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Why Would You Want A Facebook ‘Send’ Button?

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Categories: Facebook, Facebook Marketing, Social Media

Facebook has rolled out a series of changes to its 50 million Facebook ‘Groups’ as well as announcing the ability to include a ‘Send’ button in your website or blog that is an addition to the Facebook social sharing ‘button’ family.Why Would You Want A Facebook Send Button

The new button allows you to choose a subset of your Facebook friends to receive a link. In essence it’s the ‘like’ button’s private baby brother and it’s part of Facebook’s goal of transforming web messaging  including email and chat that I covered in a recent blog post titled “Facebook Announces a New Messaging System“.

The new ‘send’ feature is designed to be a private sharing option rather than a public message and mass news update function provided by the ‘like’ button.

50 websites who are included in the launch have a send button integrated into their features and functions. These include the Wall Street Journal and People.com

So the battle for the social web ratchets up another notch with this news that closely follows Google’s announcement  of a new social button ‘+1′.

This feature I am sure will be another tool that Facebook afficiandos and ‘fanatics’ will gladly embrace and will provide another means of low friction sharing in an increasingly social web.

The battle for social share button real estate on web properties is certainly heating up as now you will need to consider whether you want to include another button at the top the side or the bottom of your articles.

If you want to some guidance and a link to assist you in adding the button to your site now click here.

Would you include a Facebook ‘send’ button on your website or blog?

Image by MrTopf


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  • http://komverse.com/ KevinMinott

    I would swap out the old ‘Like’ button for the ‘Send’ button any day. It’s more targeted and intimate. When your top fans share a link with like minded individuals it is a win for everyone involved.

  • http://twitter.com/carpediembabs Barb Smith

    I agree with KevinMinott – I too would swap for a ‘send’ button anyday! It’s a much more personalized way of sharing information – which is the purpose of social media anyway … to connect with individuals, not the masses!

  • http://brittanyrubinstein.com/blog Brittany Rubinstein

    I could see myself using this in some cases. Usually when I find something cool I just post it for any one to see it though.

  • Anonymous

    I always liked Brian Solis’ KISS principle – Keep It Simple and Shareable. Now Facebook gives us “Share.” And yet, social media always has share at it’s core. If you look at “Like” and “Share” – they are both sharing. (Confused, yet?) And to your point in the article – “The new ‘send’ feature is designed to be a private sharing option rather than a public message and mass news update function provided by the ‘like’ button.”

    If we peel this one layer deeper, we will look at user behavior and potential motivation. I would say that Facebook “Share” will be used to really share something with friends, family and colleagues as specifically selected. In other words – ” – I want you to see this because I believe it is of value to you.” I see Facebook “Like” evolving to more of a personal branding label for people. Stating you “Like” something defines you. Kind of like the use of bumper stickers, but more powerful. Yes “Likes” do promote sharing and invoke word-of-mouth marketing.

    The point is that now that we have “Share” and “Like”, the usage behavior will evolve. Marketers need to acknowledge this and consciously decide how to implement “Like” and “Share” widgets for the different user behaviors..

  • Anonymous

    2 applications come to mind. One is for something like Weight Watchers that you would hesitate to share with all your friends but might have a select group (no pun intended) that you know would be interested.

    The other is the standard age old Facebook issue of ‘I want to share this somewhat silly link but don’t want my boss and grandmother to see it”.

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