When I started an online jewelry store a few years back, I discovered the advantages of creating a Facebook page to promote my products. I had a decent number of following at the time, and it was a great move that made my business grow with the support of people I knew in real life.
Years have passed, but my Facebook page remained the same. I was looking into giving it a makeover when I chanced upon Decor, a very helpful web app for creating Facebook pages. In this article, I’ll show you how someone that has zero coding knowledge — like me — can create professional pages in just a matter of minutes.
An interface that’s easy and familiar
Decor is free for creating up to one page and one tab, and all you have to do is link it with your Facebook account. Once the registration and authentication is done, you can start creating pages with the Decor page editor.
You have two options from the dashboard, visible on top of the page: Create a fan page or Create a business page. Depending on your choice, you will be shown page templates that match the purpose of your page.
There are quite a few, and you can click Read more to know more about the page layout and other details. When you’re ready, then you can go ahead and hit the Start now button to begin. At this point, you’ll need to have images and other media ready so you can easily upload it to the page.
Great page templates to choose from
There’s also an option to start with a blank page. This may seem a bit daunting, but the user friendly interface requires little to no advanced skills.
Decor’s page creation interface is divided into two columns, the larger one as the canvas, and a smaller one for putting stuff into the canvas. Clicking on objects and other content will return information on the left pane, found under the Info tab. For instance, when I click on an object in the canvas, the Info bar will show me its dimensions, which makes it easy for me to create the next images in the same exact size.
An interface that’s easy to use
The top of the page are the three major controls, which are Edit, Preview and Publish. Preview gives you a preview of the page in the same window, so it looks the same except the editing marks are not visible. You can switch between edit and preview mode through these buttons, but the Publish button is for when everything’s final and finished.
Bringing all content together
The canvas, also called the “stage”, employs a drag-and-drop interface. You can drag and drop objects where you want them to appear. These objects can be images, text, videos and even Soundcloud links and Instagram feeds. You can resize these objects and reorder them just like in any photo editing application.
Integration with Soundcloud, Instagram, YouTube and Vimeo
Manipulating images are not as limited as one might think. There are a lot of tweaks to discover, including a built-in image editor that provides basic features such as adjusting colors, adding drawings or text and applying filters.
A right amount of freedom to edit images
You can also add links to most objects, and this is especially useful when you maintain your own site. Sharing your content on social media should also be easy for your fans when you add Social buttons (Tweet and Like).
Text controls are a bit limited — the font selections are very basic. You can choose font orientation, style and size as well.
Basic font faces for text
Images and other objects are added on its own layer. The layers are shown on the control panel to the right, and clicking on an object will activate the layer. Layer visibility can be toggled on and off, and can be locked to protect from accidental editing.
Another great thing about Decor is it provides a file directory for all pages. On the left panel, a tab called Files beside Layers shows the files uploaded for each page, and these files can easily be dragged into the stage — no need to upload content twice for separate pages.
Facebook pages for the beginner
The overall app design is very much like using a template in a word processor. Creating layouts, adding objects and editing them all seemed such an easy and enjoyable task. I liked that it showed a ruler when resizing objects, so that I can see if it lines up with other objects along its path.
By the end of my venture with Decor, I was more than happy with the results. It’s not the most beautiful page ever, but it’s a good start. In fact, it’s far better than the way it was before.
A finished page using Online Shop template
A free Decor account provides one page and tab, but there are paid apps that allow you to add more. The Basic plan costs €3.99 per month, which gives you one page and three tabs and access to email support. A Pro account provides three pages and unlimited tabs for €9.99 per month. Finally there is the Unlimited account which costs €29.99 per month, with unlimited pages and tabs and premium support.
Conclusion
A Facebook page can be very advantageous, but most inexperienced people shy away from it because they feel they don’t have the skills to create one. This doesn’t have to be the case, not when apps like this are now easily available. For anyone who’s been meaning to take their social media presence to the next level with a Facebook page, Decor is great for getting it done right the first time.