How can I create an "Add Me" Facebook button on my site?

I know you've written about how to create an "add me" button for MySpace, but, um, I'm not on MySpace, I'm on Facebook. is there some way to build or hack together an "add me" button for Facebook to add to my site instead? Thanks.

Dave's Answer:

That's an interesting question, and generally my answer would be "no" because Facebook has put a lot of effort into creating its own universe, generally one that's not easily reached from the rest of the Internet at large.

However, a colleague (thanks Trent Urbanski) gave me a little tip on how to reverse engineer just this sort of thing so let me share it with you so you too can create a nice "let's connect on Facebook" button for your blog or Web site...

The first thing you need to do is figure out your numeric account ID on Facebook.

The fastest way I know to get this information is to click on "Profile" on the top menu of your Facebook home page:

Now scroll down a bit and you'll see your "Friends" box:

Turns out that the link that shows you how many friends you have includes your Facebook account ID number, as you can see here:

You can simply copy that link with a Cmd-Click (or Right-Click) and paste it into an edit buffer to extract the numeric value. Mine account ID is 500501552 as you can see.

Now here's the hacking part: the link you want to create looks like this:

http://www.facebook.com/addfriend.php?id=yourID

For me, for example, it'd be:

http://www.facebook.com/addfriend.php?id=500501552

To make it into a button, simply wrap it in some rudimentary HTML:

That code looks like this in action:

Tweak and modify to your hearts content, and enjoy!

I'd also like to let you know that I have quite a bit of Facebook help here on the site and that I also have an Ask Dave Taylor Facebook Fan Page that I invite you to join.

More Useful Facebook Help Articles:

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I saw your article from a while back about blocking Coasterville notifications on Facebook and was wondering if you had a shortcut or...

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✔ How do I permanently block CoasterVille on Facebook?

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Let's stay in touch!

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Categorized: Facebook Help (Article 9039, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: facebook, facebook add me, facebook fan page, facebook friend
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Reader Comments To Date: 12

yomibalogun said, on August 17, 2009 12:43 PM:

Thanks for that wonderful solution.

rinul said, on February 26, 2010 10:06 PM:

intresting

sima said, on March 1, 2010 10:11 AM:

thanks for sharing this information with us

sunny said, on May 5, 2010 9:59 AM:

sir, please tell me how to add the themes in asp.net form. As we can inhernt the many forms with master page but a different scheme to got that work so that the website looks good and help me to got some effects in the website using asp.net

james said, on May 9, 2010 5:40 PM:

this one will add a button so they can send you a message on FB as well, thought I'd add that just took a min of experimenting to figure that one out

Steven said, on June 9, 2010 2:51 AM:

Or you can also try this method...also has the "Add as friend" button...

http://www.bloganol.com/2010/03/facebook-click-add-friend-button.html

Emma Wanjiku said, on September 9, 2010 8:03 AM:

Works very well thanks for the info

Sougata said, on January 7, 2011 2:27 PM:

Sir, i'm having problem with the buffer editor as i can't get one for getting the code... i also use the new facebook profile... so please help. also tell me how to make the html code.... :-((

ian said, on July 29, 2011 6:52 PM:

thanks friend

Marco Nunez said, on October 1, 2011 5:58 PM:

Hi, I search the account ID and with the new changes in FB I don't see any number, only this:
http://www.facebook.com/MAN.Marco.Nunez?sk=friends&v=friends
Is there is another way????

Thanks!

Khiem said, on August 26, 2012 10:56 PM:

Go here for instructions to find your ID: http://www.ehow.com/how_5753004_facebook-id.html

But basically click on "Photos" in your profile and your ID number should show up in the address bar at the top. It should be something like... "photo.php?fbid=" and then a bunch of numbers. That's your ID.

Thanks for this. However, when I tested the button, facebook just gives me a warning box on their page:

Warning
The website directing you here was not a Facebook page. If you entered your Facebook login information on the previous site, you will need to change your password.

earl komts said, on April 14, 2013 10:04 PM:

Thank you for your tutorials. Keep posting such useful information. Keeps a lot of our computers humming along...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

How can I create an "Add Me" Facebook button on my site?

Reader Comments To Date: 12

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

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