In order to encourage link sharing on Facebook, the social media giant is testing a new “Add A Link” feature, which appears along with the buttons for adding locations and photos to posts. This integrated search feature allows users to search for relevant links to share without having to leave Facebook and open Google or Bing.
According to a recent report in Techcrunch, when queried, the new Facebook search feature shows a list of relevant links that the user can share in a post. The link content can be previewed before posting, and a comment or caption can be added to the shared link. The search results appear sorted by what users are most inclined to share. Recently published articles that have already been posted seem to rank most highly.
Currently the trial is only available to a small group in the US. Techcrunch reports that Facebook has “indexed over one trillion posts to let people search for links that have been shared with them”, meaning that its search engine is powered by its own data, rather than data that comes from Google.
This new search capability will likely add to the growing clout of Facebook as a social media marketing force. According to Ad Week Social Times, in the third quarter of 2014, Facebook drove 25 percent of all social referral traffic, which was four times as much traffic as its nearest competitor Pinterest. Other platforms such as Twitter, Linkedin, and Google Plus+ were significantly farther behind.
While Facebook’s new feature could mean trouble for Google, for marketers, it is an indication that Facebook should be considered a more significant player in social media marketing strategy.
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