Getting the most from Facebook’s Like button

While a growing number of small business websites have integrated Facebook's "Like" button, there are many others who still aren't familiar with it. Few businesses actually understand how to integrate the social feature into their websites in a way that meaningfully benefits them.

As Adobe recently asserted, leveraging the Like button can be a complex process. If entrepreneurs are just copying and pasting HTML code into their websites they aren't optimizing the Like button, and as a result, they don't maximize the benefits of the social feature.

How the Like button works

The Like button serves a variety of purposes and functions. Successfully integrating the feature can provide businesses with a number of benefits as well.

When consumers Like a product or service, the action will be displayed in their News Feed for all of their friends and connections to see. For example, if a shopper Likes a pair of shoes, the user's friends will then be able to see the footwear, an item description and a link to the seller, along with any comments he or she has. This is an effective way to generate both product and brand awareness.

Once a user has Liked a product or company, it will also show up under his or her "Likes" on their profile page. While the action of Liking a product has an expiration date – it will get buried as more users post content to this person's wall – the profile section is timeless, and whenever someone views their interests, they will see that product or brand.

One feature of the Like button that many businesses don't know about is that once a product is Liked, it will also appear in Facebook search. If a customer Liked a certain pair of shoes, whenever another Facebook user types the name of that shoe into the social network's search bar, that it will appear as a result. This is crucial to generating more referral traffic to small business websites.

Finally, once consumers Like a product, it gives the brand the ability to reach them at any moment. Going back to the pair of shoes, a company could reach out to any Facebook user who has Liked the product through News Feed content. For example, if the company launched a similar pair of shoes in a different color, they could update shoppers who have liked the product in the past.

The benefits of the Like button

Several major brands have noticed huge benefits through proper optimization and usage of the Like button.

For example, Levi's was able to boost incoming traffic to its website by 40 percent. Meanwhile, American Eagle observed a 57 percent increase in Facebook referrals. Ticketmaster saw monetary benefits, with the average link from Facebook generating $5.30 worth of sales.

Some small business websites can see even better results. On average, sites that have successfully integrated the Like button have seen 300 percent increases in Facebook traffic.

Clearly, there are strong advantages to using the Like button, but it's an instance of the more entrepreneurs put in, the more they get out. The Like button is an extremely versatile feature but it doesn't generate results on its own – business owners need leverage it proactively.

Do you use Facebook's Like button to promote your products and services? Have you noticed any measurable benefits stemming from the integration of the social source. 

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