I was wondering if one could construct a URL for automatically liking a Facebook page. Then this URL could be converted to a QR Code so people can automatically "like" your page by reading it with their smartphone.
I have been searching a lot, but all I could find so far are commercial services like Spotlike, Likify, Social QR Code etc. I don't want a solution that relies on such commercial services.
I am starting to suspect that Facebook has not enabled this possibility for understandable reasons (abuse and such). Still, I was hoping it would be possible to do this somehow, even by just creating my own intermediary service. In the latter case what would be basically required for creating such a service?
EDIT:
I already did try a URL like this: http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http://facebook.com/interlinkONE
This URL (also when encoded as a QR code) did not really give a desirable result on an iPhone, as it showed a blank page with a tiny "like" button that was barely discernible. Also, it did not appear to work even when I attempted to click the "like" button.
Source: http://qreateandtrack.com/2010/10/18/how-to-create-qr-codes-for-the-facebook-like-button/
For a hyperlink just use
www.facebook.com/++page ID++/like
Eg:
www.facebook.com/MYPAGEISAWESOME/like
To make it work with
m.facebook.com
here's what you do:Open the Facebook page you're looking for then change the URL to the mobile URL ( which is
www.m.facebook.com/MYPAGEISAWESOME
).Now you should see a big version of the mobile Facebook page. Copy the target URL of the like button.
Pop that URL into the QR generator to make a "scan to like" barcode. This will open the
m.Facebook
page in the browser of most mobiles directly from the QR reader. If they are not logged into Facebook then they will be prompted to log in and then click 'like'. If logged in, it will auto like.Hope this helps!
Also, definitely include something with a "click here/scan here to like us on Facebook"
I'm not an attorney, but clicking the like button without the express permission of a facebook user might be a violation of facebook policy. You should have your corporate attorney check out the facebook policy.
You should encode the url to a page with a like button, so when scanned by the phone, it opens up a browser window to the like page, where now the user has the option to like it or not.
Have you tried using the fb:// protocol?
To have them like your page when they scan the qr code, it goes like this:
If you need to get the pageID, replace "www" with "graph" in the Facebook url when you visit your page in a desktop browser and it will display the ID and other data.
Not only does this add them automatically, but it opens up the page in the FB app instead of the mobile browser.
As far as legality, I would assume as long as you put something like "Scan to like our page", you're in the clear. They know what they're getting into.
The answers above seem partly outdated.
The URL builder on https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/like-button/ worked nicely for me.
You can configure, preview and the get the code/URL in different flavors: HTML5, XFBML, IFRAME, URL
In my opinion, it is not possible for the like button (and I hope it is not possible).
But, you can trigger a custom OpenGraph v2 action, or display a like button linked to your facebook page.
This has changed, it's now fb://profile/(profileID)