New Facebook sharing buttons drive over 5% more Likes and social shares

Facebook released newly designed social sharing buttons around the same time that Google also launched newly designed Google+ buttons.

Facebook did some initial tests during the first month of it's roll out of the new social sharing tools. Throughout it's test period over the past month the newly designed Facebook Like and Share buttons have generated a 5% increased lift in Likes and Share across the web. This is exciting news for marketers.

Some interesting stats on Facebook referral traffic

• On a daily basis, these social sharing buttons are viewed 22 billion times on third-party websites, blogs and web applications.
• Over the past year, Facebook has released new marketing promotion tools that have driven up average referral traffic to media websites by over 170%.
• Over the past month (from November 2013), Facebook referral traffic to websites and blogs has jumped by 47%.

Facebook's newly updated arsenal of promotional tools

• Updated Like buttons
• Updated share buttons
• Flexible width embedded posts
• News feed changes