San Francisco — In an effort to capture wider audience and create more of a rapport between Facebook Pages and third-party websites, Facebook on Wednesday unveiled a new widget that will compete with MySpace as a platform for celebrities to connect with fans look no further than the just-launched “Fan Box”.
Facebook recently introduced the Live Stream Box, which allows webmasters to connect a real-time social viewing experience on their site. But today it has unveiled something new: the “Fan Box," another social widget that webmasters can employ to integrate the Facebook experience to their site.
The Fanbox, which is a new tool for celebrities, brands, products, companies, and other entities with Facebook “fan pages” to effectively integrate their Facebook presence into their Web sites.
Cyclist Lance Armstrong, Coca Cola, and the (Red) campaign have already added the Fan Box widget to their sites via Facebook Connect.
"If you are not yet connected to their Facebook Page, you can "Become a Fan" directly from their Facebook Fan Box and begin receiving updates on Facebook as well," Facebook Product Manager Mark Kinsey, wrote in a blog post.
"Facebook Page owners can now embed the Fan Box, a Facebook Connect-enabled widget, and activating the function involves merely including a snippet of Javascript code on your website to bring content from their Facebook Page into their site and convert visitors into fans on Facebook," a spokesperson for Facebook said.
Bands and celebrities are becoming very cautious of managing their relationships with fans on sites like MySpace and Facebook. Just the contact information alone is invaluable for most bands. Their online fans are their marketing armies, and smart celebrities want to maintain that relationships and the entire experience. The Facebook Fan Box lets them use Facebook’s ubiquitous sign-in and stream, while drawing fans to their own sites where they can centralize their online presence.
To include the Fan box, simply click "Add Fan Box to your site," which is located below your page’s profile picture. Once you select it, you can choose whether or not you want to include the stream and fans. Further customization options can be found here.
The move comes as Facebook continues to expand its existence beyond its famed blue-and-white walls, while keeping up the pressure with its 200 million-plus user base as an invaluable resource for marketers–especially interesting since brand promotion is something that MySpace once had a lock on in the social-networking world. Moreover, the new widget is doubtlessly of huge importance to musicians and companies who wish to leverage their social media following more effectively.
Additional information on the Fan Box is available here.