After all the negative hoopla about Facebook advertising changes, I stumbled on a new feature today that is fantastic. When I pasted a hyperlink in my post, Facebook pulled in more than just a descriptive (rich) snippet along with the link. It actually included a like button for the orignal publisher's page, and the ability to subscribe to their updates.
Not for my page, but for the source publisher of the hyperlink I put into the post. (tweet this) Do I want to get updates from the Arizona Republic page? Yes! Do I want to like their page? Yes!
Now THAT is uber user-friendly and social. Atta boy, Facebook!
What Works For Media Pages Doesn't Appear To Work For Brands
I use Facebook constantly throughout the day, but this is the very first time I've seen this feature, so I have to consider that it might be something in Beta or freshly launched.
I'm guessing that it is tied to advertising in some fashion but, frankly, I'm not sure. It would make complete sense that if the Arizona Republic (or any form of media) were a Facebook advertiser, that they would be offered the ability to embed this form of page promotion as part of their overall campaign - and pay Facebook based on the results it generates.
When I tested hyperlinking to a blog post, the feature didn't show up. Is it only related to mainstream media publishers - and not all brand pages? Is it tied to advertisers? Or is it completely, based on delivering a better user experience? I'm not sure, but I'll be watching to see what happens.
What do you think? Are you seeing this pop up in your posts, too? Let me know!