Publishers can now increase their online traffic through Facebook's Instant Articles, released just this April 12.
The feature, announced in an earlier report, had been under beta phase for quite some time and had limited partners involved in the project. Only sites such as BBC News, Buzzfeed, National Geographic, The New York Times, and a select few hundred publications had access to the feature to test it out before its official release.
In its initial phase, Facebook saw "clear evidence" that Instant Articles provided a better means for publishers to share their content with the public. The feature enabled news publishers to reach niches in the market that could not be easily accessed due to slow Internet bandwidth from the user end.
Previously, readers clicked on an article and would be redirected to an outside link wherein its contents would take time to load. Through Instant Articles, users can now access a publisher's news content without ever worrying about bandwidth limitations.
Facebook analyzed that users with slower connections in countries like the Philippines, Brazil, and India could access articles 20 - 40 percent more through Instant Articles. This was achieved by specifically optimizing the feature for Android devices "with the goal of providing the best mobile reading experience for people everywhere, no matter where they are in the world or what connection or device they're on."
Development on Instant Articles does not stop with its official launch, though, as Facebook plans to continue working with "third-party developers" to further "build tools that help publishers create, manage, and monitor performance of their Instant Articles."
Currently, available third-party options include publishing tools such as Medium, WordPress, Atavist, Drupal, RebelMouse, Perk Distributed, Tempest, ShareThis, Steller, and Sovrn, while analytic tools include SimpleReach, Chartbeat, Adobe Analytics, comScore, Parsely and Nielsen.
Aside from Instant Article's worldwide release, Facebook has also enabled publishers to create Branded Content through the feature and share these branded posts on the social media platform "with a tag indicating the sponsor of the story." Options included in Branded Content are: distinguishing editorial content from branded content via styling tools; indicate content sponsors in the byline and kicker through customized texts; and a planned feature to "include a sponsor logo on the first screen through a native toolset."
For publishers who haven't taken advantage of Facebook's Instant Article, they can sign their content up. Interested developers and third-party tool creators can learn more about Instant Article's API and SDK.
