Facebook Like Button - What Is It and Do You Need It? by Maria Nemenman

Thousands of websites across the Internet have already adopted the use of the Facebook Like button. What purpose does it serve? How does it benefit your website?

What Is There To Like About 'Facebook Like'?

The Facebook Like button is rapidly becoming one of the most powerful tools that every free website owner must learn to embrace sooner or later, if you have any hope of competing on the Internet for your share of web traffic.

But what exactly is all this hype about the Facebook Like Button? What is it anyway? And why do you need it?

As of this writing, there are well over four hundred million people across the planet earth who have a Facebook account. As a Facebook user, you may already be familiar with the concept of the "Like" button. When you are logged onto Facebook, you can "Like" somebody else's wall post or somebody else's pictures, for example. The concept of "Liking" something is essentially an acknowledgement that you enjoyed viewing that image or that posting, or that you found it informative, or that you agree with it.

So that may seem all well and good for users who are logged onto Facebook and are interacting within its environment. But you may have noticed in the past year or so, that there has been an explosive growth in the adoption of the Facebook Like button on public, free websites, not just content confined to the Facebook application itself! In other words, you can Like any particular web page on the Internet. You are no longer confined to liking wall postings and pictures within Facebook itself. You can Like Internet web pages.

Why are millions of websites now including this Facebook Like button as a de facto standard for website design? What exactly are website owners hoping to achieve by including this button when they create a website? How does it help your website?

The Facebook Like Button: A Behind-The-Scenes Look

In order to understand the answer to these questions, you first need to understand exactly what goes on behind the scenes when you do click on the Facebook Like button that has been included on any given web page on the Internet. In other words, what exactly "happens" when you "Like" something, and how can your website benefit from it?

When you click on the "Like" button on a particular webpage, a link to that webpage shows up on your Facebook Wall. All of your Facebook Friends become notified, through the Newsfeed feature, that you have posted this link on your wall. Thanks to the empowering capability of the Like button within Facebook itself, one or more of your Friends may decide to Like your wall posting, or even comment on it. And when they do, all of your Friends, as well as all of your Friend's friends become notified. This can arouse even more curiosity and interest in the original wall posting. As you can see here, you can make a free website can gain exposure to potentially hundreds, if not thousands, of people very quickly. Your web page gets free exposure through "viral" marketing. What makes the Like button so compelling is that you can see, in your newsfeed, which of your friends also clicked on the Like button.

How You Can Harness The Power of The Facebook Like Button

So if you run a website, you can harness the power of Facebook's social network to gain free, viral advertising. But there is more, if you really want to harness the power of the Like button. When someone Likes a particular website, that is akin to expressing a form of fandom or following for that particular site. As a free website creator, you can implement what Facebook refers to as Open Graph tags that will enable your site to become integrated into the user's Likes and Interests section within their profile, as if your webpage were just another internal Facebook Page. Using this feature, anytime you make any updates to your site, people who have Liked your site will be notified through their Newsfeed. The more often users receive updates from your website, the more opportunities you will have to convert visitors into paying customers.

There is no denying the fact that Facebook has established itself in the mainstream consciousness of millions of people, fundamentally changing the very nature of not only information sharing but also that of Internet marketing. It is a new form of advertising, through viral marketing, building brand awareness and loyalty, and keeping in touch with your followers (people who have Liked yoursite). Hundreds of thousands of websites have already incorporated the Facebook Like button on their webpage, and this number is growing every day. Will your free website be next?

About the Author

Maria Free Website Builder I have been in the online marketing industry for over two years and love all things related to e-marketing,
writing for the web, SEO and SEM. I've been working for a large company that specializes in web design,
and love how dynamic this field is - I am constantly learning new strategies and concepts as the world of online marketing evolves.

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