How to use Facebook Connect

So you have built your website… You are fairly happy with it… You have updated all the content and put in some nice images. You’ve even done all the hard work ensuring all the keywords and meta tags are appropriate for search engines and are trying your best to keep the blog up-to-date. So now you want to start using social media to try and engage users and drive more traffic to the website. (You have already installed Google Analytics so you know how many visitors you have.)

First thoughts … Facebook.

It almost feels like a football cliché – one game at a time – but given the statistics and the fact Facebook now has over 400 million users it is hard to ignore. By now most of us are quite comfortable in creating a fan page or a profile, but what else can Facebook do that might be useful for your website?

Enter Facebook Connect…

Facebook Connect allows anyone holding a Facebook account to interact with your website and content. It is a rich set of tools that lets you bring Facebook identity and connections to YOUR website and applications. Given the majority of your target market now has a Facebook account this actually makes sense, but what exactly can it do?

Single sign on (a must for any website with a signup/registration process)
In my opinion, this is the most important function of Facebook Connect, as it provides the ability to allow Facebook members to log into your website without having to register. This removes a major barrier of user engagement.

Think of how many times you have been using the internet and thought about asking a question, making a comment, voicing your opinion or contributing to a forum, only to realise you would need to sign up to their website to do so – no thanks! Facebook Connect removes that problem by allowing users who have a Facebook account (nearly all of us) to register and log-in to your site in just two clicks.

Comments
Users comment on your content with their real identity, and bring those conversations back to their friends on Facebook. This is great for increasing exposure as the interaction on your website gets promoted to that user’s friends list.

Live Feeds
Facebook Live Feeds enable your website users to chat live next to your website content. This is not for everybody but definitely could be useful, for example during a new product launch or release where you are expecting a large amount of visitors to your website.

Recent Activity
Facebook Connect allows users to see what their friends have been doing on your site, what they commented on and what content they have uploaded. You even have the ability to make your own version of the Facebook news feed, targeted to your site.

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These are just some of the tools available and there is heaps of information about Facebook Connect and all the things it can do on the Facebook website.

Recent statistics from Facebook indicate that more 80,000 websites have already incorporated this technology and more than 60 million Facebook users engage with Facebook Connect on external websites every month. Setting up these tools properly will most likely require the assistance of your web developer, however the results in increased traffic and communication might just be worth the extra work.

Benjamin Nicoll is a founding partner of GoDigital Media, one of Australia’s best value digital media agencies, which provides up-to-date, affordable products and services for SMEs.