THE BASICS:
Why should I migrate/convert my App Profile to a Page?
Late last year, Facebook announced that they will remove all App Profile Pages on February 1st 2012.
If you own an App Profile page like I do, then you would have seen this banner across the top of your page:
If you don’t respond to the prompt before the 1st of February, your App Profile page will be deleted automatically and any traffic will be directed straight to your app.
How do I convert my profile to a Page?
Step 1: Create a new Facebook Fan page that has the same name as your app. You need to make sure that you are an admin for the new Facebook Page and that the the page is under the “Product/App” category.
As you can see above, I have named my page “Piggybanker” which is the same as my Piggybanker app.
IMPORTANT:
- During migration, only Likes and your vanity URL are transferred (with the exceptions explained below). Make sure to save all the photos and any text you have written in the Description and Information fields.
- If you are creating a new Facebook Page for migration purposes, DO NOT customise the vanity URL. The vanity URL from your app will be migrated automatically to the new page.
- If you are using an old Facebook page as the target for migration and it has an existing vanity URL, that URL will STAY THE SAME after migration. In this case, your app’s vanity URL will be lost.
Step 2: Log in to the Facebook Developers site and select the app that you want to migrate.
Step 3: Click on “Edit Settings” and under “Related Links”, click “View App Profile Page”
Step 4: You should now see the yellow banner at the top of your app profile page informing you of the imminent changes. Click “Click here to migrate to an existing Facebook Page”
Step 5: Select the target Facebook page from the choices in the drop down menu and click “Migrate”
You will then see a popup dialog informing you that the app profile page has been migrated. Facebook states that the migration takes up to 7 days. However in my case, the migration happened immediately.
Once the migration is complete, the original app page will be removed and will redirect to your new Facebook page. Check out the new Piggybanker page here.
What’s the difference between an App Profile and a Facebook Page?
Though similar in appearance, the automatically generated App Profile Pages differ in features from traditional Facebook Pages. The two types of pages offer different Insights, APIs as well as the available distribution channels or advertising options.
I’ve converted my App Profile to a Page. What should I do next?
You might add additional admins to the Page and begin to add photos and other bits of relevant information.
If the vanity URL has changed, you might want to inform your fans about this change as well as making sure any links from your website or distribution channels are amended to reflect the change.