Dive Brief:
- According to a new study from discovery and sharing platform Shareaholic, Facebook's share of visits grew 47% since the social network decided to drop the thumbs up from its "like" and "share" buttons.
- In fact, the share of visits is up 170% overall in the past year.
- The increase in share of visits is only partially due to the button changes — the increase can mostly be attributed to Facebook's push on news, tweaks to the newsfeed, and the fact that its user base has grown 25%.
Dive Insight:
Although the visual changes aren't fully responsible for Facebook's share of visits spike, it seems the change did have an affect. That's a lesson marketers can learn from Facebook in the visually-focused digital world. Changes to appearances, no matter how subtle, can make a big impact.