Facebook Fix

You don't want a Community Page...not when you have a Facebook Business Page!

1/31/11 **UPDATE** With the new profiles that Facebook has created for all users, the process of getting rid of that pesky "gray suitcase" has become much easier. No more editing the code- simply DELETE the employer info (your business), then re-enter it. The link on your wall will automatically reset to the Business Page you created, and the gray suitcase link will go away!

Just when you started to like the flavor,
Facebook moved your cheese!

Fix Facebook Link

If you have a Facebook Business ("Fan") Page, you may have noticed that your Employer link on your personal page (which should be your company) does not connect to your business page, but rather prompts you to start a Community page instead. A Community Page is like a general search page that dumps any comments, pictures or posts about your business that get said ANYWHERE on Facebook right there where your Fans can see them. You don't want this.

Don't worry, your Business Page is still there, it's just been kicked back into Coach. While this most unsavory and slippery move is annoying, there is a work-around to restore that most precious link back to your Business Page. It involves diving into the shallow end of HTML code, but don't worry, it's a simple fix:

If you don't have Firefox as your web browser you will need to download that.
(Go to Mozilla.org--download is free).

The next thing is to search on Mozilla's site for "Web Developer Add-on" and install that. This will give you the opportunity to see the code on your Info page and edit it. Re-start the Firefox browser and you're ready to start hacking!

1. Go to your Facebook Business Page. You'll notice the end of the URL-it should have a unique string of numbers at the very end identifying the page. Copy the number string that comes after the last forward slash ("/").

2. Then go to your Personal Profile Page, "Edit Profile", then select "Education and Work." Then, on the form, click "Add another job" as if you were adding another employer.

3. In the Firefox browser, you'll see a new toolbar resulting from the web developer add-on. In the toolbar select "Forms" and then, from the drop-down menu, "display form detail". You will now notice strange code appear on the page. Don't freak out. This is a function of the add on and will let you access and change the information you need to change .

4. In the field where you would normally type in the name of your business, you'll notice the following code: You'll see a gray box that should be empty. If there's a "0" in it, select it by holding down the ctrl key, highlighting the "0", then paste the unique page ID that you copied from your Facebook Business page into that gray box.

5. Fill in the rest of the Employer form as normal (location, description, dates employed, etc.) Click "Save Changes".

6. You can now de-select "Display Form Details" in the Web Developer toolbar. At this point, your Employer info will appear as before, except now your company name under the employer category will link to your Business Page once again... as it should.

-Larry Bartlett article added 8/9/10