The following is an excerpt of entry in our Facebook Marketing Bible. The full version contains a detailed description of how to customize the Like Box in order to get the best results for your organization. 

Facebook’s Like Box lets websites display a Like button for their Facebook Page. When a user clicks this Like Box, they begin seeing the Page’s updates in their news feed, a story is published to their friends, and the Page is put in the Likes section of their profile.

Websites can embed the standard Like button to let users share a particular web page or piece of content, and technically they can publish news feed updates to those that click it. However, the publishing process is complicated and it essentially requires marketers to manage another Page.

Here we’ll discuss why website owners with an existing (and complementary) Facebook Page will get better results by ensuring that the Like button they use on their website — and any other online property — is a Like Box that links directly to their Facebook Page, as opposed to the website itself. We’ll also walk-through how to generate a Like Box and add it to a website.

Introduction to the Like Box

The Like Box is a more valuable addition to websites than the Like button because it lets sites conveniently retain a connection with their visitors through a Facebook Page. Adding standard sharing Like buttons to your site has value too, as clicks produce news feed stories recommending your site, and the button registers your site in Facebook’s internal search bar. For this reason, most websites should display both a Like Box for their Facebook Page and a Like button for sharing each page of their website.

The full version of this article, along with a wide variety of other how-to articles on marketing topics, can be found in the Facebook Marketing Bible, Inside Network’s complete guide to marketing and advertising through Facebook.