On March 11, 2011 Facebook was supposed to kill the ability for new fan pages to add a Static FBML tab to fan pages.  For reasons known only to them they did not actually kill that ability for a few weeks.

You might be saying so what or who cares right about now.  And, I wouldn’t blame you.  But in reality, this was a major blow to the cottage industry of designers who were using Static FBML to build custom tabs for Facebook fan pages.  It didn’t take a lot of knowledge of HTML and CSS to turn out some very beautiful and effective custom tabs.

Custom tabs allow the owner of a Facebook fan page (or call it business page if you like) to mirror their web sites or their branding right on their fan page.  Some folks used this ability to make special offers, create single property listing pages and much more.

But, along with the death of new FBML tabs came the warning that although Facebook would continue to support existing FBML tabs, you were advised to move away from FBML, as at some point in the future it could disappear entirely.

So what has replaced FBML?

The answer is iFrames.  What is an iFrame you ask?  In the simplest of terms, an iFrame is the process of bringing an external website into a Facebook fan page.  In other words your website could become a custom tab on your fanpage!  WooHoo!  This was actually big news as it meant that many things that could only be accomplished with advanced FBML techniques could now be done easily with standard HTML and CSS on the external website.  And there were some things that FBML could not do at all.

But, there is a fly in the ointment.

An iFrame installation requires that a Facebook Application be created and that it be tied to an existing website.  It also meant that for best results the external site be no more than 520 pixels wide, even less for very tall pages that might require a vertical scroll bar. This means that before you can create a custom tab using iFrames that you must first have an external website that is designed to look good at 520 pixels wide.  Considering that most web sites are running around 800 or more pixels wide, simple scaling back via CSS or tables may not look good.  It seemed that expert web design skills were needed.

A possible solution turns up.

Quite a few companies appeared that offered to do all of the design of appropriately sized pages for you.  They offered free solutions as well as paid ones and they all are quite good at what they do.  But, the free ones came with ads or obtrusive banners trying to drum up more business for the service. And who wants to pay $30.00 or more a month in subscription fees?

Finally a good solution appears.

Tonight I discovered a theme for WordPress self hosted blogs that offers you a way to create your 520 pixel wide Facebook custom tab that will work with iFrames. Just when I thought that Facebook was going to kill off blogging for the masses, this theme comes along and breathes new life into the blog.

Here is why I say that: (From the theme developer’s Facebook Fan Page)

WP4FB (WordPress for Facebook) is an easy-to-use WordPress template that can be used as a Facebook Fanpage. Besides that it’s totally awesome, what does it has to offer?
It’s an easy way to create Facebook Pages
It’s 100% compatible with both WP3.1 and Facebook iFrames
It supports all kinds of neat HTML elements
It includes an easy to use image slider
It comes with a very powerful feature to get thousands of fans!
And much more…

Go check out the demo page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Creating-fanpages-the-easy-way/135819239823365#!/pages/Creating-fanpages-the-easy-way/135819239823365?sk=app_203491966341464 to see what I mean.

Why will this breathe new life into the blog?

I’ve always felt that your main content should “live” somewhere else besides Facebook.  These posts on RealtyTechBytes.com appear on my Facebook page AFTER I post them here.  The magic of RSS takes them to Facebook.  If Facebook should go down or capriciously change the rules (Case in point: FBML) my content is still on the web.

The ability to create content for WordPress is relatively easy to do.  Almost any one with the ability to follow directions (and the inclination to do so) can create very compelling WordPress blogs.  This theme will make it possible to create compelling Facebook fan pages by using WordPress.

To sweeten the pot.

This theme is free.  WordPress itself is free.  Hosting for a WordPress blog runs less than $10.00 a month.  Buying a copy of WordPress for Dummies is less than $25.00.  Add in some of your time and you can have your own custom Facebook fan page.  Once you have it set up (the developer has a 10 page step by step guide on how to use the theme and to create the Facebook iFrame Application) any changes that you make to the WordPress blog automatically show up on your Facebook custom tab.

And that my friends, makes it all worthwhile.