A case study on Facebook’s new media portal looks at Slate’s rocketing Facebook traffic over the past year. Psychology explains some of the rise: “Slate’s stories frequently have provocative, attention grabbing headlines,” Facebook notes. But publishers without Slate’s gift for those can benefit from some of the other tips in the study:
• It puts “share” and “like” buttons in a couple of places: One up by the headline, another at the foot.
The share dialog prompts a user to add a comment to the article, creating a strong signal back to Facebook. Slate.com story pages have both Share and Like buttons prominently visible, so readers can choose how they want to post the story to Facebook.
• It makes calls to action: “The descriptive comments from Slate editors often directly solicit feedback from followers.”
Here’s a recent example:
• It optimizes Open Graph tags. If you don’t know what that means, print out this page for your Web folks.
Related: How journalists can measure engagement | How news orgs are reaching millions through Facebook’s new apps
