There are a couple of ways to add a Facebook Like button to your WordPress blog. You can use a plugin, or you can use the code available on the Facebook Like Button developer page.
With the second option you will have to know how to edit the single.php file to get it to work. Editing that file can be a bit tricky if you don’t know your way around it.
I have tried both methods and preferred the plugin option. It is much easier to implement.
There are a number of Facebook Like plugins around that will do the job. If you search the WordPress plugin database you will find at least 20 to choose from. I tried two of them. The second one I tried does the job perfectly.
1) Facebook iLike WordPress plugin by Tierra Innovation
I installed this one a while ago but never got round to setting it up. I tested it again and although it works well, it left a large white space under the button and before the post content. This is due to the size of the iframe it uses. The default setting is 80px, and although there is an option to change this, it didn’t work on all pages and I don’t know why. On some pages the white space appeared, and on other pages it didn’t. As it was too unpredictable, I decided to remove it and look for an alternative.
2) FaceBook Like Button Plugin for WordPress by Dean Peters
When I am looking for a plugin I will nearly always go with the crowd. A high star rating and numerous personal ratings will always win me over.
Most of the other Facebook plugins have only three stars (which is quite low for a WordPress plugin). This one has four.
The great thing about this plugin is it will work straight out of the box. All you have to do is set the options that apply to the way you want to use it. The button can be used on posts and pages and it can go before or after the content. It can also be used on your home page.
In the Facebook Like Button Display Parameters box you alter the settings to change the way the button looks. Any changes made are immediately visible, but not live until you hit the save button. You can see in the screen-shot below that I have set the default font to Verdana (rather than Arial). I have left everything else in the default state as people are familiar with the look of the button.
If you are going to use a Facebook like button on your blog I highly recommend this plugin.
Plugin HomePage | WordPress.org Download Page
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Thanks for the review, this is something I have been meaning to do but never got around to. I will add this one next to my TweetMeMe plugin and see if I can get myself a piece of the Facebook pie!
Thanks for the comment, Thomas. They say Facebook is the future and for a long time it has been apparent that recommendations will become just as important as search, perhaps even more so.
Great ways to add the Facebook Like button to WordPress.
Personally, I use the Digg Digg plugin that has the Facebook Like button built in to it’s list of sharing buttons to display on your blog.
Thanks for sharing these other great options though.
Blog Angel a.k.a. Joella recently posted..Blogging Platform That Lets You Be Your Own Blog Designer
It’s going to be interesting to see if the button ever gets used! A stats page would be a good addition to the plugin.
Hello everybody.
You could also try our Plugin if you want to add a Like-Button-Plugin-For-WordPress to your blog :)
Here are some features of our plugin:
* Plugin is available in English and in German
* the Button can be individualy created for every site or one button for the whole blog
* you can exclude sites which won’t get a like button
* individual button position (before/after the content)
* add all available OpenGraph Meta-Tags
* you can individually design your Like-Button with css (css-Class)
* our Like-Button-Generator makes it even more easier for you to create a Like Button
* Analyse your Blog: Analyse the activity of your visitors and their likes
* Use iFrame or XFBML-Button (with share and comment functionality)
* use a shortcode to insert the like-Button
* create a Like-Button Sidebar-Widget (also individual Like-Button for every Site/Post or one Like-Button for the whole site.
* Live Support in our Forum and FanPage
* and many more (read more in our wiki or Changelog)
* easily connect your Facebook-Account, Fanpage or Application with the Like-Button on your blog
Get it now :) we would appreciate it.
thank you.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/like-button-plugin-for-wordpress/
Thanks for letting us know about your plugin.