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likes on facebook button lets your site visitors share your content with their friends on Facebook. When the visitor clicks the Like button on your site, a story appears in the user's friends' News Feed with a link back to your website. This is a good way of publicising your site (but it goes without saying that you must have good content that people actually like).

If, like me, you use Google Sites/Apps, then you will find that the Google HTML editor does not allow you to use the code provided by Facebook. You will see an error message like this:

"Your HTML either contains unsafe tags (iframe, embed, styles, script) or extra attributes. They will be removed when the page is viewed."

The workaround is to use a gadget called "Code wrapper" which has been written by a guy called Mori who is a guru on all things Google and shares his expertise with others without expecting anything in return.

Here is how you do it.

First go to Facebook to pick up their official code for the Like button. Enter the requested information into the form. Don't forget to include http:// in front of your web address, otherwise it won't work. Click on the Get Code button and copy the code.

Facebook provides you with 2 types of code, xfbml or iframe. I discovered that my iPad wouldn't show the gadget which used the xfbml code, so I have stuck to iframes for my own website.

Next go to your Google Site:

Select Edit Page for the page that you want to insert the Facebook Button into.

Place your cursor on the spot in the page where you want to insert the Button.

From the menu bar click on Insert and then More gadgets.

A search box appears. Type in code wrapper and an icon for the code wrapper gadget will appear. Click on this icon and then select it.

Paste the code that you had copied from the Facebook page into the titled Embed Code.

Select the size of the window that you want to display. This depends on the type of the button that you have selected. I have used 80x20 pixels for the "button-count" option.

Make sure that the check boxes for showing the title and scroll bars are not ticked.

That's it. Once you save the page, the Facebook button appears and works like a dream.

Fash Darabi is the managing director of Da Londra, an information portal for well-to-do Italians who visit London for shopping and purchase of new cars. Da Londra utilises Google Sites and all the other facilities that Google provides for small businesses. When in Italy Fash stays at Villa 3 Colli which can be found on:

Facebook likes pages enable small businesses to compete toe to toe with large corporations, if not in scope, then definitely in potential for exposure with its over 500 million members. If you have yet to explore Facebook's strengths as a platform for marketing, promotion and customer engagement for your small business, then here are a few things you need to look into.

What Can a Business Do with a Facebook Like Page?

With Facebook's latest enhancements on like pages, the line between personal and business-oriented social networking just got fuzzier. More than ever before, building a page for your business is a cost-effective and practical measure to reach out to both existing and future customers, build loyalty and interact with them in ways much like you would with Facebook friends on your personal account.

For example, you can augment your marketing efforts by developing an audience and growing their familiarity, trust and preference for your offerings. Using your page as the official platform for introducing your latest products or services is also easier by using Facebook's robust photo hosting tools, events creation, notes, discussion areas and many other features. Getting honest and immediate feedback are made possible through comments, wall posts, fan reviews and likes. You can do market research, extend your customer service lines, provide valuable content, network with complementary businesses and even directly engage in e-commerce.

What Do You Want To Do?

Increasingly, the question with regard to Facebook like pages is what activities, among many, should you aim your focus on. Certainly, not all the activities mentioned above can and should be applied to your business page just because it's possible. As a small business, you may not necessarily have the luxury of an in-house design team or retained agency, robust server resources to host your Facebook content, and dedicated staff to monitor and moderate your page round the clock.

These limitations underscore the need to sit down for a bit and identify what you want to get out of it so you don't waste time and resources by trying everything just to see what sticks. Define your focus and stick to it, until it's time to reevaluate and expand further.

How Do You Develop An Audience?

A Facebook like page is much like a TV show where ratings and audience involvement are crucial success factors. In short, you'll want to get as many likes as you can for your Facebook page and keep them engaged. These likers are your audience, and every time they go to your wall or see your posts on their Facebook streams, they need to see the page's value and benefit to them. To get to the point where you get a high number of fans posting messages on your wall, liking your posts, and participating on discussion threads takes some time and considerable effort on your part, especially for a small or localized business.

However, this doesn't necessarily mean back-breaking and wallet-raiding efforts. Many tools are already available and provided for free by Facebook to get you started. Direct your focus on enhancing your page to include rich content and features such as videos, contact and order forms, fan exclusives and a great-looking and enticing landing page, also known as a reveal tab. These things are possible with custom Facebook pages, which you can create on your own with some software and a web hosting account.