How Green Companies Can Make the Most of Custom Facebook Tabs

Did you know? ... You can create custom tabs on your Facebook Fan page using an application called static FBML (it's Facebook's version of HTML.)  There are lots of tutorials on how to add FBML to your Facebook page.  Here's just one of many.

Once you've added FBML to your page, you can then create a tab which features any old content you want.  Granted, you have to keep it simple -- think text, images, links; forget javascript, flash or forms -- but still, this is a very powerful tool for green companies. Here's why ...

As we mentioned in How to Make Your Green Store Stand Out through Education, green companies have the extra challenge of not only making consumers aware of their brand and products, but also aware of how their product helps the environment and why that even matters. 

And that's where custom tabs come in.

On your Facebook Fan page, you could create a tab called "FAQs", which includes the top questions about your product. Or, a tab titled "Certifications" that highlights your green certifications or other third-party seals.  Or, a "Store Locator" tab which explains where shoppers can find your product.  Or a "Promotions" tab which lists your current specials.

The possibilities are endless; the key point is to use these custom tabs to overcome shopper's top selling objections to your product.  And with green products, these objections tend to cluster around lack of awareness of the brand or the ecological challenge that the product solves, and concerns about greenwashing and price. 

For inspiration, check out Green & Black's Facebook page.  This organic chocolate company does a great job making the most of custom tabs.  You'll see that in addition to the standard "Wall" and "Info" tabs, the company has created tabs for "Fair Trade" (which mentions its certification and how Fair Trade makes a difference to farmers in developing countries); for current "Coupons"; for a special Valentine's day "Cookbook Offer"; for "Recipes"; and for "Products".  Boy oh boy - Green & Black's is keeping some marketing associate awfully busy!

It's not hard to add FBML to your Fan Page -- if you're not HTML-savvy yourself, then whoever maintains your website can easily tackle the job.  The harder part is to think through the top selling objections and then plan out content that addresses those objections. 

Where to start?  Take our suggestions above and, for more ideas, check out some larger companies' Facebook Pages (like Toyota Prius; Stonyfield Farm and Gardener's Supply Company).  Just remember, once you've launched your custom tabs, you'll need to keep them up-to-date, so make sure you've assigned content maintenance to someone on your team. 

Happy tabbing!