diff --git a/pyfb/client.py b/pyfb/client.py
index b6d6552..18dc327 100755
--- a/pyfb/client.py
+++ b/pyfb/client.py
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ def _make_request(self, url, data=None):
         if not data:
             data = None
 
-        return urlopen(url, data).read()
+        return urlopen(url, data.encode("utf-8")).read()
 
     def _make_auth_request(self, path, extra_params=None, **data):
         """