How to Connect Facebook to a Web Page
Connecting a website to Facebook is a useful marketing tool for website designers, whether they're selling a product or publishing a blog to communicate with customers and audience. It also creates a social networking community around the website. Website designers can choose a number of Facebook apps and widgets to use, such as the Like button.
Instructions
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Select one of Facebook's social plug-ins to embed in your website. Facebook suggests that its most useful plug-in is the Like button. Clicking this button allows users to connect their Facebook friends with your website. When users click the Like button, a message appears in their Facebook news feeds with a link back to your website. You can then keep anyone who clicks your Like button updated with information about new products or activities.
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Go to the Facebook developers' site and click the Facebook for Websites page. From that page, select "Social plug-ins" and then click the "Like Button" page. Choose either an XFBML or Iframe version of the app; Facebook recommends the XFBML version because of its versatility and comment support. Comments make the site more visible in your Facebook news feed, and other users are more likely to visit the site on their friends' recommendation. You must have JavaScript installed to use the XFBML version.
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Get the button code by filling in the form that requests the website URL and explains what is meant by the other questions, such as whether or not you want a Send button as well as the button's dimensions, color and font style. You can also choose whether the button is denoted "like" or "recommend," and if users' Facebook profile images are included. When you've filled these in, press the "Get Code" button.
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Fill in the Open Graph Tags form that follows the button code form. The information you put in this form creates metatags that you add to the head of your website and should describe the site's purpose. Look in the type box for a selection of occupations and business types. You can also specify the information that will appear in your Facebook news feed. Study other Facebook news feeds for entertaining ways of presenting your content.
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Copy and paste the button HTML code into the website. Be selective about where you place the Like button -- don't put it after every item. Choose the most interesting content or products. Bloggers may wish to add multiple buttons. Anecdotal evidence from site developers suggests that some people, particularly those using blog platforms like WordPress, may get error messages. If you have problems embedding the button in your site, visit the Facebook Platform Developer Forum for help.
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Tips & Warnings
Add in Facebook apps for tracking the website visitors who click the like button such as FB. Event.subscribe, which tells you when the button is clicked. Register your domain at Facebook to get your user demographics data.
References
- Photo Credit Comstock/Comstock/Getty Images
