Go Social – How to Integrate Facebook with Your Website

Social media has changed the way we use the Internet. Facebook took the ideas tested by existing social networks such as MySpace and turned them into essential tools of modern life. Every day (at the time of writing this post), 526 million people are active on Facebook. Of those 526 million, around half the users between 18 and 34 years old check Facebook within minutes of waking up.

The world is active on Facebook. Is your business?

Organizations are experimenting with ways to leverage the marketing potential of Facebook, and although there are impressive advertising campaigns you can run through Facebook, your official business page is the most useful Facebook feature.

Some organizations forget that social media is about bringing information together so it can be communicated to your target audiences. It is important to have a presence across social media sites in addition to your own website, but the best results are achieved by integrating each part of your website effectively.

Integrating Facebook with your website is easy. In fact, you can use code available on the Facebook website to make sure your visitors know what you offer through your social media presence. Read on to learn the different types of integration available and how you can easily get started with social media on your website today.

Facebook fan boxes, badges, and social plugins

One obstacle to integrating your Facebook page and website is determining what is possible and what is most effective. Facebook provides its users with many different tools and widgets you can display on your website, along with ways to use Facebook to power your website comments and activity.

To help you figure out which type of integration is best for you, decide what you hope to achieve by adding Facebook content to your website.

Turn website visitors into Facebook fans

When you create a Facebook page, the people who “Like” it become what are known as Facebook “fans.” These are your existing customers, or people with an interest in your company who are ideal prospects for your business. Once someone Likes your page and becomes a fan, your posts will show up in their Facebook News Feed, opening up a direct line of communication.

A great way to encourage your website visitors to become Facebook fans is to give them a taste of the content you are sharing on your Facebook page. For example, the Facebook Like Box (http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like-box/) displays your recent Facebook posts and allows visitors to “Like” your page with just one click.

Improve customer confidence with Facebook

It is often said that word-of-mouth marketing is the best, but that it does not always matter who the recommendation comes from. For many potential customers, it is enough to know that your business already has satisfied customers. This increases customer confidence and, in turn, the likelihood of you securing new sales.

The Facebook Facepile (http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/facepile/) is a stylish and effective way to tell your website visitors who “Likes” your Facebook page. It displays the faces of your Facebook fans in a small, convenient grid that can be added just about anywhere.

Getting people to follow your online content and increasing customer confidence are just two common goals of webmasters, and both can be achieved using Facebook. At JaguarPC, we use a combination of different methods to display our fans on our blog page, and include “Like” buttons that make it easy for customers to share their favorite JaguarPC blog posts on Facebook.

How to start adding Facebook boxes to your website

The best thing about Facebook boxes is that you can add them to your website without any special expertise. Just head over to the developer site at Facebook (http://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/), choose the type of plugin you need, and input the address of your Facebook page. Then, you can choose the size and color scheme of your box.

Once you have finished, click “Get Code” to see the source code that makes the box work. You can then add this to any page of your website, either by editing your source code and uploading it to your web hosting plan with an FTP client, or – if you use a cPanel hosting plan – by using the built-in File Manager tool.

Make your Facebook presence an integrated part of your website today, and be sure to Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jaguarpc.

For more information on JaguarPC web hosting services, visit jaguarpc.com.