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I have a new site/app going live next week (or somewhere close). I know there will be a relatively small (15,000?) very dedicated group of people on Facebook who will be very likely to be interested in the site, so I know I need Facebook integration of some kind.

I won't be doing Facebook logins or pulling/posting to profiles yet, but I plan to...

The question:

  • Do I just do a Facebook "Page" for now? This is faster/easier to set up and seems a little less buggy.. and then migrate to a Facebook App later?

    or

  • Do I create a "Facebook App" (with the api key/id/secret, etc.) now even if I'm doing nothing but using the "like" button. This means I don't have any migration later and I can use the javascript api to log "like" button clicks to Google Analytics, etc.

Thoughts? Experiences? Is there a migration process to move your old Page users to your new "App"? What's the advantages / disadvantages of each.

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I've never done this, so I could be talking through my hat, but if you're going live next week, odds are you can't get a worthwhile Facebook app out - it's not part of your core business, and you have more urgent things to attend to. In your situation, I'd create a Facebook page, and on it, mention that the App is coming and that you would welcome suggestions for it.

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  • I don't mean a full-blown "Facebook App" I mean... registering the website as an app in order to get an API key. As mentioned here... developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/web
    – Jay Stevens
    Commented Jun 5, 2011 at 9:47
  • I still can't see why you need that immediately...
    – James McLeod
    Commented Jun 5, 2011 at 21:04
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In order to get as much use as possible from the Facebook Javascript SDK, it made the most sense to go ahead and register an "Application" even though I am just doing a website. My site has multiple pages that actually represent "real world objects" and so integrating with the Open Graph Protocol made sense.

I have individual "Like" buttons on each of these pages. Since my users are now using the "Like" button with the og:tags with my appID, I will be able to (in the future) programmatically send updates via the API to those users who liked those pages.

Just went live yesterday, so we'll see how it goes. 40 new visitors with one "Like" ain't too bad I guess.

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Create a Facebook App if you plan to integrate Facebook login/register/comments into your application in the near future. I would recommend to use the Facebook Javascript SDK to set up your Like button and other facebook widgets for your site.

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