After launching Design Lab 10, and having an appreciation for the value of social media networking and marketing, I quickly created a Fan Page on Facebook. I then went back to my personal profile and input my company as my employer (partially because I am a stickler for detail, but mostly to take advantage of one extra place to promote the company). What I found was that in doing so, I actually created an additional page (a Community Page) for Design Lab 10 and it wasn’t linking to my Fan Page as I had hoped.
A Community Page is usually not properly maintained (you can go in and claim it, but don’t be fooled, that doesn’t do you justice or make it link to the Fan Page that companies put time and money in to maintaining). Some of your “fans” “like” activities are being wasted on the Community Page. Additionally, those fans don’t receive the updates that they would if they “liked” your Fan Page.
I looked at others’ pages and they seemed to be experiencing the same shortcoming. I even checked with people I consider to be experts in this type of glitch and no one seemed to have the answer. Until recently!
After numerous hours of research and combining lots of other people’s knowledge with mine, I am writing this post to share how to link your Facebook profile employer link to your company’s Fan Page.
Since Facebook has recently launched a new profile page, please take note as to which profile version the directions below refer. These first few steps are the same regardless of which profile version you are using.
In order to complete the directions below, you will need either Firefox or Google Chrome installed on your computer. Most of us have one of those (or both) but if you don’t you can click on the link below. You don’t need to be technically gifted to use either of the developer add-ons, don’t worry.
To get and use Firefox follow these two steps:
1. Install Firefox and run the setup.
2. Install add-on: Firefox Web Developer
To get and use Google Chrome follow these two steps:
1. Install Google Chrome and run the setup.
2. Install add-on: Web Developer extension
Now, you will need your Facebook Fan Page unique URL ID number. To get it:
1. Go to your Fan Page.
2. Look in the web browser bar and after the last forward slash (“/”) you should see a number* – copy and paste that number to a blank document so you can have it available.
*If you don’t have a number in the browser bar because you have renamed your Fan Page, don’t worry. Click on the Photos tab and then click on any photo or album. The number is now displayed in the browser bar at the end of the URL. Copy and paste all of the numbers after the last equal sign (“=”) – that is your ID number.
This is where which profile you have comes in to play.
Follow these steps if you have the old profile:
(Make sure to use either Firefox or Chrome when doing these steps.)
1. Go to Profile -> Info tab -> Edit
2. Select Education and Work -> look for Employer field box (with Add Another Job below it) and put your cursor in the box so you can find it easily.
3. Open the Web Developer add-on that you installed.
– In Firefox, go to Tools (on the top bar of browser window) -> Web Developer -> Forms -> Display Form Details
– In Chrome, look to the right of the browser bar and you’ll see a little picture that looks like this: Click it and then Forms -> Display Form Details
(You’ll see a whole bunch of coding “gibberish” at this point, don’t worry, that means you’re doing it right!)
4. In the box where you left your cursor* paste your unique URL ID of your Fan Page that you copied before.
*It should be next to code highlighted in yellow that looks like this:
– the last number of the code could be a 0 or a 1, depending on how many jobs you already have listed.
5. Turn off the Web Developer add-on and continue filling in the form as you would normally%u2026TA-DA!
Follow these steps if you have the new profile:
(Make sure to use either Firefox or Chrome when doing these steps.)
1. Go to Edit Profile -> Education and Work -> Edit
2. Write in the name of your company in the field to add a new employer and hit enter.
3. Open the Web Developer add-on that you installed.
– In Firefox, go to Tools (on the top bar of browser window) -> Web Developer -> Forms -> Display Form Details
– In Chrome, look to the right of the browser bar and you’ll see a little picture that looks like this: Click it and then Forms -> Display Form Details
(You’ll see a whole bunch of coding “gibberish” at this point, don’t worry, that means you’re doing it right!)
4. You will see a red outlined box around the name of the employer that you just entered and the other fields that will get filled in regarding this job. In the 7th grey box within the red outlined area, paste your unique URL ID of your Fan Page that you copied before.
*It should be next to code highlighted in yellow that looks like this:
– the last number of the code could be a 0 or a 1, depending on how many jobs you already have listed.
5. Turn off the Web Developer add-on and continue filling in the form as you would normally -TA-DA!
What a relief and congratulations on a job well done! If you think this was daunting, or need help, feel free to hire a qualified person to do it for you (hint, hint). If you enjoyed the information, please leave a comment, or go “like” me.
