Facebooks Business Pages Welcome Tab

Those of you who frequent Facebook and like certain brand pages have probably come across a Welcome tab or a promotion tab when you first visit the page. Sometimes these pages are just static images and sometimes they're embedded HTML pages within Facebook.

This is something many pages are doing nowadays and it's a great way to add a unique look to your Facebook business page. I'm sure many of you have seen my post about Facebook Page Profile Picture Full Size, but this takes that a step further. As you can see on my Windsor Web Design page, I've added an animated GIF, which will be the starting tab for anyone who hasn't liked my Facebook page yet.

This gives me the ability to promote my latest service, contest or basically anything to gain more "Likes" and eventually gain more business. If you're interested in having a unique Facebook page created for your small business, please contact me.

The Blackberry page is one of the Facebook brand pages I think is very well done.

BlackBerry

My Web Design: Windsor Squash & Fitness

Those of you who know me, know that I've been working out at the Windsor Squash & Fitness club for the last few years. Walking in and out of that place on a daily basis you get to know pretty much everyone behind the front desk. As I was leaving one day I had a chat with Brian Porter, the general manager of the gym. We got on the subject of his website and began discussing a re-design. A few weeks later, I had completed a fresh web design for his fantastic Windsor gym!

 

As you can see from the image above, it's a very open concept website. What I mean by that is, the site is constricted within a box like my Montessori Early Years design. This allowed me to overlap different aspects of the site with the background and really get creative. Along with the web design, I also did on-site search engine optimization, site administration and I incorporated their Facebook page with the website. One thing that Brian really loved about the site is the potential "leads" that can be acquired through the "free email signup" at the top of the page. I also did a bit of work on their Facebook page by creating a longer and more creative Facebook profile page image.

Working with Brian and everyone else at the Windsor Squash and Fitness club was a great pleasure. I look forward to working with them on updating the site and creating a real social experience for his members. Keep an eye out for the mobile version of the website coming soon!

Facebook Business Pages in Windsor I Like

As most of you know, I recently set up a Facebook fan/business page for my freelance Windsor Web Design work. You can read more about my Facebook page experience here.  Before I started it, I spent a month or two checking out a few other Facebook business pages in the area to see what worked and what didn't. I kept note of which ones I liked so that I could give them a little love on my blog one day, that day has come!

Eyes On Windsor

I really like the "Welcome" page on this site. Anytime you can signal people to "Like" your page, in a descriptive way is a good thing. Eyes On Windsor also has a nice Facebook profile image which signals people to click the Wall or Info.

Caesars Windsor

Not surprising that a BIG business like Caesars Windsor has a fantastic Facebook page. They update it regularly (daily) with fresh info about what's going on at the Casino. They also run contests and have giveaways on a regular basis.

There are a bunch of other pages I like, but I don't want to make this post incredibly long by adding picture after picture, so I'll just list the others here; Windsor Stars Soccer, Windsor Squash & Fitness, & Perfect Shutter.

Many small businesses in Windsor are really catching on, on how to generate business through Facebook. If you're interested in having a Facebook fan page designed, please contact me!

Web Design Review - SummerFestWindsor.org

With the Windsor Ontario Summer Fest (previously known as Freedom Festival), right around the corner, I figured I'd give everyone a quick review of their web design. Overall the site isn't too bad. It's easy on the eyes, informative and very clean however, there are a few things about it that I would probably changed had I done the web design.

  

Judging by the copyright, the general look and feel of the site was designed back in 2009. It's been updated each year according to the dates and events of the Summer Fest however the main design of the site is unchanged. I really like the header of the site. The image rotates between a few different images every 10 seconds or so. What I don't like about the header is the fact that the summer fest logo wasn't saved in a high resolution. Just cheapens the site a bit. I also don't like the navigation links. My next big criticism would have to be the navigation links. Using images as navigation links is fine as long as all the images are saved in high resolution. The images are clearly saved in a low resolution and the white text is sometimes hard to read on the burgundy background.

As far as the details and information on the site. I'd probably have a daily schedule of what's happening. They have a list of general information that's coming up. I'd probably have a calendar on the homepage where each date is a link that opens to a new window with information about what's gin on that day.

My last two problems are the links for the OLG website and the Facebook group. First of all, I understand that the OLG is probably a big sponsor, but to have a link to their website in the main content section of the Summer Fest website just doesn't seem right. As for the Facebook group, why not change that to a Facebook page? Also, instead of having a link that says "Follow us on Facebook", why not add a "like" button to the site or possibly use one of Facebook's many cool ad-ons.

As I said in the opening, overall the web design of the site isn't too bad. I'd just really like to see a calendar on the front page, removal of the OLG link from the main content of the site and more integrated Facebook options.

Sebastian Agosta Website Design Facebook Page

Those of you who frequently visit my blog probably noticed the advertisement to the right of this post, featuring my web design service Sebastian Agosta website design. I want to thank everyone who sent me an email telling me how much the like the clean and useful look of my website. I had such a positive response from that, that I decided to also start a Facebook page.

I'd like to thank everyone who has "liked" the page so far and those of you who may like the page after reading this post. It's your basic Facebook page that I'll probably update once or twice a week with a few of my web designs as well as interesting tidbits from Windsor Ontario.

Thanks again for all the support!

Facebook Page Profile Picture Full Size & Samples

Even though I've been doing web design for awhile, I didn't get into building Facebook pages for small businesses until recently. One of my clients asked me to be an admin on their Facebook page and help them optimize the page so they could get the most out of it.

The first thing I looked into was how large the profile picture on a Facebook page could be. It turns our you can make them as large as 540px height x 180px width. I decided, why not make the most out of the page and use up all the space I could.

I decided to look around and see what other people were doing to get an idea of what should be in it. It didn't take me long to come up with the Windsor Squash and Fitness one you see below. I also added a few others samples from small businesses in the Windsor area for you to take a look at.

If you have any interest in having one of these Facebook page profile pictures created, please Contact Me.