Facebook and site developers/promoters as well as those keen on social networking for their business/band were excited to learn of the launch of “fanboxes” to drive traffic directly to their Facebook professional service page. Now, people wishing to take advantage of their social network and drive traffic to become their fans have a much simpler/easier process for doing this. In the past, you had to say “Log-in to Facebook, search for [company name], and from the results look for the one that has our logo and says ‘professional service’ below it.” Next Monday, Facebook will remove the restrictions on adding usernames to Pages. But Wednesday, they’ve announced the Fanbox:

Over 8 million users become fans of Facebook Pages every day to connect with their favorite public figures and organizations and get updates directly in their streams. Now, users can connect with brands, musicians, celebrities, businesses, and more, whether they’re on or off Facebook.

Today, we’re excited to launch the Fan Box, a Facebook Connect-enabled social widget that Page owners can add to their websites to allow users to fan and view the accompanying Facebook Page stream. With the Fan Box, brands can bring content from their Facebook Page into their website and help convert website visitors into Facebook fans. Users can view the most recent posts from the Page, see a list of other fans (including their friends), and, most importantly, become a fan without leaving the site. Additionally, if a user visits the site and isn’t logged in to Facebook, the user can log in and become a fan directly inline as well.

I’ve been tinkering with the idea of putting together a tutorial to teach [d]online readers how to implement a Fanbox into their site. If this is something you might be interested in reading, please drop a few comments and I’d be happy to oblige. If there isn’t much interest, I’ll go to Coney Island instead. Ta!