Facebook & the social

news opportunity
Agenda

1 Overview on Facebook Platform

2 Creating value for publishers

3 Facebook & journalism

4 Q&A
Wisdom of friends
People are discovering content
in a new way on Facebook…
…and news sites
 500M+ 250M+

monthly active users mobile users

Social Engagement

130
50%
Friends return daily
How can social design apply to
news?

Photos:
3B/month
Agenda

1 Overview on Facebook Platform

2 Creating value for publishers

3 Facebook & journalism

4 Q&A
Delivering results for publishers

Traffic Engagement Insights

Increasing traffic to your site
The average media organization has seen a 300%
increase in Facebook referrals since January, 2010

From <1% of traffic to #1

referral source in 5 months

From #5 referral source

to #1 referral source

9x increase in referral
traffic
Traffic
q  Implement “Like”
•  When a user clicks Like, it (1) publishes a story to their friends, (2) adds to
their profile, and (3) is discoverable through search
Traffic
q  Optimize “Like”

Clickthrough  rate  (CTR)  

•  Optimize placement and show friends
faces (3-5x increase in CTR)*
100%
-  Place Like near visually engaging content increase Like  bu7on  w/  faces  
Like  bu7on  w/out  faces  

-  Allow for adequate white space (not too cluttered)

-  Like button with faces has a 2-3x higher CTR than 0 1 2 3 4 5

CTR of button without faces Number  of  friends  who  have  liked  ar4cle  

* Based on internal analysis of plugin performance across 100 top media and content domains
Traffic
q  Publish: focus on content and status updates to
increase engagement
Stories that get more engagement

Post updates that contain: Expected increase in

engagement above average
post
Touching, emotional stories 2-3x
EX: “Fireman adopts girl orphaned in house fire…”;

Provocative, passionate debates 2-3x

EX: “A proposed new law denies citizenship to children of
illegal immigrants…”; “Is it time to ban vuvuzelas?”

Sports game important wins 1.5–2x

EX: “The Chicago Blackhawks Win First Cup in 49 Years…”;
“Celtics beat Lakers to even series…”

Simple, easy questions to the user 1.5x

EX: Yes/No questions, “Will you watch the World Cup?”
Increasing engagement
For users who sign in with Facebook:

22% 8
more pages more minutes
viewed spent
For traffic from Facebook:

85% 90% 85%

more time more articles more videos
spent read watched
Facebook is #1 source of traffic because:

65% 18%
increase in increase in
FB reshares comments
Engagement
q  Implement activity and recommendations
plugin

•  Users who click on the

Activity Feed plugin
generate 4x as many page
views as the average
media site viewer

•  Place above the fold

•  Implement on article
pages where readers are
already engaging with
your content
Engagement
q  Use Live Stream for live events
•  Add the Like button to acquire connections
Engagement
Comment Box
Let users comment on any piece of content on
your site
•  Reduce spam through
verified identities and
moderation tools

•  Sync conversations on
both your site and
Facebook

•  Easy to implement, with

one line of code
Insights
Analytics to understand the impact of social
activity across sites, apps, and Facebook Pages

Insights for Insights for Insights for

Apps Pages Websites
Metrics to track how Analytics to measure Metrics for your site
users are interacting engagement with your and its social plugins,
with your app Facebook Page in real-time
Agenda

1 Overview on Facebook Platform

2 Creating value for publishers

3 Facebook & journalism

4 Q&A
Facebook & journalism

Traffic Engagement Reporting

Traffic
Add “Like” to journalists and topics on your site
Journalist Topic (e.g., Business section)

When a reader clicks “Like”, 3 things happen:

•  Publishes a story to their friends on Facebook
•  Gives you the ability to publish to them
•  Adds to profile
Traffic
Create a Page for your publication…
Traffic
…and for your journalists
Engagement
Interact with your readers
Reporting
Use Facebook as a reporting and story-telling tool

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/metro/facebook-story-mothers-joy-familys-sorrow.html
Reporting
Use your Page to solicit commentary, opinions,
public opinion and content from your readers
Getting started
3 things you can do today:

q Set up a Page and publish your articles so every

time you add a new post, it will go into the News
Feeds of your fans

q Engage your fans with questions and observations

related to your coverage

q Set up your mobile devices to access and add to

your Page from wherever you are
Join the dialogue at facebook.com/media &
facebook.com/journalist