If there’s one thing brothers are good for, it’s for putting you in your place. Minutes after coding a Facebook “like” button into this blog, I received the following message regarding my apparent narcissism:
The way Facebook built it, liking someone (or something) is as easy as clicking a button. The benefits are greater exposure and the ability to promote a website on the largest social media network out there. According to Facebook, the like button “enables users to make connections to your pages and share content back to their friends on Facebook with one click … For logged-in Facebook users, the button is personalized to highlight friends who have also like the page.”
The trick is getting the like button there in the first place.
Consider the following a brief “how to” when it comes to adding a like button of your own. I can’t guarantee the success of the following steps across multiple platforms, but it works in WordPress (as evidenced by the button on the right) and I can’t see it being all that much trouble anywhere else.
We’ll take the example of Life Simplified — a friend’s blog that does a great job offering shortcuts, suggestions and solutions that make everyday life just a little bit easier. The blog author is Holland Saltsman and her goal is to get as much exposure for her work as possible. Most people I know already like Holland (OK, most people that know Holland love her, but the button is stuck at like). The trick is we’d like them to share this feeling online with others. Let’s add a like button to her blog in two easy steps:
Step 1: Add meta data to the <head> tag that will tell Facebook all it needs to know about the page.
The data will include a title, type, url and image. It will also set Holland up as the administrator over a page collecting information about those who like her. Here’s the code we entered into the header.php file for Holland:
<meta property=”og:type” content=”blog”/>
<meta property=”og:url” content=” http://lifesimplifiedforyou.com/ “/>
<meta property=”fb:admins” content=”holland.saltsman”/>
The title of the page is what Facebook will tell others to like. For example, the news feed for anyone who likes Holland’s blog will add “Joe Smith likes Life Simplfied.” The title will then become a link, using the URL provided, back to the blog. The final line of code uses Holland’s Facebook username to set her up as the administer of the fan page created in Facebook.
Step 2: Add the like button onto the page using the <iframe> tag.
This step is actually pretty easy, namely because I used the Facebook Like Button plugin on the Facebook developers page. The page will ask for a few pieces of information (URL to like, font, colors, etc.) and then generate a code you can insert into the page. The code will look something like this:
All I did in WordPress was add a text widget to the sidebar and enter the code as Facebook provided it. I imagine the process wouldn’t be much different in other systems as well.
Voila! Let the instant popularity begin.
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Thanks Patrick for offering me suggestions, shortcuts & solutions on my site. You’re amazing! Hey, I know you’re not a mom but check out this “circle” for moms in social media!
Patrick,
Great post! I wish I had a “Patrick” like Holland does! I’m not sure that I am intrepid enough to start messing with coding and html on my own. Might be hearing from me for help.
Thanks in advance.
Nancy
PS – I’m one of the ones who loves Holland
hi sir i just need a frnd amsterdam thank u