Paul Holmes

The most annoying thing about a Facebook Page is that it is called Facebook Page.  A page is not the same as your Facebook Profile, it is a separate feature that allows you to build a fan base to promote your website, brand, or company within the Facebook community.

But do any search for “Facebook Page”, and I guarantee 85% of the results will relate to the Facebook profile.

Overview

This entry is how to get your blog to feed on your Facebook Page, and is a step-by-step guide.  I wish I had this a month ago, but here it is for the rest of the world.

If you do not know what a blog is, or an RSS feed is, you need to go research this, then come back here later.

Process

1. Create a page in Facebook, or load your existing one (this is the easy part).
2. In your page, under your image, click on “Edit Page” (sometimes Facebook forgets what page you are on, so make sure your page image and name are correct after you click – restart your browser if it doesn’t work – this is a major source of frustration in some browsers).
3. Scroll down to the “Notes” application, click on the little pen icon on the right side of the screen, then select “Edit”. (Note: if “Notes” is not in the list, use “More Applications” to find it, then add it to the page.)
4. To the right side of the screen (left of the ads), you will see a link titled “Import a blog”.  Click this. (Note: If you have an existing feed, you can delete it by clicking on “Edit import settings”, then click on the “Stop Importing” button.)
5. Enter your RSS feed URL in the “Web URL” box, click the consent checkbox, then click on “Start Importing”. (Note: Your RSS feed URL is different then your website address. In WordPress, for example, you typically add “/feed” to the end of your website address.)
6. Assuming all was done correctly, a “Preview” screen appears.  You must scroll to the bottom of this, then click on “Confirm Import”.
7. As per item 2, go back to the “Edit Page” screen. This time, click on the pen icon next to the “Notes” application, and select “Application Settings”.
8. Make sure the “Box” and “Tab” are showing as “Added” (you can configure this part of the page as you wish later). Click on the “Additional Permissions” tab, and check the “Publish to streams” item, so your blog entries will appear in your fan’s streams. Click OK.
9. Wipe your brow, you’re done! Wasn’t that easy, and don’t you wish you had found this article a week ago?

Twitter RSS Feed

Twitter, technically speaking, has RSS feeds. Given Twitter’s highly volatile state, they are not terribly reliable, and often get rejected. (Perhaps they are also not technically correct RSS feeds, I’m not entirely sure – they don’t import into Facebook or Feedburner, so that’d be my guess.)

So, how the heck do you get your Tweets to import into your Facebook page easily?

I’m glad you asked, because we recently did this with our CanWire.ca Facebook Page, using FriendFeed.

1. Set up a new FriendFeed Profile (I recommend using something other than your main account, as you may want to add other stuff to your personal one.)
2. Import your Twitter account into FriendFeed.
3. Scroll to the bottom of your FriendFeed profile page, and click on the RSS icon next to “Other ways to read this feed”.
4. Copy the URL, and paste it in for item 5 above.

Media Overload

If you want to overwhelm your friends on Facebook, set up a FriendFeed account for yourself, and add all your social media sources, then use it’s RSS feed in Notes for your Facebook profile.

You could take this feed, too, and fire it into Feedburner, and allow people to subscribe to your social media as an RSS feed from your personal site.

Egad!