Recently I wrote a post about how to create custom tabs for your Facebook Page. I wanted to follow up that entry with some suggestions on what tabs have been the most effective for retailers.

Here are my suggestions:

Polls
Using polls is a great way to quickly and easily get the opinions of your most active fans and customers. You can poll on anything from what product colors people prefer to when you should decorate your store for the holiday season. You can also just have fun with polls and use them to stir things up on your Facebook Page, for example take a poll asking which of four hats worn at the Royal Wedding was the favorite.

Reviews
Having reviews on your website and Facebook Page are essential. Customers and prospective customers want to be able to read what peers think about your store and products. Collect reviews on your website and you can use them in other marketing such as in your newsletter and on your website.

YouTube
If you use YouTube as part of your marketing strategy, and I recommend you definitely do, embedding it in your Facebook Page so viewers do not have to leave Facebook in order to view videos is a great way to increase viewership.

Social RSS
Create a tab on your Facebook Page that pulls in content from your blog or any other syndicated content you create, like an e-newsletter. The benefit to creating a tab is that the content is all in one place and will prevent repetitive posts to those that are both fans and subscribers to your RSS feeds.

Contests/giveaways
Host contests and giveaways on your Facebook page to keep your fans coming back. Make sure your contest is set up to be shareable so that you can take advantage of the exponential effect of Facebook; meaning that the more people that share their participation in your contest the more people will see and participate, and so on.

Applications to create and make all of these tabs work are available, most for free, on the Facebook Applications page. To make sure you’re getting the best applications, read reviews and look for applications that have been downloaded by large numbers of users.

Promoting your social media presence with fun signage can increase traffic both in-store and online. Get creative and have a little fun with it. Remember to include clear benefits for becoming an online fan like discounts, exclusive events and free advice.

Here are a few examples of signs by retailers:

Google has launched a new service for businesses called Google Business Photos. Go online to Google Places and apply to have photos of your business taken. A Google photographer will then come take panoramic photos of your business that Google can stitch together to make 360 degree views of the inside your establishment. These photos will be added to your Google Places Page. This service will likely help potential customers feel a comfort level with your store before even arriving. Plus, I imagine that establishments with photos will rank more favorably in Google searches because it’s additional, value-added content.

Google is just now rolling out this added feature in five cities around the U.S., as well as half a dozen other countries so it’s not available everywhere. However, it still pays to apply now because the more applications Google receives from one area, the more likely Google will make your area its next stop.

Read more and watch a video about Google Business Photos.

Have you ever wondered how businesses create custom landing pages on Facebook (like Zappos, below)? Well look no further because here are a few do-it-yourself suggestions. (Of course you can always hire a web specialist, but if you want to attempt it on your own there are tools that make it quite easy.)

The beauty of creating a landing page is that you can ask right up front for new visitors to “Like” your page and you’re able to quickly get your main message across.

Try these apps out:

Pagelever – This app allows you to upload an image and it creates a custom landing page for your Facebook page. You can complete the whole project in a couple minutes. If you like Pagelever you can upgrade your membership to create fan specific content as well. This app is ideal for novices.

Tabsite – Tabsite is also a popular do-it-yourself custom tab creator. This app developer has a myriad of advanced options as well, including the ability to create numerous custom tabs and embed YouTube videos.

North Social – For those more daring, more experienced users, North Social is a popular custom tab creator. They have more than 15 different apps you can integrate into your Facebook Fan Page. Their app for creating custom tabs and landing pages is called First Impression. They offer a whole variety of different image management functions like setting the image and message that gets posted when fans share your page.