When you are thinking of how to integrate Facebook with your website to get better results from social marketing, you only need to visit the Facebook Developers page. Everything, including the customization of code snippets that you can copy-paste to your web page, is available there. You can also access case studies to understand how certain websites achieved remarkable milestones by adding their own parameters which Facebook also allows. The only problem that you could face at the Developers page is a bit of confusion as to what exactly to choose for your own use. The technical aspect is easy to understand: either choose the copy-paste option or employ the services of an expert. However, you will probably want to know from a webmaster's perspective the reasons for using or not using some of the popular (and simple) integration techniques.
The various Like options
This, of course, practically revolutionized social sharing. Question is: what will you ask your visitors to like? We shall presume that you have decided to exploit the full potential of the like button and created a Facebook Page for your site. You have three basic options now: ask your visitors to like your website, your posts, or your Facebook Page ('Like Us on Facebook').
When somebody likes your site or your posts, their friends immediately get to see what they have liked. Problem is, the News Feed being updated continuously, those likes will be lost pretty soon (but still available on the user's profile page). On the other hand, if they like your Page, you have permanent subscribers (provided they do not remove themselves later).
There is no easy answer to which option might be best for you, but if you are selling multiple items, it could be useful to keep the like button below each of them. The American Eagle (ae.com) apparently had numerous Facebook referrals using this technique who spent 57% more on the site than visitors that came from other sources of traffic. This is social marketing at its best, utilizing the power of word-of-mouth publicity.
If you choose to let your visitors like your Page, there is the Like Box designed specifically for that purpose which also displays a live stream from your Page. The live stream is helpful only when you are updating your Page with some frequency. Else, you should probably disable it to refrain from disappointing repeat visitors with the same old content.
The Send Button
This one enables sharing through messages to individual friends rather than posting publicly. While that may appear counterproductive since you are looking to use public sharing to your advantage, this option has its uses when your visitors come across things that are often shared only among close friends. Jewelry items, engagement rings and cigar cases could serve as examples.
Comments
This is particularly useful if you want comments on a website that does not use a Content Management System (blogs, for instance, are CMS based) where the comment box is available by default.
Activity Feed and Recommendations
These are two separate integration techniques that are useful only if there is a lot of activity on your site and only when visitors are actually making frequent recommendations. If that is not the case, you would be well advised to steer clear of both since they could give the impression that your site is not 'happening' enough.
The Live Stream
The Live Stream enables visitors to discuss an 'event'. The comments cannot be moderated by you, the website owner, although you could ban a user for making objectionable remarks. Unlike the Comments plug-in, the discussions on Live Stream are not permanently available on your site. When you are actually holding an event, however, this is the perfect option to employ. Think webinars, think product launches through video marketing, and the Live Stream becomes an invaluable integration technique.
There are a quite a few other interesting methods including the 'Log in with Facebook' option. There are third party plug-ins available for that and other means of integration. To understand how to integrate Facebook with your website to get better results from social marketing you need only to decide what best suits your unique situation. The rest is history that you can make by scaling new heights at drawing popular attention to what you have to offer.
Author Bio:
Jason Smith is an online manager for Superior Notary Services. He is an expert on SEO & PPC tactics and in his free times likes to read and understand about mobile notary.
