Based on recent data from Facebook, including “Like” buttons and other social plugins on your website will likely have a significant effect on visitor traffic and conversions. On average, media sites have seen a 300% increase in referral traffic after integrating Facebook into their site. Websites such as The Huffington Post, ABC News, and Washington Post have doubled their referral traffic since adding Facebook plugins. Not only are these sites seeing increased traffic, but visitors are engaging more with the site, and staying for longer amounts of time. Huffington Post readers signing in to the site with Facebook read 22% more articles, and stay on the site 8 minutes longer than the average reader. Additionally, NHL.com found that when logged in to Facebook, users spend 85% more time, read 90% more articles and watch 85% more videos than non-connected users.
Adding Facebook plugins also impacted visits and revenue spent on eCommerce sites:
- American Eagle has recently added Like buttons to product pages, and has discovered that Facebook referred visitors spend an average of 57% more money
- Tea Collection, a children’s retail site, has seen daily revenues increase 10 times since adding the Like button
- Levi’s has seen and maintained a 40% increase in referral traffic since adding a Like button in April 2010
- Giantnerd.com has seen a 100% increase in revenue from Facebook after integrating a Like button
- Ticketmaster has discovered that each time a Facebook user makes a post about an event they want to attend, it directly generates $5.30 of ticket sales
In order to maximize the effectiveness of Like buttons, Facebook recommends using versions that show thumbnail images of friends, and allow commenting. Additionally, Like buttons are usually more effective when placed both at the top and bottom of articles, or near visual content such as graphics and videos.
While one would expect to put great effort into achieving such results, Facebook integration represents one of the few “easy wins” in online marketing. Seeing huge jumps in traffic, sales, and engagement may be as simple as adding and optimizing a Facebook Like button.