What does a Facebook.com/referral mean?

[Laura_WV]

Hi guys!

My boss has asked me to explain what facebook.com/referral actually means in Analytics.

My understanding is that this is either when someone has clicked from our Facebook page or when someone has shared a link to our site on another persons personal Facebook page.

Are there any other methods of referrals from Facebook that I'm missing and I have understood this properly?

Would really appreciate any help you guys have so I can put together an accurate repsonse to my boss!

Thanks,
Laura

[phranque]

facebook.com/referral means any HTTP Request that includes a Referer header containing a facebook.com url.

[aristotle]

I'm not a member of facebook, but in the logs for several of my sites there are always a lot of image fetches labeled as "facebook external hit". I think facebook must provide some simple way for its members to hotlink your images.

[phranque]

aristotle:

facebookexternalhit - Webmaster General forum:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/webmaster/4351330.htm [webmasterworld.com]

[aristotle]

phranque:
Thanks for the link to the other thread --I hadn't ever seen it. Anyway, I just mentioned facebook image hotlinking because the OP
asked for other possible methods of referrals from Facebook. I see these facebook external hits in my logs everyday but I don't know how Analytics would account for them, if at all.

[phranque]

analytics typically doesn't count hits by identifiable bots.