Setting up a custom Facebook business page with YouTube is a little more difficult now that Facebook has removed the ability to add the FBML application to your business page. While it may be a little more entailed, it is not impossible to add an application for the purposes of a business page. You can still create your own custom page by using free templates through companies like Lujure or you can build a wholly custom page using Facebook apps if you know a little about building web pages.

I have created this post to help those of you that would like to ‘do-it-yourself’ and build your own custom Facebook business page. This requires that you know something about HTML, PHP, and can host a page somewhere on the internet. In other words this is a little advanced. So, if you find yourself getting frustrated with the following instructions, then I highly suggest you use a free template. At the same time, if you are familiar with building web pages, then this is a simple process that will give you more flexibility than the FBML application ever enabled.

If you are a consultant that builds pages for your clients, you will also find this post useful. However, I would still recommend Lujure for your use as they have a business edition that is quite affordable. If your clients require more versatility than the templates offered by Lujure, then this page will help walk you through the steps you need to learn to continue to make custom business pages for your clients.

Step 1.

While it is quite simple to just build the page in HTML, it is best to build a PHP page because FaceBook will post variables to the tab when it loads and you will most likely get an error with a index.html page. I have found that the best size for the page is 485×730, but you can experiment with wider and longer pages if you wish.

YouTube Videos: Go to YouTube and get the embed code for your video. You can find this under any video. Once you have the embed code you can place it anywhere you would like to place it on your page. See the image below for a quick glance at how to get the right sized code for your custom page.

Step 2.

Now in order to develop applications, Facebook will require that you verify your account. Just go to http://Facebook.com/developers and click on ‘Set Up New App’ in the upper right hand corner. If your account has not yet been verified, you will receive a warning with links to verify your account.

Once your account has been verified by Facebook, you will be able to develop applications.

http://www.facebook.com/developers/createapp.php

Name the application whatever you would like. This will not affect the name of the page tab. Then, agree to Facebook terms and click ‘Create App’.

On the next page there are only a few changes that need to be made since we are only using this app for the purposes of creating a custom Facebook page.

Under the ‘About’ tab you should upload an icon (size doesn’t matter, Facebook will adjust the size of the image to the correct size) and make sure that the email addresses are correct.

Under the ‘Facebook Integration’ tab you will need to name the tab and provide the tab URL (the page that you created in step 1)

Click on ‘Save Changes’.

Step 3.

After you click on ‘Save Changes’ you will be taken to the application information page, click on ‘Application Profile Page’.

Then simply add the application to your business page on Facebook and you are done.

Step 4. (Optional)

To make your new custom business page the landing page, simply edit the page and select it under ‘Manage Permissions’ ‘Default Landing Tab’