SAN FRANCISCO: Brands that use Facebook Pages as part of their engagement and sales strategy will soon be able to add a new call-to-action button to the mix, the social network has announced.
"Designed to bring a business's most important objective to the forefront of its Facebook presence, call-to-action buttons link to any destination on or off Facebook that aligns with a business's goals," the company said in a blogpost.
There will be seven call-to-action options that Page admins can choose from – Book Now, Contact Us, Use App, Play Game, Shop Now, Sign Up and Watch Video – and any one of them can appear at the top of the Page, just to the left of the Like button.
Facebook said the new feature will roll out in the US over the next few weeks and then go worldwide in 2015.
It added that online retailer Dollar Shave Club had been testing the call-to-action buttons on its Page and was pleased with the results.
"Over the course of a three-week test, the Sign Up call-to-action button delivered a 2.5x higher conversion rate versus other comparable social placements aimed to drive new user acquisition," said Brian Kim, director of acquisition at Dollar Shave Club, in a testimonial.
To allay concerns raised by VentureBeat that users might face the potential risk of being taken to malicious links on other sites, Facebook said it will monitor these links in the same way it tracks current ones by using its "Site Integrity" technology.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also raised the possibility of adding another button for users to express sentiments other than simply liking.
"A lot of times people share things on Facebook that are sad moments in their lives," he told a Q&A session at the company's California headquarters. "Often people tell us that they don't feel comfortable pressing 'like' because 'like' isn't the appropriate sentiment."
But he ruled out having a 'dislike' button. "That's not something that we think is good for the world," he said.
"Designed to bring a business's most important objective to the forefront of its Facebook presence, call-to-action buttons link to any destination on or off Facebook that aligns with a business's goals," the company said in a blogpost.
There will be seven call-to-action options that Page admins can choose from – Book Now, Contact Us, Use App, Play Game, Shop Now, Sign Up and Watch Video – and any one of them can appear at the top of the Page, just to the left of the Like button.
Facebook said the new feature will roll out in the US over the next few weeks and then go worldwide in 2015.
It added that online retailer Dollar Shave Club had been testing the call-to-action buttons on its Page and was pleased with the results.
"Over the course of a three-week test, the Sign Up call-to-action button delivered a 2.5x higher conversion rate versus other comparable social placements aimed to drive new user acquisition," said Brian Kim, director of acquisition at Dollar Shave Club, in a testimonial.
To allay concerns raised by VentureBeat that users might face the potential risk of being taken to malicious links on other sites, Facebook said it will monitor these links in the same way it tracks current ones by using its "Site Integrity" technology.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also raised the possibility of adding another button for users to express sentiments other than simply liking.
"A lot of times people share things on Facebook that are sad moments in their lives," he told a Q&A session at the company's California headquarters. "Often people tell us that they don't feel comfortable pressing 'like' because 'like' isn't the appropriate sentiment."
But he ruled out having a 'dislike' button. "That's not something that we think is good for the world," he said.
Data sourced from Facebook, VentureBeat, BBC; additional content by Warc staff
