Facebook Releases New “Fan Box” Widget to Turn Website Visitors into Facebook Fans
In a move to increase the power of Facebook Pages, Facebook has just released a new widget that allows brands and businesses to share status updates from their Facebook Page – and get new Facebook fans – on any website.
The new “Fan Box” widget, built on Facebook Connect, allows Page owners to put a piece of their Facebook Page anywhere on the web.
Facebook says the Fan Box widget is designed to help convert website visitors into Facebook fans. It’s a smart move by Facebook to make it easier for brands and businesses to encourage more of their customers to become fans of their Facebook Pages.
“Users can view the most recent posts from the Page, see a list of other fans (including their friends), and, most importantly, become a fan without leaving the site,” Facebook Product Manager Mark Kinsey says. “Additionally, if a user visits the site and isn’t logged in to Facebook, the user can log in and become a fan directly inline as well.”
In other words, users can authenticate themselves to the widget using Facebook Connect in order to become Facebook fans without leaving your page. Later, when logging into Facebook, fans will see your updates in their stream just as they would any other Page they had become a fan of inside Facebook.com.
How should the new widget be implemented? For many brands and businesses, the new widget can be integrated into sections of your site where fans and customers already go to get news and updates, akin to an email newsletter subscription or RSS feed. For example, here’s how it looks live on LanceArmstrong.com:
Or, if your campaign is designed to drive more fans of your Facebook page, the new widget could obviously play a more important role in your website. See more Fan Box integrations here: Kings of Leon, Lenny Kravitz, Roger Federer, ABC News, National Public Radio, Newsweek, World Wildlife Fund, (RED), Coca-Cola, Tide, Herbal Essences and Blackberry.
Page administrators can add the Fan Box to their site by adding a JavaScript code snippet. Just click on “Add Fan Box to your site” underneath your Page’s profile picture. You can then choose whether you want to include both a stream of recent posts and a list of fans, as well as the dimensions of the box. The minimum width for the widget is 200px, and height can range up to 554px with all the options included. More details are on the Developer Wiki.
July 8th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
[...] Facebook Fans Published by Rick on July 8, 2009 in Uncategorized. View commentsComments via [...]
July 8th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
There is no comparable feature for applications on Facebook. We have to tell users to go to the application about page and then add themselves as a fan from there. Facebook need FBML code such as so that we can encourage users to become a fan from within our apps.
July 8th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
[...] Facebook Releases New “Fan Box” Widget to Turn Website Visitors into Facebook Fans Facebook Releases New “Fan Box” Widget to Turn Website Visitors into Facebook Fans (tags: facebook webdesign widgets facebookpages) [...]
July 8th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
It is just an facebook.com/connect iframe. Easy and good. They can add more features later.
July 8th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
[...] Facebook wants you to become a fan with the new “Fan Box” by Dominic Rivera on July 08, 2009 | 0 Comments | News Facebook has released the Fan Box widget that would turn website visitors into fans, Inside Facebook reported. [...]
July 8th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
[...] Unfortunately there is still no API for soliciting fans directly through applications on Facebook. (more…) [...]
July 8th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
i had suggested this 2 months back! “Facebook page wall should be iframe embeddable in any external website”
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/04/20/page-squatting-the-next-challenge-for-facebook-pages/#comment-20651
July 9th, 2009 at 1:58 am
Is it possible to embed the widget in a MySpace page? The javscript doesn’t work of course…
July 9th, 2009 at 2:46 am
[...] | InsideFacebook Condividi questo [...]
July 9th, 2009 at 6:20 am
[...] Facebook Releases New “Fan Box” Widget to Turn Website Visitors into Facebook Fans – Inside Facebook [...]
July 9th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Hilke, I think MySpace scrapes out the JS if I remember correctly.
July 9th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Is this available for group pages?
July 10th, 2009 at 10:08 am
How do you integrate the Fan Box into MySpace? Just tried it 2 different ways but wouldn’t work…any guidance here is appreciated. Thanks
July 13th, 2009 at 9:46 am
[...] created a “Find Us On Facebook” badge which it encourages Page owners to use. The new Fan Box widget for Facebook Pages also includes links back to your Facebook [...]
July 16th, 2009 at 4:43 am
[...] site administrator or website Design Company). Recently Facebook announced about the possibility to embed the Fan Page box easily, which allow becoming Fan without going to Facebook. This is one step forward to the live [...]
July 22nd, 2009 at 7:23 am
I was wondering if someone could help me answer a few questions or at least point this newbie in the right direction. Does the fanbox use persistent cookies? Is the fanbox resizeable? I read the DeveloperWiki but am unsure what/where to find the answers. Please help. Thanks! -Cy
August 24th, 2009 at 7:49 am
I have tried to find the place to add this ‘become a fan’ box and it is nowhere to be found. How do I do it? I read that the link is under the edit the profile area, but nothing is there.
