A data report by Buddy Media suggests strategy to employ to use Facebook wall posts effectively. These suggestions are based on study conducted on Buddy Media’s partners. Most of the brands have Facebook fan pages and are actively participating in conversation with their fans. Not all brands boast of great feedback but it’s an important measure of the interaction that the page has with its fans. The report provides some suggestions which brands could put to use for getting a higher engagement rate:
Core content strategy
- Posts with 80 characters or less in length have 27% higher engagement rates – The longer the length of a post, the lesser the fans engage with it. Even though Facebook has a relaxed limit of 420 characters for a status update, the report suggests updates which are less than 80 characters have a higher engagement rate than the ones with more.
- Engagement rates are 3 times higher for posts that used a full length URL – Even though URL shorteners help in reducing the character count of a status update, they are not legitimate as the user won’t be aware of what the final URL would be when they click on the shortened URL. For this purpose, usage of brand specific URL shorteners would be a better option. (Read our report on the business of URL shorteners)
- Brands that posted outside of business hours had 20% higher engagement rates – This is an interesting finding for timing of the posts that get maximum visibility and interaction. Posts which are sent out early morning, at the end of a working day or late at night have higher level of engagement. It could be due to the fact that during business hours, most of the posts from pages get ignored due to their volume.
- Engagement rates are 18% higher on Thursday and Friday – As per the study, 86% of the posts are on weekdays (Monday till Friday) with Thursday and Friday being top days in terms of engagement. Engagement rates fall approximately 3.5% below average on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and 18% below average on Saturday.
Industry-wise analysis
- Fans of Entertainment industry engage most on Friday through Sunday – People are most engaged with the entertainment industry on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with Sunday seeing most engagement. Yet, there are no active posts by brands on these days.
- Fans of Media Industry engage most on Saturday and Sunday – Fans engage the most with media industry pages on Saturday and Sunday with Saturday seeing a large volume of attention. However, Monday sees the least level of engagement in a week.
- Fans of Retail Industry engage most on Sunday and Wednesday, least on Thursday and Saturday – Fan engagement is the most on Sunday even though there are very few brand posts on Sunday. Friday which sees the most number of brand posts in the retail industry, doesn’t get much engagement on Friday.
- Fans of Auto Industry engage most on Sunday and least on Saturday – Engagement rate rises by a significant number on Sunday but brands don’t capitalise on the opportunity as only 8% of total posts are by the auto industry.
- Fans of Business and Finance Industry engage most on Wednesday and Thursday – Most of the posts are in midweek (Monday-Friday) but engagement rate is highest on Wednesday and Thursday with a sharp decline on Friday. Saturday and Sunday see little engagement.
- Fans of Fashion Industry engage most on Thursday – Engagement rate in the Fashion Industry is highest on Thursday and the least on Tuesday. There is a significant drop on Friday and the weekend. Most of the posts are made on Tuesday and Friday which should be shifted to Thursday.
- Fans of Food and Beverage Industry engage most on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday – Brands in the Food and Beverage Industry are active on the weekend and make the most of their activity on Saturday. Engagement rates are highest on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. Least engagement is on Monday and Thursday.
- Fans of HealthCare Industry engage most on Thursday – Engagement rate is highest on Thursday when it comes to the HealthCare and beauty industry. Best content should be posted on Thursday.
- Fans of Sports Industry engage most on Sunday – Sports brands post the highest updates on Thursday which sees the least engagement. However, the least updates go out on Sunday which is when there is a massive spike in engagement rate.
- Fans of Travel and Hospitality Industry engage most on Thursday and Friday – Engagement rate is lowest on the weekend and Wednesday while the maximum engagement happens on Thursday and Friday, i.e. towards the end of the week.
Word your posts smartly
- Call to Action with outright requests for like and comment – Fans would like or comment on a post when they are asked for it directly in the post itself. When looking for a ‘Like’, be direct in asking for a ‘Like’. When looking for a comment, be direct in using words such as ‘post’, ‘comment’ or ‘tell’.
- Fans connect more with ‘Event’ and ‘Winner’ as keywords for a promotion – Most of the brands use words such as ‘contest’, ‘promotion’, ‘sweepstake’ and/or ‘coupon’ during a promotion. Instead, fans connect more with words such as ‘Event’, ‘Winner’, ‘Offer’, ‘New’ and ‘Win’.
- Posts with questions at the end get a 15% higher engagement rate – Fans are most likely to give a response to a question when the question is placed in the end rather than at the beginning or in the middle.
- Choice of words – ‘Where’, ‘When’, ‘Would’ and ‘Should’ type of post questions drive the most engagement. While, ‘Why’ type of questions get the least ‘Likes’ and comments.
For the purpose of the report, Buddy Media analysed pages of 200 of its clients for a two week (January 30, 2011 – February 12, 2011) period. The brands analysed were in the category of entertainment, media, auto, business and finance, fashion, food and beverage, healthcare, sports and hospitality industry.