Facebook presents Instant Articles
News
Everybody talks about it, but what are instant articles?
Mark Zuckerberg did it again. Instant Articles is Facebook’s new tool for editors and media from all over the world. It is basically a HTML document created in order to have news published within Facebook without the need of clicking an external link to read the full article. Instant Articles have the advantage of allowing editors to introduce interactive content in order to support written articles. For example, interactive maps, videos and audio clips can be implemented in the articles. But that’s not all there is to it: Facebook named this tool Instant Articles because news load instantly, 10 times faster than the standard mobile web.
How does it work?
Facebook Instant Articles will be available on April 12th, but its creator is already thinking about extending the tool. That’s why Facebook is also launching a Wordpress plugin, since 25% of the websites are operating using that platform. This new plugin will make article creation and publication from Wordpress to the rest of the internet, easier. This plugin is also open source, which means that users can make changes to improve it. While all users can access this Wordpress plugin and also publish their articles with the Facebook format, the social media network reviews all the articles to be published as there are certain standards that the article needs to achieve.
Everybody wins:
- Instant Articles has advantages for users and the media.
Advantages for users:
- Be able to read the news in a friendly interface.
- Share the articles in a more agile and easy way.
- Access this kind of content in a much faster way, especially if the user is using mobile devices.
Advantages for the media:
- Once the media is affiliated to Instant Articles, it will have a potential audience of over one billion people.
- The media will receive 100% of advertising if they took care of it themselves, but if Facebook steps in and takes the advertising business into their own hands, the media will get 70%.
- Increase the impact: news being published through Facebook will get a higher impact.
Facebook is being very selective so not all media is going to get accepted. So you must submit an application. Once the application has been submitted the only thing that’s left to do is wait: Facebook will take its time to give you their verdict.
