How To Add Facebook Connect To Your Blog

March 19, 2009 By 46 Comments

The Easy Way To Integrate The Viral Power Of Facebook Into Your Blog

This blog post will show you how you can integrate the viral power of Facebook Connect  with your  wordpress blog without touching a single bit of code. Its done by using a neat plugin created by Spanish blogger Javier Reyes Most people get put off by mentions of API keys and messing with the code on their webpages. Luckily I stumbled upon this cool plugin that does all the work for you. If you follow each step carefully you will be up and running in no time Even if you don’t have a wordpress blog, make sure you scroll to the bottom of this post where I will be explaining exactly how I will be using Facebook connect to initiate social activity and get immense viral exposure. Click here to download the Facebook Connect WordPress plugin http://www.sociable.es/facebook-connect/ socialble Take a few minutes to watch the tutorial video that explains the features of this plugin The next video gives an explanation of how to install this plugin and set up your API code After you have downloaded the plugin to your computer you need to go to your blog and upload the file into your wp-content/plugins/ folder, you can do this by FTP or by going into the backend of your website if you have CPanel hosting. Now login to the admin panel of your wordpress blog, I am using Wordpess 2.7  in this example, your screen might look slightly different if you are using earlier versions. Go to your plugins and activate the Facebook connector plugin plugins Now in your settings menu open Facebook connector you should have this screen visible facebookconnectorsettings

Get Your Facebook API Code

This plugin is an easy way for you to create your own Facebook application unique to your  blog. In order for it to function you will need a Facebook developers account and obtain your Facebbook API key and Facebook API secret. These are just codes so Facebook can give you access to the user data that will be transferred to your blog. In a new browser window login to your Facebook account and scroll down to the very bottom of your profile page. developers developers-appp developer-app2 develeper-app3 Now enter the name of your new application, agree  to the terms of service and click save. createapplication Now you have been given your API Key and API Secret, you need to copy and paste these numbers into your wordpress plugin settings editwordpressplugin Now open the Connect tab and enter the URL of your blog. connectsettings Scroll to the bottom of the page and click save remembertosave In another browser window,  copy and paste your API key and API secret into your Facebook Connector Options; check the boxes to allow full functionality on your blog connectoroptions Scroll down to create the message template; if you want to customize the messages you can  edit the text in the boxes commenttemplate After you have clicked create template the plugin should have two yellow boxes at the top indicating that everything is now functioning You can now place a widget on your sidebar so your blog visitors can login and interact with your blog. Any comments they make will be posted directly to their Facebook profile widgets drag and drop the widget to your required position and adjust its settings widgetoptions remebertosave Your Facebook connect plugin should now be fully functioning. Go to your blogs homepage and check everything is working The sidebar widget  should look something like this widgetlong Click on the Connect with Facebook  button and start interacting loggingin Now you can invite all your friends to come and visit your blog and more importantly all your visitors can  invite all their friends too inviteyourfriends

Social Interaction Goes Viral

What does all this social activity mean,  and how is it going to help you? As an example I am going to see how much activity I can generate from this blog post using a variety of means.  Immediately after I publish this post I am going to go to go and invite 16 of my friends to come and visit my blog post using the friend connect widget. I am going to ask those 16 people to  invite 16 of their friends to come and see this post too. I hope to start a viral chain reaction that will impact into Facebooks newsfeed.

Syndication

My blog is syndicated to my Twitter account and to my Facebook profile so as soon as it gets published a tweet will get sent and the full RSS feed will be imported as a Facebook note. The next day I am going to go to my Facebook note and tag a further 30 people in this note. I am going to ask people to give it a thumbs up or to press the share button It’s a fine balance when doing this kind of thing, Only people who have wordpress blogs will be  really interested in this post, but I hope other people will want to see the real viral power of Friend Connect in action

Using Groups

Once  I have some impact in Facebooks newsfeed I am going to send a message to my Facebooks groups, inviting them to learn about Facebook Connect. I hope that some of my other friends who have big groups will do same.

Become An Early Adopter

There is a huge advantage to becoming an early adopter of the community building tools like Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect. You have the potential to take your friends with you wherever you go on the web. So if you see a great blog post you can leave a comment  and it will go straight into your newsfeed for your friends to see. Bloggers can expect more traffic to be circulating back and forth from social sites like Facebook opening up a huge potential of viral social interaction.

How Viral Is Facebook?

With your help we can find out; only by testing new strategies can we discover what their limitations are and how much exposure they bring. I will be tracking the results and monitoring the newsfeed and comments on this blog. Of course I am taking a big risk because I might end up  annoying some people,  I am willing to do this because I see there is a huge potential available and I love sharing with my online community

What  You Can Do Now

1.    If you are on my blog http://www.iandavidchapman.com you can sign in to Facebook Connect and leave a comment 2.    If you are on Facebook reading this you can leave a comment either in the newsfeed or at the bottom of this note. If you like the post click the share button at the top. or give it a thumbs up.  You can visit my blog to see the plugin in action by clicking on this link http://www.iandavidchapman.com 3.    If you have a wordpress blog you can follow this tutorial and get started right away. For those who are technically challenged and don’t know how to add new plugins  get your webmaster to do all this for you. Implementation is the key.  Come back and leave a comment in this thread so other people reading this post can visit your blog and share it with their friends. 4.    If you have any friends who have a wordpress blog  or might be interested in Facebook Connect you can invite them to come and see this post, by clicking on the Invite Your Friends button on the Connect Widget 5.    If you are Google Friend Connect user why not join my site at the same time. Feel free to leave a comment in the social bar at the bottom of the page. Thanks for taking the time to read this article, I hope you got some benefit from it and choose to help me in my experiment to prove that Facebook Connect is worth taking seriously. If you experience any problems with this plugin please contact the developers and read all the comment threads carefully,  making sure you have completed all the requires steps. Ian David Chapman
Filed Under: facebook, Popular Posts, social media marketing, Viral Marketing, web 3.0 Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Facebook Notes – 10 Steps To Writing A Winning Post

