After concluding in Why Should uMCLE.com Have a Facebook Fan Page that uMCLE should, came the task of whittling down the many helpful (and not so helpful) instructions and guides that a simple search engine query produced. However, the only links returned from Facebook were to start the process of creating a page. None led to official Facebook instructions. A major failure.
And so I present a step-by-step guide of my somewhat frustrating attempt to create a Fan page.
STOP! Facebook Fan Pages must be linked to a personal account since accounts owned by entities are not allowed.
Nowhere is this clearly stated (and I’ve read the entire Statements of Rights and Responsibilities), but that hasn’t kept Facebook from issuing dire warnings along the way, threatening to shut down any personal account. This issue could itself be a series of posts, but I just wanted to create a simple page, not challenge the system. That may come later
Making sure I was logged into my personal account, I went to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
Under “Brand, Product or Organization”, I chose “Website”
Next, I named the page – uMCLE. Initially, I named it MCLE for Mandatory Continuing Legal Education since I wanted the page to broadly capture the subject matter but discovered later in the process that custom domain names require at least five characters. Again, no mention of this during the process.
And that’s it! The uMCLE Facebook Fan page was created.
I added a profile picture by hovering on the big question mark, “change picture” appeared and I uploaded a picture.
For quick, easy, content, I could import my blog posts under “Notes” settings, but not sure I want to “spam” my potential Facebook fans with every blog post.
NOTE: After creating a Fan page under a new account, gaining a few fans (well, a few of my friends), I had to deactivate that account, and start the process again, this time, linked to my personal account. Maddening!
Next up, is determining which content I want on the site. What is it’s purpose?
