A stunning change with the new Facebook Timeline is that you can no longer have a landing/welcome tab for your business page. Everyone is going to land on your Timeline Page with the big cover photo. You’ll still have apps (tabs) but they’ll be even harder for people to find. Few people were going to Facebook pages already, fewer were clicking on the tabs, and now it will be nearly zero.
That means those like gates (first image says “hey like our page because…” and second image says thanks or gives you access to something) won’t really be effective anymore. It already wasn’t the biggest new fan source for most pages- but now it will be irrelevant.
So how do you get new fans now?
These tactics still work:
- Use a Like Box on your site- this puts a small representation of your FB page on your website. People can click like there and become fans.
- Run ads with your page as the destination. Get them to click like on the ad. Then they’re a fan.
- Leverage all your other methods to exposure: Put up posters in stores, email your email list, etc.
Facebook ads are the most affordable online ads. I would suggest you use them.
And all the strategies I emphasize in my book The Like Economy still work. Read it!