Facebook has made some big changes to its Pages platform. In the wake of these Pages updates, another major change has taken place: this one will impact any business that creates custom tabs for their Facebook Page.

Through its developer site, Facebook offically announced that businesses can now use iframes to build custom tabs for Facebook pages instead of Facebook Markup Language (FBML). In addition to the roll out of iframe support, Facebook also phased out FBML by March 11, 2011. Businesses are no longer able to create new FBML apps and Pages will no longer be able to add the Static FBML app.

How Do iFrames Benefit Facebook Marketers?

While you may not be the person that actually does the code for your cusotmer Facebook tabs and applications, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be informed about the new advantages that iframes bring to Facebook Pages. This change has many implications, but lets look at some of the major issues marketers need to understand:

1. Better Design – Using iframes for custom tabs and applications means that marketers can use their own CSS, the code used to determine the design of a webpage, to make custom tabs more consistent with brand guidelines and design. This changes has removed any design limitations that were present in FBML.

2. Better Tracking – Content within an iframe actually resides on your own site, but is displayed on your Facebook Page. Because the content is on your site, you can use your own web analytics and lead tracking software, such as HubSpot. Leveraging your lead tracking and analytics will help you better measure your Facebook marketing efforts and determine most effective tactics for your business.

3. Better Selling – If you are an eCommerce company, then the move to iframes helps you to become better at selling through Facebook. You can now easily add product pages to your Facebook page and create calls-to-action to drive more sales directly through Facebook.

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Preet.