve

      Hi I know this sound stupid but how dot I create such page in facebook? It’s almost a “website” inside facebook with all your information

  • http://www.designioustimes.com Adriana

    Great article man! I’ve opened and “liked” most of these facebook pages :D

  • http://www.designbeep.com Arshad Cini

    All are great but of course Playboy is perfect:)

    Thanks Michael

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  • http://www.web-lovers.de Rolf Moczarski

    Nice collection, thanks for sharing it with us

  • http://claytoncorreia.com Clayton Correia

    Lots of cool stuff here. To bad many of them will be broken in a few days. :(

  • http://www.SuccessCircuit.com Shane Hudson

    A good list but I am amazed you did not include Gary Vaynerchuk’s, his was the first custom page I saw!

  • http://www.bitrebels.com Richard Darell

    WOW! Hahaha, some of these are genius! I need to come up with our own for Bit Rebels. Thanks for the creativity boost! Rock on!

  • http://coleccionrealismofantastico.blogspot.com Jean

    Muy buenas las paginas de facebook.

    Excelentes…

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  • http://www.advancedfanpagesolutions.com Leigh Kostiainen

    Hi Michael,

    Thank was a great list of examples. Nice to see people out there promoting the great work us Fb Pg Designers do :)

    Cheers
    Leigh

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  • georges

    surprising I do not see any online travel agency in this selection.

    Georges

  • http://www.hotelreputationmanagement.com Ann Manion

    Hi Michael,

    Your examples here show that the more visual a FB landing page, the better. I agree.

    I’d value your input on the changes FB promises for August 23rd on elimination of boxes and reduction of pixels.

    Since I got the alert from the Facebook Blog last week, my 2 company designed landing pages have gone crazy, either reduced, disappeared or moved around (depending on when I log in).

    I think this has to do with the changes coming and pixel reduction, and I don’t appreciate it. You can see an example of what I mean at http://www.facebook.com/HotelAdvantage . [And I invite you to follow Hotel Advantage on Facebook if you do visit the page]

    Some of your followers may be experiencing the same thing. How can our web masters easily redesign currently existing FBML pages for FB to accommodate the change? If you are able to respond, I’d appreciate it.

    Many thanks, Ann

  • http://www.westonmorse.com Melissa

    Fabulous collection — striking, compelling, resonant and relevant — all “the good stuff.” But I’ve got a question(s): How about the b2b space? Which of those are getting the job done with style?

  • http://rolling-webdesign Theo

    Great article with nice examples, thanks for the inspiration boost !

  • http://www.mjswebsolutions.com Michael Swartz

    I noticed the majority of these pages are image centric. Would it be worthwhile to consider adding more ‘text’ for SEO purposes?

  • http://www.facebook.com/builddotcom Mario

    Very nice collection here. I appreciate you putting them together and grouping them as well.

    As far as the reduction in pixel width goes for the FBML pages, in addition to a loss of available space for the design there is another huge concern that I hope most page admins will take note of.

    Currently the tabs are seen as a blank canvas with a column of ads to the right. With the changes coming Aug 23, the tabs will be viewed with the standard profile info column on the left as well. For anyone using a tall profile image for the extra space it gives the design (as we are) this will create a problem. The fact that any design work in the profile image will have to compete visually with any design of your tabs makes the creation of both deigns that much harder.

    Lots of work to do to fix this, so I gotta get back to it!

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  • http://facebook.com/designcrowd Alec Lynch

    Should have added DesignCrowd! http://facebook.com/designcrowd ;)

  • http://www.graphicsfuel.com/ Rafi

    Excellent collection of FB biz pages. Rocking. Love sony and the vampire diaries pages.

  • http://www.facebook.com/pages/Newfrontiers-Madrid-Church-Plant/107444862609087 Jen – Madrid

    Really interested, came across this and have found it challenging to do something more with our Pages than we currently do – thanks for putting this together

  • http://http//www.securityking.com Craig Fordham

    Great collection and great splash pages!

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  • http://www.bestcardprinter.com Jeff Jones

    Great Collection

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  • http://www.daddydesign.com daddy design

    thank you so much for showcasing our page!! Can you please fix the company name from “Danny Design” to “Daddy Design”? :)

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  • http://teknodergi.org Tekno

    Thanks for this list. Nice collection.

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  • http://www.thecomplexmedia.com theComplex

    WOW! Massive collection. These will definitely come in handy as inspiration!

  • http://www.securityking.com Craig

    Nice collection, Thanks.

