Facebook this week fired the largest ever warning shot across the bows of Internet giant Google.
At their F8 Developer Conference Facebook announced a series of products aimed at dramatically improving the interaction of web sites with their social networking site.
Blah blah, blah (technical, incomprehensible mumbo jumbo follows……)
But not this time…….
What Does It Mean in Plain English ?
My fave Internet Marketing maven (a maven is a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others) Ed Dale had this to say:-
“So today, Facebook announce, with the addition of a single line of code, you can “like” a news story, a movie on imdb, a music track on pandora…
IN AN ACT OF SHEER PSYCHOLOGICAL BRILLIANCE – the little line of code puts up a little picture of YOUR friends who’ve also “liked” that thing on the web. Robert Cialdini (author of Influence, the definitive guide to decision making triggers) must have weeped with joy at the social engineering (Note – I love this, I’m not sure others will…)
Facebook point out – liking something up untill today or tweeting or foursquaring was a temporary blip, if your friends happened to log in the last three hours they MIGHT have seen it. Let’s face it, if you tweeted it’s a crapshoot on a numbers basis if your friends actually see anything.
So when you click the new “Like” Facebook button, being very helpful and all, Facebook will update your permanent profile with your new like.”
For Ed’s full take on this go to Facebook Bombshell How Did Everyone Miss This ?.
Facebook's Open Graph
So, in short, if a visitor to your website who is also a Facebook user clicks the Like button you have on your post or page (you have one of these already surely ?) this will go into their profile for all their friends to see as well.
As WebProNews stated;-
“When you look at just the announcement of Facebook’s social plugins, you can already see some obvious benefits. Facebook has over 400 million users (probably well over that by now), and by including these plugins on your site, you’re providing a direct link for them to share your content with their friends, or simply to share their fondness of your brand, and this information will not not only go to Facebook itself, but has the potential to appear in other places on the web that are part of Facebook’s Open Graph.
Essentially, Facebook thinks connections are going to become the new links. This will theoretically happen through what they’re calling the Open Graph.”
Facebook supremo Mark Zuckerberg explains it thus:
Facebook has focused mostly on mapping out the part of the graph around people and their relationships.
“At the same time, other sites and services have been mapping out other parts of the graph so you can get relevant information about different types of things. For example, Yelp maps out the best local businesses and Pandora maps out which songs are related to each other.
All of these connections are important parts of the social graph, but until now it hasn’t been possible to easily share the connections you make on sites like Yelp or Pandora with your friends on Facebook. And you haven’t been able to bring your friends from Facebook to share experiences on these sites or personalize them to you.”
What Can It Mean to the Small Business Owner With A Website ?
If the content on your website is interesting or compelling to someone that visits the website they might click “Like” for that particular post or page (if, of course you have Facebook Like button on that post or page).
That places the person’s thumbnail image next to the button on the page. It also advises their friends on Facebook that they have liked a particular page on your website.
Some of those friends will have interests in common with the site visitor that has just “Liked” your page. Some of them will choose to come and have a look at that page as well. Some will click “Like” on the page and that will be communicated to their friends etc etc.
Do you get it ?
Personal referrals for a page on your website via Facebook. Good content gets a lot more traffic. Great content goes viral !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The more content you add and promote, the more chance you have of getting more visitors to your website and, of course, when they visit your website you get the chance to sell them something.
ALL THIS WITHOUT HAVING TO BE ON THE FRONT PAGE OF GOOGLE FOR YOUR SPECIFIC KEYWORD !!! (Google, remember Google ?).
And Here Comes the Real Kicker
And you can analyse all the traffic in fine detail BECAUSE Facebook knows about the demographics of all it’s members.
But that’s another article for another day.
So What Do I Do Now ?
Well, for a start, there is a “Like” button at the top of this article – CLICK IT NOW AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS.
And pray that your web development partner has even the smallest knowledge of Internet Marketing and social media marketing and that you can add content to your website yourself in a simple and easy manner because the goal posts have just been moved to an entirely new stadium…..
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