Love it or hate it, Facebook is getting bigger and bigger. There is no sign of stopping or even slowing down its success on the Internet. Small businesses are a hot target for Internet companies right now, and Facebook has just joined the battle.

If you want to know how your business can leverage Facebook for word of mouth marketing – read on!

Facebook marketing is now bigger than ever and it isn’t limited to Facebook any more, it now integrates with the whole world wide web.

One of the features Facebook offers is a “like” button with which people can share things they like on Facebook – typically photos or status updates of their friends. Well, the world for Facebook and the “like” button just got a whole lot bigger.

Websites can now integrate their very own “like” button (a feature that was limited to Facebook up to now)and share external content across Facebook. The way this works is that your website integrates with Facebook and lets visitors know who else likes your website.

Let me give you some examples

Red Bull’s Website

Have a look at the website of the energy drink company Red Bull. You can see a Facebook box on the right hand side. On the top there is a “like” button that visitors can click and when they do this, a story will show on their Facebook news feed – and all their Facebook friends will be able to see that they just became a fan of Red Bull.

Think about what a “like” button could do to your business. Your existing customers will spread the word about your business to their friends on auto pilot – you don’t need to do anything. Some web sites that have implemented the “like” button over the last couple of weeks have reported an increase in web site traffic of 20%!

Additionally, Red Bull have also connected their website to their Facebook fan page and show updates of their fan page on their web site. This is a great way to engage with customers who don’t visit the fan page. They can now read Facebook stories on the Red Bull web site and get even more connected.

The Home Depot

Have a look at The Home Depot who are doing very similar things with their website.

Movie Site IMDB

However, this isn’t where the Facebook integration stops. Not only can you tie the “like” button to your web site, you can in fact link it to individual products or items. A great example is the movie site IMDB, where Facebook fans can “like” movies, such as “The Prestige”. Imagine the traffic you may generate to your web site when your Facebook fans “like” one of your products.

Levi Jeans Online Store

A great show case of how this works is the online store of Levi’s Jeans. Every single jeans product has its own “like” button and also shows how many other people like those jeans. Imagine each of your products getting viral word of mouth exposure on Facebook!

LIFE Magazine

Another example what Facebook allows you to do can be seen at LIFE magazine. Each of their photos has a Facebook comment box where Facebook visitors can comment on the photos – which in turn are shown on their Facebook news feeds.

Accessing the marketing power of Facebook integration on your website

The possibilities Facebook offers are fantastic, but there is a downside. While Facebook has instructions on how to set up all these new features, you need to know a little bit of Facebook and web site coding to make the magic happen. You may need to hire a website developer to make those changes for you, but the Facebook integration shouldn’t cost much more than an ad in your local newspaper – and may even be cheaper.

If you have any great ideas how these new Facebook features could add value to your web site why not leave a comment below?

Introducing today’s guest blogger

This is a guest blog by Christian Stock of Acoune Web Design who build web sites that turn your visitors into customers. They specialise in growing your business with online marketing tools.  Email Christian to enquire about integrating Facebook with your website.