August 24th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
[...] Install a Facebook Blog Widget or Badge | DavidDalka.com More Information About Facebook Widgets: Facebook Releases New “Fan Box” Widget to Turn Website Visitors into Facebook Fans | InsideFaceb… Facebook Dashboard Widget | [...]
August 29th, 2009 at 12:10 am
I am also facing difficulty to add this ‘become a fan’ please need your help.
September 4th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
[...] that stood as the only widget; more recently, teh company has released the Live Stream Box and then the Fan Box. Today with the Widget Center, Facebook has released 2 more widgets, the Photo Badge and Page [...]
September 7th, 2009 at 5:33 am
[...] that stood as the only one; more recently, the company has released the Live Stream Box and then the Fan Box. Today with the new site, Facebook has released 2 more widgets: The Photo Badge and Page Badge. The [...]
September 15th, 2009 at 7:31 am
[...] weeks ago, Facebook launched a new “Fan Box” widget, allowing Page owners to add a widget to any website to turn visitors into Facebook fans. Since [...]
October 21st, 2009 at 8:36 am
I am trying to add the Fan Box widget to my EXISTING page. Everytime I try it wants me to create a new page and I dont want to do that.
Can someone tell me how to add this to my existing facebook page so people can become fans of us.
October 31st, 2009 at 5:29 pm
[...] has also created a “Find Us On Facebook” badge which it encourages Page owners to use. The new Fan Box widget for Facebook Pages also includes links back to your Facebook [...]
November 9th, 2009 at 9:52 am
[...] has also created a “Find Us On Facebook” badge which it encourages Page owners to use. The new Fan Box widget for Facebook Pages also includes links back to your Facebook [...]
November 25th, 2009 at 7:40 am
great information thanx for sharing
January 5th, 2010 at 7:32 am
Any idea why the wordpress widget only appears on the main landing page and not individual posts and pages?
January 7th, 2010 at 12:35 am
I need to know how to let existing and future friends become fans of my existing page before my ‘friends’ reach 5000, which is coming fast! Is this possible?? Please help.
January 25th, 2010 at 9:17 am
@Danielle, I have my fan page link on my personal profile and as I add friends I go to my fan page and use suggest to friends link below pic. I hope this helps.
January 26th, 2010 at 5:05 am
[...] wird diese Fans zur neuen Facebook Fan-Seite führen. Neben Buttons und Texte ist der Einsatz eines Fan-Seiten Widgets überlegenswert – wir haben uns für ein Widget entschieden, damit auf dem ersten Blick die [...]
January 28th, 2010 at 4:21 am
hii ,, i stiiL cnfiuse hoW 2 use apps mingO fOr mY Hp ,, tHanks ,,
January 31st, 2010 at 9:02 am
I read through all of these comments but still do not see clear instructions for adding a Fan Box widget to my nonprofit org. website. I logged into FB, and followed the instructions but they do not work. When I copy/paste my info from FB to my website, all that comes up is the text … not the widget. PLEASE HELP – THIS IS SOOOOOOOOOOOO FRUSTRATING.
February 6th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Looks bad on my wordpress’s template design :(
March 2nd, 2010 at 4:33 am
is it possible to put a fan box for my dj page on facebook onto my own facebook profile and onto event walls that i may be dj’ing at? because ihave tried copying the code and it doesnt turn to a widget it just stays as the code.
someone help!
March 3rd, 2010 at 7:19 am
Sweet widget, Trying to get it through our approval process so I can implement asap. Keep up the great work!
March 16th, 2010 at 9:50 am
Does anyone know how to track how many people have become fans within a certain time period?
March 17th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
You have a really fantastic website! Keep up the good work, I look forward to seeing much more of your posts.
May 9th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
^_^
June 3rd, 2010 at 12:52 am
If any of you are having difficulty finding the page with the Facebook social plug-ins, here it is:
http://developers.facebook.com/plugins
July 14th, 2010 at 8:10 am
Its a massive development IMHO.
July 29th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
Great info and I look forward to ready other usefull information.
January 26th, 2011 at 8:47 am
[...] its search engine ranking. It can be done with text links, a “Find Us On Facebook” badge or a Fan Box widget for Facebook Pages [...]
January 29th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
[...] its search engine ranking. It can be done with text links, a “Find Us On Facebook” badge or a Fan Box widget for Facebook Pages [...]
January 31st, 2011 at 7:35 pm
What if you want to add a fan box like this in a widget to your web site page from someone else’s fan page not your own, Is this possible? Say a page you yourself are a fan of and you want to display recent posts by that fan page on your own website?
April 13th, 2012 at 11:20 am
[...] has also created a “Find Us On Facebook” badge which it encourages Page owners to use. The new Fan Box widget for Facebook Pages also includes links back to your Facebook [...]