If you’re tired of the same standard Facebook format for all
profiles and business pages, Social Fixer is your new best friend. This innovative browser add-on, previously
named Better Facebook, allows business owners to give branding flair and
personality to the otherwise bland page structure. Social Fixer also gives users more
flexibility on news feed posts, comments and loads more options. If your company has a heavy Facebook presence
and is looking to inject some creativity into the mix, Social Fixer can give
you a serious edge.
Customization Options
Facebook profiles have always allowed limited
personalization. Learning from the chaotic,
freestyle approach that was part of MySpace’s undoing, Facebook has opted
instead to take away the most creative power from its massive user base. While giving everyone full access to modify
their profiles in any fashion is still a recipe for disaster, allowing
businesses and individuals to add polished flair and style can only engender
more marketer loyalty, especially if it improves customer response. That’s where Social Fixer comes in.
Currently, Facebook only allows users to update profile and
cover photos, control what appears in the news feed (to a certain extent) and
of course the usual profile text. The
Facebook Help Center includes details on how to customize a page’s appearance. But options are vastly limited.
Features Social Fixer allows you to tweak include adding a
tabbed news feed, triggering image previews, controlling who sees what and when
in your feed, analytics options to view who is accessing which posts,
unfriending details and various feed filters.
You can direct specific items to a targeted news feed tab, and create a
more stylish theme for your page as well.
How to Setup Your New and Improved Facebook Page
Social Fixer is a browser add-on that works with Firefox, Opera,
Chrome and Safari; all of the major ones, save Internet Explorer. Once you download the program, here’s how to
install the new features to your Facebook page:
• Step 1: Choose
recommend settings, or opt for a more minimalist selection that switches most
add-on defaults to “off.” You can, of
course, revert any of these functions later on in the process.
• Step 2: Select if
you want to place applications and game posts in separate tabs on your news
feed (default is yes.) This may not be
relevant to a business profile, because owners are likely not playing games
with the same account, but this is a fantastic feature to players who do not
wish to clutter their feed with in-game achievements and triumphs. Not everyone wants the world to know they just
leveled up in Bingo Bash.
• Step 3: Customize
your chat sidebar. You can replace the existing design with the old pop-up
version, opt to show all online friends (or not), and even use a mini chat list
that eradicates the thumbnail images.
The latter is perfect for businesses who don’t use the chat feature much
and dislike the amount of real estate it normally occupies.
• Step 4: Select your
photo options. You can choose to disable
the light box / theater pop-up view that Facebook currently employs, and revert
to a more simplistic single-photo display.
The default is to keep things as they are.
• Step 5: Decide if
you’d like to allow users to see the full-sized versions of your images when
they hover over a thumbnail in a post or profile. Photo previews are marked as “Yes” by
default.
• Step 6: For comment
posting, you can decide if you’d like to have the Enter key function as a new
line creation or auto-post option. Facebook does the former currently, and it’s a major gripe among users
that Social Fixer wisely addresses.
• Step 7: If you’d
like to add a link to Social Fixer’s own news feed to the Facebook panel, it
will be a great source of tips and tricks for you in the future. And it’s a way to show the free tool a little
appreciation for the crafty convenience it affords you.
Once you complete the setup wizard, your new Facebook page
installs. You will now see profile tabs
and news feed labels that are a bit different than the default views, but they
will match your selections during setup.
Notice, too, that your most recent posts will appear at the top of your
feed, but a drop down menu option gives you the power to switch back to top
stories instead. If you wish to change
the theme and color palate of your page, click the wrench icon for theme
options. Make sure to test new themes on
all browsers, however, because not all of them showcase these changes as
intended.
More fun features include the power to see sum totals of
posts (including duplicates), identify who has unfriended you and when, and see
the number of times Older Posts has been selected by your users. The chat list will now default to showing
online friends at the top of the list (instead of the current alphabetical
listing.) The left side of your page
will feature navigation panels that showcases content you've ‘liked,’ as well
as upcoming relevant events. Again, these options can be customized to lead to
other favorite destinations, if desired.
When you’re out of the setup wizard and looking to change
any and all options, just click the icon of a wrench, and a window will appear
with a myriad of customization selections. For example, you can hide articles
and/or videos from your feed, automatically move posts from applications, or
change font sizes for posts and comments. Options get even more granular; you
can even choose to show actual time stamps for posted content, rather than the
default “one day ago” language Facebook currently uses. Marketers will love the
ability to filter all posts by user, type of post, and even specific
keywords. This is a chance to really get
to know your Facebook fans on a level not previously available.
Potential Drawbacks
Facebook is notorious for frequent updates to their
templates and news feed formats, so if you opt to customize your page, you’ll
want to test every aspect whenever Facebook makes even the smallest of
updates. Case in point: Facebook recently added new features to their
news feed, which may have caused some issues for Social Fixer users. It’s nothing a bit of re-customization can’t
address, but just be mindful you’ll likely spend a bit more time than usual on
your Facebook presence should you choose to use this add-on. Considering the massive benefits involved in
having a page that separates you from the vanilla look and feel of your
competitors, however, it will likely be worth the extra time and elbow grease.
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