Last updated – 23rd September, 2014
The first version of the BookBuzzr Widget worked flawlessly with Facebook. You simply clicked on the Facebook icon inside the widget, followed a few prompts and you’d have your book widget appearing on your Facebook profile. The instructions for this were presented in an earlier blog post.
Then Facebook changed the rules.
Under the new rules, your Facebook page cannot feature any widgets on your personal Facebook profile page.
So we’ve worked on a fix for this problem. And it works only on your Facebook Fan pages (aka public profiles … we’ll be using “the phrases public profiles and fan pages interchangeably.) Here are the steps to get your BookBuzzr Book Widget to work on your Facebook fan page (PLEASE NOTE: If you don’t have a Facebook fan page, please take some time to create a Facebook Fan page. This is going to become very important for all authors. Also, the rest of these steps will not work for you if you don’t have a Facebook fan page.)
If you don’t have a Facebook fan page, please follow the below steps to create a Facebook fan page:
- Login to your FaceBook Account
- Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
- Click on ‘Artist, Band or Public Figure’.
- Choose category as Author.
- Enter the Fan page name.
- Click on “Get Started”.
- Upload a profile picture for your facebook fanpage.
- Add a description and website to improve the ranking of your page in search.
While the steps below may look difficult, it really is quite easy. If you get stuck somewhere, please feel free to leave a comment on this page and we’ll respond as quickly as possible. Or send us an email – support@bookbuzzr.com
1. Sign-up for BookBuzzr Author Pro (the paid version of BookBuzzr which features guaranteed automatic eyeballs for your book-cover) or BookBuzzr Author Lite (the free version which gives you a bunch of free online book promotion technologies.)
2. Follow the on-screen instructions and upload your book details, book cover, book extract etc.
3. You will now land-up on your BookBuzzr Book Marketing Home Page.
4. Click on “Book Widget” option under ‘Book Marketing Widgets’ section.
5. The block of code in ‘Most Blogs and Websites’ section is for your Facebook Fan page.
6. Copy the code and save it somewhere (you’ll soon need it.)
7. In order to go to your Facebook fanpage from your Facebook profile page, click on the drop-down menu next to ‘Home’ in the right hand top corner. Under this click on ‘Use Facebook as Page’. Then click on the page that you want to manage (which should be the page that you have set up to promote your books as an author.)
8. Then go to the search box on the top of your Facebook fan page and search for an application called “Static html.”
9. To access this page, you’ll need to switch from using Facebook as your page to using Facebook as yourself.
10. This should bring you to a page that lists the application from Facebook called ‘Static HTML:iframe tabs’.
11. Next click on “Add Static HTML to a Page”.
12. You will be taken to a new tab. Please select your page from the drop down arrow.
13. Next click on ‘Add Static HTML:iframe tabs’.
14. You will be redirected to your facebook account, now go to your fan page using the drop down in the top right hand side
15. Next click on “Welcome” tab on your Facebook fan page.
16. Now click on ‘Edit tab’ button
17. You will be taken to “Thunderpenny” page, where you can paste your book widget code, before pasting please delete the instructions “You only need to use this index.html box to host your code, style.css and script.js are for if you prefer to organize your code further”.
18. After deleting the instructions please copy and paste your book widget code from your book marketing home page – ‘Book Widget’ option under ‘Book Marketing Widgets’ section and click on “Save & Publish”
19. Next go to your fanpage and click on “Welcome Tab” in order to view your book widget.
Yeah, I’ve done all that and the widget doesn’t work. What else do you have for Facebook?
EJ
Facebook requires a user action (usually a click) to trigger Flash or JavaScript to run. There is no way around this requirement. The “imgsrc” image is the image you will see in place of your widget. When you click on the image, your widget loads.
Read more: http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/how-to-embed-youtube-videos-flash-facebook-static-fbml-pages/#ixzz1Cao5TR2u
Eddie,
We’ve improved the quality of the image. It shows pretty sharp now. In fact, we’ve put up your book on our Facebook fan page as a “Featured Book”. Check it out on http://www.facebook.com/freadowinbooks
Also, we have an exciting Hangman Game widget coming up for Facebook. This will allow you to create a fun game (say a game called “Guess the Names of Famous Caribbean Pirates”) and share it on Facebook. Stay tuned!
To help visitors understand what to do on this page, I simply added the following line of code beneath my widget code:
Click on the image above to read a free sample!
I put the “center” brackets on either side of the the above sentence, too, but they didn’t show up on the blog post…
Thanks Kinsy,
That’s a neat idea!
Cheers,
Vikram
This is an amazing feature for the serious book marketing author
Does this work with the new page design they are just now implementing? I can’t find the things you say are under the various menus, and when I did the best I could to get around the blocks, the widget didn’t post.
Sue Ann Bowling,
As per the new page design implemented by Facebook you are not able to see the ‘Manage Pages’ in the Account drop down menu. Navigation links are now on the left, just like on people’s profiles. The content that you formerly accessed by clicking the tabs at the top of your page can now be found in the column underneath your page profile picture. So look out for ‘Ads and Pages’ in the left side panel in your Facebook ‘Home’ page in order to create and manage your pages. We will check whether one can place the widget in Fan page according to new Facebook design and will update this post very soon.
