How to add a Facebook Like widget to your child care website

You have your Facebook page for your child care business created – but how do you let everyone who visits your website know that you have it and how do you get them to connect with it? Add a Facebook “Like” widget to your website!

A Facebook Like widget allows a business to feature their Facebook link, “Like” button and live feed on their own business website.  This means that someone can “Like” your Facebook business page directly on your business website, without having to leave your website.  It will increase exposure for your Facebook page and allow your site visitors to easily and quickly connect with your Facebook page. Once they’ve “Liked” your business page, they will then see your Facebook posts on their news feed – an excellent way to keep your business in front of your customers!

Here’s how you go about adding the widget to your website…

Facebook has recently updated their “Like Box” social plugin.  The newest scripts are HTML5 friendly – which means that any browser that supports it (desktops, mobile devices, tablets, etc) will be able to see this feature. You would start by going to this link:
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/like-box-for-pages

Next, type in your Facebook Page link into the first box and if you have any specific height or width specifications, fill those in.  (I find the widget works best when you leave the defaults sizes.)  You can check/uncheck the boxes to add your live news feed, faces of people who like your page, etc. When you have your widget looking the way you want it, click on the “Get Code” button and make sure the HTML5 link is highlighted in the upper left corner of the pop-up window.  Now, what to do with those 2 pieces of code…

The first piece of code needs to be inserted into the HTML code of every page that you want the widget to appear on, right after the opening <body> tag.  If you don’t have access to this area via your website content management system, copy and paste this code into a .txt file and send it to your web developer to add.

The second piece of code should be pasted into the HTML code exactly where you want it to appear on your website.  Most popular website content management systems allow you to access the HTML code for your content area but again, if you aren’t comfortable doing this yourself, just send this code in another .txt file to your web developer and let them know where you would like it to appear.

Once it’s installed you should test on your desktop, smart phone and tablets to make sure it appears the way you want.  Then just sit back and watch your “Likes” increase on Facebook!