Facebook’s new “like” and “refer” buttons are helping websites see a significant leap in referral traffic from the web platform. For those not yet up to speed – you can now use the buttons on your own site so people can “like” and recommend your stories. The buttons make it a little easier for people to post your stuff on their Facebook pages. Facebook says 50,000 sites have already installed the new offering, and apparently it’s working. LR Pal Jonathan Dube, ABCNews.com’s vice president, tells Poynter:
“We’ve seen an over 250 percent increase in referrals from Facebook to ABC News since the launch of the Social toolkit on ABCNews.com,” Dube said. “Since we added the new ‘Like it, Tweet it, Digg it,’ buttons, we have also seen a more than 50 percent increase in referrals on weekdays from both Twitter and Digg.”
We strongly recommend you add the new features to your site. Referral traffic isn’t the only reason to Be Social, but it’s a good one.