Facebook Pages and the Category Trap

Facebook launched a redesigned of their portal for page creation.

No earth shattering changes other than they hid the community box that was on the left side behind “Cause or Topic”.

Interesting to note… Gone is the text that used to say, “If we determine down the road that your page is about community and it becomes popular we can take it away and hollow out any reference of you.” (heavily paraphrased)

Does that mean the community page rule is gone? Does that mean the I <3 Sleep kid or the Norwegian Men’s Curling Pants guy will now get their page back? I’m not sure – I’m still looking.

What still remains is that simple fact that Facebook does not “get” Real Estate.

I’ve said it numerous times and I’ll say it again.

If you were an unsuspecting local real estate agent creating your page which of the 5 boxes above might you click on? That’s right! Local Business – that’s what you are. And look! They even have Real Estate in the drop down box!

Point: The only real redeeming value to choosing a category for your page is the INFO boxes available. Each category has a slightly different set of boxes and once you select a category you can NEVER change it.

Want to see what the Facebook Page for Real Estate offers?

Mandatory Address for your office (are you ever there?)
Office Hours (really?)
Price range (of what?)
Parking Options (once again, really?)

About the only two boxes of value to a real estate agent are the Website and Description.

Luckily there’s a much better option. If you’ve ever heard me talk about Facebook Pages for Agents you already know the answer.

If your “Facebook Page Designer” set you up with a Real Estate Page instead of the better one it’s too late. I hope you didn’t pay them a bucket load of cash. For now, you can delete the page and start all over or read “How to change the Category of your Facebook Page”.

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4 different versions of Custom Facebook Pages (areweconnected.com)

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Mike Mueller

Mike builds the custom Apps that create the Tabs that make Custom Facebook Pages special. He builds Discount WordPress Blogs and shoots commercial high def video. He's an avid hockey fan, rides a motorcycle (a really fast one), loves strong beer and good red wine.

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Danleroux

What would be a better one? Does it really make a difference? Once you create the page and use your own html what does the above stuff matter?

http://AreWeConnected.com mikemueller

Dan –
The only thing the category changes are the info boxes.
So if the info boxes don’t matter to you (maybe you have a custom tab that covers that base) then it doesn’t matter.
If you don’t have a custom tab covering what it is you want conveyed – it might matter a whole bunch!