Add the Like and Send Button to Your Website
Barely a year old, the Facebook Like button lives on more than 2.5 million websites, including more than 80% of the top 100 websites in the US. Now the Web is abuzz over the huge potential of the recently launched “Send” button, the Like button’s new “friend”.
ABOUT THE LIKE BUTTON
The Like button lets users show support for your content and share it with friends on Facebook. When a user clicks the Like button on your site, a story appears in the user’s friends News Feed with a link back to your website. If a user is signed into Facebook when he or she sees the Like button, it will be personalized for him or her and show how many of their friends also Liked the page.
The Facebook Like button turned a year old one week ago and it’s explosive growth has yet to slow down. In it’s first week, 50,000 websites installed the Like button and more than 10,000 websites add the button every day. Practical Ecommerce recently wrote a blog on the 8 benefits to using Facebook Likes that any website owner should check out.
ABOUT THE SEND BUTTON
One of the newest features to Facebook, the Send button, allows users to easily send your content to their friends (much like email). By using the Send button, people will have the option to share your URL through a personal message to one or a few friends or to post it to just a Facebook group. The message will include a link to the URL specified in the send button along with a title, image and a short description of the link.
The Send button drives traffic by letting users send a personalized, short message to the people who would be most interested. They don’t need to leave the web page they’re on and it requires fewer steps and clicks than any other private sharing option.
ABOUT OPEN GRAPH META TAGS
If you’re really savvy, you can add some Open Graph meta tags to your page which will help Facebook categorize your content and make relevant connections to the “Likes” and “Interests” in that user’s profile page. This means your link will show up in more places. For example, if you added the “music” tag, when someone Likes your page, your link will then show up in the “Favorite Music” section of their profile page.
HOW TO GET THE LIKE AND THE SEND BUTTON
Facebook offers an easy-to-use formula to calculate the perfect code, you can even customize the button and layout to better match your site. Decide how the information is presented, the appropriate width, whether or not you would like to show the faces of fans who have Liked the page, if you want the button to say “Like” vs. “Recommend”, the color scheme and the font.
If you would like to have the Send button, make sure you check the box that says “Send Button”. If you would like only the Send button, you can get a stand-alone here.
Below the formula for creating your Like/Send button code, you’ll also see a formula for adding Open Graph tags to your site. Try some out to enable Facebook to make more meaningful connections between you and potential new fans.