Sue Ann Bowling,
We have updated this blog post according to the new page design implemented by Facebook.
I could not find any way on FB to add the application. Once I found it via the search, I could like it, but could not see any way to install it! I tried to find the ‘Ads and Pages’ button – still no sign of that either. I gave up after an hour!
Barry,
We’re extremely sorry about your difficulties and challenges. It seems Facebook does not allow to add “Static FBML” application as per new design . So we’ve worked on a fix for this problem. All BookBuzzr Author Pro subscribers can now share the BookBuzzr’s AuthorPage Widget on their Facebook Fan Page. As a pro subscriber, I noticed that you have successfully shared the BookBuzzr AuthorPage Widget on your Facebook Fan Page ‘Barry Crowther’.
Facebook no longer allows FBML so your information is outdated. Any other suggestions? Thanks
Facebook doesn’t allow us to post any links and FBML has not been available since March. So your information is outdated, any other suggestions? Thanks
Hi Laura,
Thank you for letting us know about this. We will check out for the other possibilities of sharing the widget on Facebook fan page and will update this post at the earliest.
Hi Laura,
This post is updated as on August 30, 2011. We appreciate your support.
Thanks Ranga, I will update my facebook. Facebook is foreign to me anyhow so it’s a wonder any of us can figure it out. Thanks for your help.
I can’t get this to work. I follow the instructions exactly as written above, but the Welcome tab is blank. Help!
Hi Jackie,
Sorry for your troubles. Please send your fan page link to info@freado.com. We will check this issue and reply at the earliest.
Regards,
Ranga
Hello:
I’m setting up a fan page for Carol Milot a newly released author who is using both Feado and Bookbuzzr to create a following. However, I’m don’t find a key piece of information regarding FB privacy in either Freado or Bookbuzzr KB. Please let me know if you know the answer.
Carol is already set up in FB with the usual social interaction–for years now. I want to add a fan page and create a following for her. Does that make all her information in FB available to SEs and the public at large? OR can the fan page be made public and the rest kept private? It’s her private life she has on FB now. OR should she create a new email and profile for the book only so it can be made completely public? I do not use FB myself as it has undergone so many changes that I do not like, I dropped out of using it last year. I’d really appreciate anyone who could give me the answer to this question. Much appreciation! Elaine
Hi Elaine,
Thank you for your query. The BookBuzzr AuthorPage widget works only for the Facebook fan page; we access only Carol’s fan page and not her private profile. We are working on adding the Facebook privacy policy to our own (http://bit.ly/ssERw2) and the information will be soon available on BookBuzzr.com.
Here is our reply for your queries:
Does that make all her information in FB available to SEs and the public at large?
The answer is “No.” It only makes the information available on her fan page public.
Can the fan page be made public and the rest kept private?
Yes. Facebook fan pages are used as a public profile. Carol’s personal profile will remain personal.
Should she create a new email and profile for the book only so it can be made completely public?
No. It is recommended that she not create a new profile. Profiles are only for individuals. She should create a fan page for her book or for herself to use as a public profile.
Hope this helps. I will also be in touch with you via email to answer any future queries.
Regards,
Ranga
Author Success Manager
BookBuzzr.com
Freado.com
This does not work. In fact, there is evidence that the coding option for this plug-in has been removed from FB and is not longer in use. WHAT CAN IT DO NOW to make something work. Everything in this tutorial is wrong. Nothing pops-up as described. NOTHING. It’s like wading through a jungle with no compass on FB.
Hi Carol,
Sorry for your troubles. Looks like Facebook has made some changes. We will check this issue and let you know at the earliest.
I will also be in touch with you via email to answer any future queries.
Regards,
Ranga
This does not seem to be working on my site:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Behind-The-Smile-the-story-of-Lek-a-bar-girl-in-Pattaya/185961338192291?ref=tn_tnmn
What now?
Owen
Hi Owen,
Sorry for your troubles. We’ve checked this issue and noticed that you have copied the second block of code from BookBuzzr Book Marketing Home page. Please copy the first block of code to your fan page and let us know if it works on your page.
I will also be in touch with you via email to answer any future queries.
Regards,
Ranga
Hi Owen,
We noticed that you have copied the first block of code to your fan page – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Behind-The-Smile-the-story-of-Lek-a-bar-girl-in-Pattaya/185961338192291?sk=app_190322544333196 and it is working fine now.
Regards,
Ranga
where is the welcome tab on my fb page, i can’t find it
Hi John,
Sorry for your troubles. In order to find the ‘Welcome Tab’, go to your fan page Timeline (Wall) and click on the ‘Show all tabs’ arrow (refer to screenshot in step 17.)
Regards,
Ranga
I’ve followed the steps and double-checked everything, but for some reason, when I Save and Publish on the HTML page, and then go to view the result, all I’m seeing in the editor is a blank screen, and all I’m seeing on the page is the gray star image.
It also doesn’t seem to make a difference whether I add s’s to the http’s or not–and no other advice I’ve found so far seems relevant.
I’m using Google Chrome.
Please advise. Thanks!
Hi Krystine,
Thank you for reaching out :)
We will be sending you an email regarding this concern.
Thanks,
Naveen