Users aside though, there is one audience that appears to be benefitting greatly from Facebook’s new design: brands. Not only are Facebook Pages – the network’s competitive play against celebrity Twitter users – revamped and more social, but their updates are taking up space on member’s homepages, and in turn, as our data shows, driving lots of traffic and engagement for brands.
The Numbers
At Mashable, we’ve been using our page to share our articles, post photos from our journey to SXSW, and engage users in conversation. And the results so far have been rather stunning. Comparing traffic to Mashable.com referred by Facebook from 3/5-3/11 to 3/12-3/18 (the 7-day period before and after the new homepage rolled out), we’ve seen a 75% increase in visitors. Moreover, our Facebook Page itself is seeing 2-3x more visitors on a daily basis than it did in the previous iteration of Facebook’s homepage.
Reality Check
Now, to be fair, we have been actively promoting our Facebook Page to users on our blog and Twitter, which has helped grow our fan base on Facebook by around 1,800 people for the period we’re reporting on here. But, while we reach far fewer users on Facebook than on Twitter or via RSS, the ratio of users that click-thru to stories appears to be higher. And, in any event the growth in traffic we’ve seen is far outpacing the growth of our Facebook fan base, leading us to conclude that Pages are, for the moment, a highly effective marketing tool in the new Facebook.
Is It Good For Users?
Is It Good for Facebook?
So far, Facebook has not only survived but prospered after every controversial change, going all the way back to the original News Feed. The homepage changes in and of themselves, though currently unpopular with some, aren’t likely to do much to slow down Facebook’s ascent. Meanwhile, they may have just unlocked the business model that moves them from a successful social network to a highly profitable business.
Sure, you could already buy ads on Facebook to promote your Page. But now, the incentive to do so is far greater, because each Fan you gain can be marketed to for free via the Facebook homepage feed. Even if it costs $5-10 to acquire a Fan (PPC ads seem to run about 50 cents for Pages, assume 5-10 percent conversion), it seems like a small price to pay to have lifetime access to engage that user. We’re already seeing Twitter users take out ads to gain more followers – this trend is likely to accelerate on Facebook too.
Suddenly, Facebook’s homepage re-design makes a lot more sense, not just from a “copy Twitter because it’s so hot!” perspective, but from the “let’s make a ton of money” angle too.
Additional Facebook Resources
- New Facebook Pages: A Guide for Social Media Marketers
- 30+ Apps for Doing Business on Facebook
- 20+ Great Greasemonkey Scripts for Improving Your Facebook Experience