Facebook Releases New "Fan Box" Widget to Turn Website Visitors into Facebook Fans

In a move to increase the power of Facebook Pages, Facebook has just released a new widget that allows brands and businesses to share status updates from their Facebook Page - and get new Facebook fans - on any website. The new "Fan Box" widget, built on Facebook Connect, allows Page owners to put a piece of their Facebook Page anywhere on the web. Facebook says the Fan Box widget is designed to help convert website visitors into Facebook fans. It's a smart move by Facebook to make it easier for brands and businesses to encourage more of their customers to become fans of their Facebook Pages. "Users can view the most recent posts from the Page, see a list of other fans (including their friends), and, most importantly, become a fan without leaving the site," Facebook Product Manager Mark Kinsey says. "Additionally, if a user visits the site and isn't logged in to Facebook, the user can log in and become a fan directly inline as well." In other words, users can authenticate themselves to the widget using Facebook Connect in order to become Facebook fans without leaving your page. Later, when logging into Facebook, fans will see your updates in their stream just as they would any other Page they had become a fan of inside Facebook.com. How should the new widget be implemented? For many brands and businesses, the new widget can be integrated into sections of your site where fans and customers already go to get news and updates, akin to an email newsletter subscription or RSS feed. For example, here's how it looks live on LanceArmstrong.com: Or, if your campaign is designed to drive more fans of your Facebook page, the new widget could obviously play a more important role in your website. See more Fan Box integrations here: Kings of Leon, Lenny Kravitz, Roger Federer, ABC News, National Public Radio, Newsweek, World Wildlife Fund, (RED), Coca-Cola, Tide, Herbal Essences and Blackberry. Page administrators can add the Fan Box to their site by adding a JavaScript code snippet. Just click on "Add Fan Box to your site" underneath your Page's profile picture. You can then choose whether you want to include both a stream of recent posts and a list of fans, as well as the dimensions of the box. The minimum width for the widget is 200px, and height can range up to 554px with all the options included. More details are on the Developer Wiki.

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Facebook Releases New "Fan Box" Widget to Turn Website Visitors into Facebook Fans

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