Just a few weeks ago, we stumbled upon a new type of ad format Facebook was testing with specific brands. Today, it looks like Facebook is testing yet another new promotional campaign with a specific subset of brands. Facebook appears to be working with major web publishers to encourage Facebook users to “Like” a web publisher’s page if they share the publisher’s content directly via Facebook.
We came across this new feature today after sharing an article from BuzzFeed. After copying and pasting the link to the article in my Timeline, adding a bit of commentary, and then posting the article, I was prompted with a message asking “Want to see more from BuzzFeed?” beneath my new post. Also directly underneath my new post was a “Like Page” button and the type of pop-up that usually accompanies new features on Facebook inviting me to “Keep up with BuzzFeed”.
After posting blog posts from other major web publishers, it looks like Facebook is working with several of them – as well as a select set of Facebook users – as part of a test to drive more “Likes” for these brands on Facebook. While not all Facebook users are experiencing this new feature, it appears as if many major web publishers, including Forbes, Gawker, AOL-owned properties such as TechCrunch, and of course BuzzFeed are working with Facebook as part of this test.
As this feature is very new, not a lot is known about it, particularly how much publishers are paying for this type of promotion and what benefits they can hope to see from it. By itself the number of “Likes” a Facebook page has is a meaningless metric, but curating likes after a Facebook user has already demonstrated interest and engagement with a brand could indicate that the user is a much more valuable fan, one who is more likely to engage with the brand in the future. And this is data that both the brand and Facebook could use to create more effective marketing campaigns.
If this beta test is effective, it will be interesting to see how – and when – this feature rolls out to all brands that publish content. If you’re a content publisher, or a brand that works with content, what do you think about this potential new Facebook feature? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Author
Becky is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at TUNE. Before TUNE, she handled content strategy and marketing communications at several tech startups in the Bay Area. Becky received her bachelor's degree in English from Wake Forest University. After a decade in San Francisco and Seattle, she has returned home to Charleston, SC, where you can find her strolling through Hampton Park with her pup and enjoying the simple things in life.
I really love this idea. My company admins almost 70 pages. We’re always looking for new ways to drive Page likes higher. Ultimately it seems like clients only care about their “like count”, despite many efforts to explain how the number doesn’t matter to ROI.
I really want to start using this ASAP! I could go on and on about how I think it should be free, and why, but i’ll leave it at this for now. Thanks for the article!
This. This all day long.
Want. Want RIGHT NOW! This is a great feature and one that seems should have launched originally with Open Graph. If my web content or my client’s web content is being shared via means other than my own, I most definitely want my official Page associated with it.
The downside, I guess, is with all these rampant changes to promoted items on the feed, people might automatically dismiss anything even REMOTELY suggestive of action to be spam.
Doh. Great article, thanks for proving I wasn’t crazy when I saw this in my feed.
I don’t think its an ad, or a paid format. Most probably its showing organically based on the users interests and activity maybe…?
I just want to know how it works. Does your site need to have a meta tag that includes a link to your facebook page? Or does it simply use the URL to your site that you configure in your facebook page settings? How do you configure it?
I’m not really sure how this works as it doesn’t seem to have rolled out for all advertisers…
I had a look to about this feature and found it interesting. However i think people are just concerned about the likes and have forgotten what their business is all about. Just by getting likes doesn’t make a company good.
Anybody knows if this feature is now available to everyione or any word from facebook on it?