  • http://www.frivolositicious.com/ Little Ums

    Shows just how important facebook is especially to the big guys.

  • http://www.craigfordham.net Lisa

    Excellent list, can see why they have so many brand followers on Facebook. LT

  • http://www.alittlebranding.com Bob Strassel Jr.

    Hi Michael,

    FMBL is a great tool for Facebook Fan Pages, as seen in the list above. The “engagement / wow factor” certainly goes up with one of these pages. But I think that there is a distinction between the custom applications created above using i-frames / FBML, and ones created using the Static FBML application tab ( http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=4949752878&b ) for fan pages that are great for a small business.

    The Static FBML application really is a small business godsend because I think it levels the playing field with the larger companies that are using the same “wow” factor and creating the above custom applications to engage people.

    However, that being said, I recently read that the status of the Static FBML application may be in jeopardy? This is based on a recent post to the the Facebook Developer blog ( http://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/402 ) and a discussion
    of this dialogue on the Hyperarts Blog posted recently on Facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/notes/hyperarts-web-design/the-future-of-static-fbml-custom-tabs-now-that-facebook-is-moving-from-fbml-to-i/461401505843 ).

    I really think that if the Static FBML disappears, it will be more difficult for small businesses to be creative on Facebook without spending a lot of $$ developing a custom application tab for their Facebook page. I hope this is not true!

    Thanks again for the great showcase.

    Bob

  • http://www.thebrisbaneline.com Web design portfolio

    these are pretty cool. gotta love how direct the redbull call to action is.

  • http://www.cardsoftware.net Amanda

    Fabulous collection, Nice one!

  • David

    Why do you consider these highly effective FB pages?

    They look good yes. Effective means they bring more then a “like” click. Was the like click from someone who would have clicked the “like” button because they were already a fan or was it clicked because it turned someone into a “new” fan. That is more of a test of effectiveness wouldn’t you say.

  • David

    If you would actually like to look at a successful FB page is on the one for “The Glades”. See how they are using a “get ranked” option to push more traffic.

    Now that is effective.

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  • satish

    Very nice articles..

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  • http://www.webmatr1x.de Werbeagentur Würzburg

    cool websites but where is my site?

    http://www.facebook.com/werbeagentur.webmatr1x

    check it out ;-)

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  • http://www.FreeMoneyFastMoney.com Jeremy Mandile

    I just wanted to say thanks for the great info and ideas on a new Fan page that I’m working on… :)

  • http://staceyrawling.com Stacey

    The Exclusive Content for Zavvi.com Fans on Facebook is now Live, Woop! Mission Accomplished Thanks to this post for Inspiration! http://www.facebook.com/zavvionline?v=app_10442206389

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  • http://softwarebuzzer.com suresh peters @software buzzer

    very nice collection. Really inspirng , hey mate can you provide the tutorials for this

  • http://www.xander's.co.uk Jan

    I really enjoyed these pages.

    I was searching for ideas as I am about to create my FB business page, food for thought, thanks again

  • http://www.facebook.com/mitradebanjan Debanjan Mitra

    A must have list for all facebook fan page designers and creative SEOs

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  • http://www.businessprofileonfacebook.com Paul Lowe

    Love the comments here we design Facebook business pages and cant beleive the number of people still not changing the layout of their pages. It provides a visual hook to prospective clients and massivly boosts sales long term.

    http://www.businessprofileonfacebook.com

  • Prakash Sansoft

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  • http://www.facebook.com/nuthingshockingdesignstudio Dimitri

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  • Janette McNamara

    Terrific….lots of inspiration and certainly lets you know what gets noticed – thanks Janette

  • Ann Davlin

    Great collection! Thank you guys!
    Here is another interesting FB fan page – http://www.facebook.com/motocms

  • Capacey

    Just ran across a fun Facebook business page for San Francisco Music Box Company. I used to buy their stuff for my mom growing up…nice colors and presense. http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/San-Francisco-Music-Box-Company/100106206741198

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  • http://www.sarahvinall.com Sarah

    Very nice collection. Thanks for sharing!

  • http://www.facebook.com/omigapun Omiga Pun

    I created this page for my company. I would be happy to get some comments and critique!

  • http://www.facebook.com/smongul Shakira Mongul

    very helpful!!!

  • RedFox Magazine

    Ohh yeah… I like the playboy fan page..

  • http://www.lateststory.co.cc/ Anvesh

    Really awesome. I was thinking to create a facebook page and i just got this article. Thanks..