Like Button Best Practices

I have some questions about the new Facebook Like button developers are now able to add to websites. I know how to implement it, but how is it supposed to be used? Should each of my blog posts have both a Like button and a Share button?

I’m the head web developer for four websites (including my personal site) and a contributing developer for one other site. Facebook has been making a lot of work for me lately. They recently changed the way outside sites connect with its services. They announced the eventual shutdown of Facebook Connect, the existing protocol, in favor of a new JavaScript SDK that makes heavy use of the Like button through social plugins. Strangely, there isn’t a Share button social plugin that runs on the new SDK. You still have to use Facebook Connect for that feature.

But here’s the real kicker: a website cannot run Facebook Connect and the JavaScript SDK at the same time. Trust me, I’ve tried. So did the good people over at AllFacebook, and they came to the same conclusion. Developers must choose between the new Like button and the existing Share button.

(Yes, I know you can have both running simultaneously if you use iframes. That’s how Mashable has both running on their site. I’m assuming the use of XFBML, which offers a richer user experience. Also, the unofficial Share button by fbShare.me works fine while running alongside the new Like button. I’m assuming the use of the official Share button.)

Initially I assumed that Facebook must be phasing out Share all together in favor of Like. I started poking around the documentation for Facebook’s Open Graph protocol. (Everything with a Like button has a place on Facebook’s social graph. Developers can designate certain information on their end so it appears on Facebook the way they want.) At the very bottom of that documentation there’s a section called “Best Practices.” Bullet number two is very interesting.

Make only real-life things into objects. Users don’t want news articles and other transient content as objects on their profile.

Wait a minute. Sounds like Facebook doesn’t want developers to use the Like button for individual posts and news articles, but rather for blogs and sites as a whole. With this definition you might be able to get away with adding a Like button to a category within a blog or maybe a type of news on a news site (example: “[Facebook user] likes World News on CNN.com.”), but that’s about it.

So here’s my big question. If Facebook itself claims not to want to use the Like button as the new Share button when it comes to “transient content,” why would they leave the existing Share button out in the cold under their new JavaScript SDK?

I sent this question along to AllFacebook. Nick O’Neill, their lead writer, messaged me back saying it was a good catch and that there would be a post on their site about it soon. My site isn’t exactly a bustling thoroughfare of activity, so with any luck they can take my question and start up a good conversation.

Update

The above-mentioned “bullet number two” has been removed from the Open Graph protocol best practices page. Also, the “Object Types” have been updated. Under “Websites” there is now a third option called “Articles” that was not present when I originally posted this entry. Facebook explains:

Use article for any URL that represents transient content – such as a news article, blog post, photo, video, etc. Do not use website for this purpose. website and blog are designed to represent an entire site, an og:type tag with types website or blog should usually only appear on the root of a domain.

This update has thoroughly answered my concerns over the Facebook Like button, though it would still be nice if the Share button was compatible with the JavaScript SDK.