The humble Text Box feature is extremely versatile. It can direct members’ attention to what’s new and important in your community. You can use a text box to insert content that welcomes visitors to your social network or highlights an important video. You can embed a slideshow, display social media buttons, run third-party widgets, or create a custom ad for a special client. Just about any combination of plain text, rich media, HTML, or JavaScript will work in a text box.
There are many perks to using text boxes and many ways to use them. You can use a text box for a nice welcome message or to highlight a “member of the week” — both of which My Crazy Sexy Life does very effectively. You can also add resources like dynamic Google location-based maps, as the creators of Ecolocity do. If you’re at a loss for words and want to add something fun to your site, consider a third-party widget. From tweet blenders and quote generators to event-countdown timers and contact forms, you can find and customize thousands of widgets online. (WidgetBox has over 50,000.) All you need is the embed code, and your text box should size the code to fit. Get creative!
You can add a text box by navigating to Features Layout under the Settings section from the My Network tab. Drag the Text Box feature from the Features column on the left into any of the four spaces in the Layout section. Anything placed in the green space will appear on every page of your network. Click “Save” when you’re satisfied with your changes.
You can add anything you’d like to your text boxes, including text, images, widgets, and links – it’s just another way to make your main page unique. Many people use text boxes to add music, game or calendar widgets to their networks. You may also want to add advertisements to yours. All you need is the embed code and a text box to place it in. Your text box will stretch to fit the content you place in it, so get creative!
Please note that only the Network Creator can add JavaScript to a text box.
As the text in the yellow box in the above screenshot shows, adding too many features to your Main Page will indeed slow it down. See our troubleshooting article, Troubleshoot Slow Loading (or No Loading) Issues on your Network, for some helpful suggested steps to improve its speed!
