Last month, Facebook announced a new like share button, a strategy for the social network to help facilitate the spread of content through the web…even more than they already do. The strategy revolved around the new Like-Share combo button, a button that is literally just the Like and Share buttons merged together in one easy to use snippet. It was released early to select brands in November, and now we have the data back from that beta test. On the surface it seems like a simple gimmick, but does it work? Let’s take a look.
According to both Facebook and social metric site Sharaholic, the combo Share and Like button is a resounding success:
“In early tests over the past month after launching the new Like and Share buttons, we’ve seen more than a 5% lift in Likes and Share across the web. This is significant, given that both buttons are viewed over 22 billion times daily. Based on these results, we’ve rolled out the new design to everyone and extended it to the Follow and Like Box plugins as well.”
That’s a pretty significant jump, and it’s great news to everyone who is interested implementing some social sharing buttons. If you already have a system in place, I don’t think it’s necessary to jump on these new buttons, but if you’re looking for a good solution, the combo Like and Share button may be a great thing to try out.
The news from Sharaholic is even more favorable then the results from Facebook. Check out this graph that shows Facebook referrer data.
You see that giant spike in November? There’s really nothing that happened that could have caused that except for the Like Share combo button.
“I think this is a very positive change for users and brands,” said Danny Wong, who oversees growth and marketing at Shareaholic. “The buttons perform well, increasing engagement, which means more sharing across the web. Users now have an easier time acknowledging they ‘like’ a story and can easily ‘share’ things they think their friends would love, too. Brands benefit because their earned, owned and paid media will continue to attract more eyeballs.”
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Erin Ryan is the Director of Social Media for Wikimotive and a writer for various Social Media & Tech blogs. Erin has a keen understanding of the power of Social Media for business and fervently stays up-to-date.