So, you've set up a Facebook Page for your brand or company,
awesome! But, how do you make sure that you're integrating your website with your Facebook Page and taking advantage of all of the buttons, boxes, and Likes at your disposal? With a few tips and guidelines, your website and your social platforms, or more specifically, your website and your Facebook Page, can go together like
Kenny and Dolly. Haven't taken the dive into Facebook for your company yet? Don't go away just yet. It isn't necessary for your company to have a Facebook presence in order to take advantage of some of the ways Facebook can drive qualified traffic to your site and share your content or products, so keep reading.
Who Are You?
First and foremost, it's important your Facebook Page's branding reflects the look and feel of your website. Your Facebook Page's cover and profile images need to align themselves with your branding using the same logo and colors. That being said, I encourage you to have fun with your cover image by using it to highlight new products, feature discounts or promotions, or even events or contact info. When cover images for Facebook Pages rolled out several years ago, there were many hard to monitor restrictions in place that have now since been lifted. Use the correct dimensions, don't be abrasively sales-y, and focus on the fact that images often speak louder than words.
Show Yourself Off
Next, show your website's visitors you have a Facebook Page by including your social platform icons, or more specifically, your Facebook Page's icon front and center. I suggest featuring your icons in a visible area of your top navigation so your website's visitors don't have to play hide-and-seek to find them. Check out how Ecreative features their social media platforms below. This is not the place for a Like button - you want to show off to your website's visitors where you have a presence, but it's important to give them the option as to which platforms they like or follow. Think of these like an online dating profile; you want to be visible to the right audience, but you want users to be able to check you out a little first before they make the commitment to going out with you, or in this case, adding your Facebook content to their news feed.
Like My Stuff with a Facebook Like Button
There are proper ways to embed a Facebook Like Button into your website, and there are more improper ways. When a website visitor clicks on an embedded Like button, content will show up in their news feed showing they Liked the content, product, or blog post on your website the button was featured. Think of this button as a way for your website's visitors to give you a high five that appears on their Facebook Timeline* and Facebook connections' news feeds. While there is certainly value in having Like buttons on product pages or pages that have frequently updated content or news, it is typically best to prominently display this button on pages or content that have worthwhile and sharable content. The Facebook Like Button is customizable so you can adjust the button's size, amount of users who have Liked the page's content, and more. You can also include a Share button next to the Like button, or even have this display as Recommend as opposed to Like, which, in my opinion, makes more sense. Utilizing the Facebook Like Button will not auto-magically make users Like your Facebook Page, it only endorses and shares the content on a page. Visit
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like/ to customize your Like button and generate the code. It is not necessary to have a Facebook Page to add this button to your website.
*hide-able in your Facebook Profile's Privacy Settings
Send My Stuff with a Facebook Send Button
Adding this button to your website allows your website users to share your content with your website's visitors either on their feed, via private Facebook message, to a Facebook group they belong to, or as an email. This functionality pulls the page's title, an image, where applicable and a short description into the messaging. This button can also be customized and the web page URL to be shared needs to be designated. Say you're shopping for the coolest new
CrossFit shoes and want to share them with your fellow cult members. You can post this in your Facebook Group or on your Page. For your website's product pages, I recommend taking advantage of the Like and Share combo pack available when customizing your Like Button. Configure your own Send button here:
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/send-button/
Follow My Facebook Page with a Follow Button
This button, formerly referred to as a Subscribe Button, does in fact prompt your website's visitors to Like your Company's Facebook Page. This button's layout, color scheme, number of followers, and size can also be customized here
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/follow-button/ I suggest including a call to action when using this button so users know what to expect. Good places for this button are email newsletters, company bios on your company blog, or pages on your website describing your company's online presence.
Check Me Out and Follow My Company with a Facebook Like Box
Lastly, this plugin enables your website's visitors to see your Facebook Page's follower count, recent posts and can also highlight other users, or connections that have followed, or liked your Facebook Page. It's not necessary for visitors to leave your website in order to Like with one of these widgets. Facebook Like Boxes work well if your company's website has a blog, or some sort of bio or about us page that describes your company's products, services, or employees. To generate your own Facebook Like Box, visit
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/like-box-for-pages Integrated properly, your Facebook Page can not only serve you up some excellent traffic, it can also cultivate new leads, court perspective customers as well as support, and inform your existing customers, whether your business is B2B or B2C. Are you still having trouble figuring out which button or box is the right one, or not sure how to get it to work with your website?
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