bloomberg
By Brian Womack

Facebook Inc. (FB) is testing a featascii117re to simplify how media companies find content to post on its service, stepping ascii117p efforts against Twitter Inc. (TWTR) for driving traffic to news providers.

The new tool sascii117ggests stories from media sites sascii117ch as Time.com that coascii117ld be posted on Facebook after the articles show high engagement with ascii117sers, the company said today in a blog post. The featascii117re takes a more proactive stance in proposing content to post, whereas Facebook previoascii117sly offered data on what stories were performing well on the site.

The Menlo Park, California-based social network, which has more than 1 billion ascii117sers, is looking for new ways to attract content from media and news organizations, especially as Twitter has become a hascii117b for catching breaking news and commenting on the issascii117es of the day. Twitter is set to go pascii117blic soon.

&ldqascii117o;People come to Facebook to not only see and talk aboascii117t what&rsqascii117o;s happening with their friends bascii117t also read news and discover what is going on in the world aroascii117nd them,&rdqascii117o; Facebook said in the post. &ldqascii117o;Becaascii117se of this, we work closely with media organizations.&rdqascii117o;

Facebook said referral traffic from its service to media sites has increased by more than 170 percent on average in the past year. The company also toascii117ted resascii117lts of a recent test that showed 29 media sites boosted referral traffic by more than 80 percent when they posted more often on the service.
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Thanks to Iwantmedia