What’s the latest news from Facebook? The network is now rolling out a highly anticipated feature, embedded posts, which allows individuals and brands to repost their most compelling public Facebook content on external blogs and websites. Posts can include images and videos, and support Facebook’s recent hashtag integration. The most notable feature for brands: users will be able to like and share directly from an embedded post. Boosts to engagement and reach
Prior to this feature, all outbound Facebook messaging was restricted to, well, Facebook. Think of all the times you’ve clicked on a link on Twitter or in an email, only to be bounced to a Facebook login screen.
This presents a huge barrier for those who live off the Facebook grid (trust me, they do exist). But with the embed feature, Facebook will do away with its content gate, and it means only good things for brands. Embedded content outside the network lets non-Facebook members get a glimpse of what they're missing and spreads awareness of an organization's social identity to a much wider audience.
Power to the brand
External embedding also presents a major opportunity for engagement levels. It’s unlikely that each unique visitor to a brand’s website also actively follows and engages with its content on Facebook. Even fans of the brand may not see all its content: Facebook’s Edge Rank algorithm limits the amount of eyes a given post reaches.
The ability to embed content on owned channels (like a corporate blog) gives power back to brands, and offers the potential for vastly improved reach. Imagine if the daily readership of a blog suddenly all become Facebook fans, or at least saw its corresponding Facebook content! Embedding will be an important tool for any brand trying to grow its social audience and engage with fans.
Facebook is testing the feature with a pilot group of organizations including CNN, Huffington Post, and Mashable, but it will soon be available to all users.
Do you plan to utilize embedded Facebook content to drive engagement for your brand?