Yesterday, Facebook announced that it was testing a new feature for content publishers with Facebook pages. The new “Stories to Share” button reveals content that Facebook recommends for posting from the publishers website.
For example, if the Facebook page admin for TIME clicked on “Stories to Share,” it would then reveal several recommended stories from the TIME.com website that Facebook thinks would be the best ones to post. These stories can then be posted directly from the Insights Dashboard to the page.
The announcement also served as a friendly reminder from Facebook to content publishers and media about how important it is as a traffic driver to their sites.
As we’ve worked with our partners and shared best practices, we’ve found that on average referral traffic from Facebook to media sites has increased by over 170% throughout the past year. In fact, from September 2012 to September 2013, TIME’s referral traffic has increased 208%. BuzzFeed is up 855%. And Bleacher Report has increased 1081%.
Following those stats, Facebook urged publishers to post more frequently to Facebook, saying a step up in article posting increased traffic to sites by 80%.
Conceivably, the “Stories to Share” feature will become available to all content publishers, including brands, where it could certainly add value by letting admins know which stories they should be posting. But then again, shouldn’t you be posting all your stories to your Facebook page by default anyway? Perhaps this will make a case for quality over quantity and allow publishers to really pick their best stuff when searching for Facebook traffic.
