The Like button is one of the most popular ways to integrate Facebook into your site. It is thankfully one of the easiest as well. From personal blogs to corporate websites, the Like button can act as a personal gateway between your site and Mr. Zuckerberg’s. And now, thanks to the Open Graph, it is easier than ever to let Facebook work its magic and market for you.
What is the Open Graph?
Based upon the idea of mapping out all of the connections between one person and his or her Likes to create a “graph,” the idea of the Open Graph is to connect everyone from across the web based what each person deems important, or “Likes.” Ultimately, in providing a link between one’s social interactions with Facebook and one’s social interactions with the rest of the web, the Open Graph protocol enables any website to achieve the same functionality as a Facebook page.
What does this mean for the Web?
The implications that the Open Graph may have on the web as a whole relate significantly to the idea of search engines. While currently Google still attracts more traffic than any other website, Facebook is a close second. Even without a good internal search engine, Facebook already drives more traffic for some searches than Google itself. And in attempting to link Facebook with the rest of the web, the Open Graph is creating Facebook’s own extensive and highly interactive version of a search engine. It is important to note, however, that Google still holds significant importance in the large scheme of things, and even if Facebook does surpass Google, Google will likely continue to warrant enough traffic to play a large role in the online world.
What does this mean in terms of marketing?
First off, the implications of the Open Graph when it comes to SEO are significant. Social influence now officially plays a role in search engine results, and if you are not taking advantage of the Open Graph, you are missing out on a big slice of the SEO pie. The number of Likes your website receives directly relates to how popular Google assumes your site to be. The more Likes you boast, the higher Google ranks your page. Also, without the Open Graph, only your website’s Facebook page can appear in a user’s news feed or wall posts. However, the Open Graph allows an actual link to your website to appear throughout Facebook. If you aren’t using the Open Graph, you may be losing a good portion of traffic to your site.
How do I add a Facebook Like button?
Simply point your browser over to http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like/,
- Add your site url,
- Click ‘Get Code’
- Select your embedding method
Embed your code from Facebook and reload your page. Viola! Users can now Like your page. Page details will be posted on the user’s wall and news feed.
Advance Like Button Features - Open Graph Protocol
Facebook’s Open Graph Protocol (http://developers.facebook.com/docs/opengraph ) allows you to add additional meta data to your site which Facebook will interpret and include in the Like details. Facebook provides a number of meta properties which help distinguish your content posted on Facebook.
- <meta property="og:title" content="The Rock"/>
- <meta property="og:type" content="movie"/>
- <meta property="og:email" content="me@example.com"/>
- <meta property="og:phone_number" content="650-123-4567"/>
- <meta property="og:fax_number" content="+1-415-123-4567"/>
These are a few examples of meta properties.Use Facebook’s URL Linter (http://developers.facebook.com/tools/lint/) to insure you’ve added everything correctly.