August 19, 2008 By 16 Comments

Facebook Notes – A New Strategy To Get Viral Visibility

Many of you have probably observed the increase in the number of Facebook Notes that are floating around these days. This has happened since the introduction of the new look Facebook. More people are becoming aware of the potential to gain massive viral exposure by writing notes and participating in discussions . They have also been responsible for bringing many people much closer together and creating a real sense of community



Build Solid Relationships

These are much more than just social events, or blog posts to get traffic or publicity, most people who are taking part are actively using Facebook for business and by exposing themselves with such honesty and transparency they are building real connections and solid relationships with all the other participants.

What is most interesting is the depth that some of the discussions are reaching and when posed with a stimulating question or issue to address the original post acts as a springboard to dive into and explore each topic.



Increase The Value Of Each Note

The value of the Note increases as more people add their own personal insights.The way Facebook have structured the system it forces the most popular notes to the top of your newsfeed so there is a huge potential to get massive exposure for yourself or your business if you understand some of the basic principles behind writing a good note and spotting the ones that are going to become popular.



1 – Choose A Controversial Topic And Get Personal

Sometimes this is the hardest thing to get right,  follow other notes and see if there is a theme emerging that you can write about. If you are stuck for ideas pick something that is happening in the world and reflect on its impact or the lessons that can be learned or find a quote or article from your favourite author and add your own personal understanding. Getting personal is the key to successful Facebook notes. All the best ones I have read have revealed something interesting about the author, this creates a real bonding and sense of intimacy.



2 – Write A Short Punchy Article That Ends With A Question

This will stimulate people to respond. If your note becomes too long and convoluted you will lose your readers. Consider breaking a long note into a series of shorter ones. Most people don’t have the time to read a 3000 word essay. The Blog Squad talk about the 4 E’s – Engage, Entertain, Educate and Enrich. Make sure your note ticks these 4 boxes.



3 – Keep To The Point, Make It Short And Sweet

Don’t ramble and discuss 2 or 3 different subjects in one note, this will confuse people. Keep it short and sweet. Respect your readers time, edit your note down and only include what is absolutely essential to get your point across. You can always add more later in the comments section



4 – Make Your Note Attractive

this means have good formatting, use subheads and break your note into manageable chunks. Pictures make the note more visually appealing and can give your note a stickiness factor.



5 – Tag People Who Want To Participate

Its no use tagging all your friends who are too shy to write something or are too busy to even read the note. Tag the people who you know like to participate and are regular commentators. Some people also like to tag those people who have big networks or who are centres of influence. This works well as long as what you write is appropriate and as long as you feel you have permission to do this . Not everyone wants you to use their wall and their newsfeed to spread your message so be respectful and consider asking permission first.



6 – Release Your Note At The Optimum Time

I have noticed that for my network, Facebook activity drops over the weekend, and is highest during the weekdays.  Its up to you to know your own network and when the peaks of activity are as it may vary considerably. Get the timing wrong and your note will get pushed down the newsfeed and no one will notice it.



7 – Comment On Your Own Note and Participate

Always get into the habit of commenting on your own notes and refer back to what other people have written. Become a regular participant in other peoples notes. Build a reputation as someone who adds value and always has something interesting to say, if you do this then other people will start to tag you in their notes. Which will increase your viral visibility.



8 – Press The Share Button

Sharing is a way to vote up the best quality discussions and expose them to the widest possible audience. The note will be posted to your profile page and will also be pushed out into all your friends newsfeeds. Pressing the share button because you feel obliged to reciprocate isn’t a good strategy. You will not build a reputation as someone to follow and pay attention to if you spread poor quality articles and information. Press it because it has added some value and you think your friends will appreciate it.



9 – Use Feedback and Build on Success

You know when you have written a good note by how many comments you receive and how many people press the share button. This is important feedback and it’s a valuable exercise to look at your notes and work out what elements made one note more popular than another. This way you can build on your success and continually strive to improve. My article “If Your Headline Sucks No One Will Listen“ was a good example of this process. If you write a note and no one comments go over this checklist and see what areas you could improve upon.



10 – End With A Call To Action

Invite your readers to your Blog or Website, To follow you on Twitter or to check out your latest book. Ask them in a casual conversational manner in the same style as the rest of your note. Suddenly switching to a hard sell might create a disconnect and you might come across as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This is also the case if you have too many outbound links to your own products and services. By all means include them but keep them to a minimum and be subtle about how you present them. If you comment on a note and just promote yourself without really taking part in the discussion you will might get viral visibility but it will be for the wrong reasons.



I  go into much more depth about Facebook notes in my book, The Facebook Strategies Guide available from http://www.thefacebookguide.com



If you have enjoyed this article you  might want to consider subscribing to my full RSS feed. and join my Facebook Fan Page – http://www.budurl.com/idcfbp



You can also find me on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/iandavidchapman

Filed Under: copywriting, email persuasion, facebook, Popular Posts, Viral Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,