Strategies For Effective Facebook Wall Posts: A Statistical Review
If you work in social media marketing, chances are you've at one point in the last year heard one of the following questions: When should we post content on Facebook? How often should we post? Are their certain keywords or types of content that will receive the best response?
There is a never-ending appetite for more data that can help guide best practices for brand marketers and how they can best engage with their fans on Facebook. And that is just one of the reasons I am very excited to announce the release today of a new comprehensive research paper, "Strategies For Effective Facebook Wall Posts: A Statistical Review."
We analyzed all Facebook Wall posts from the Buddy Media Platform by a sample size of more than 200 clients over a two week period: January 30, 2011 - February 12, 2011. "Likes" and comments made to these posts were also analyzed.
This sample size represents the world's largest brands in the entertainment, media, retail, automotive, business and finance, fashion, food and beverage, healthcare and beauty and travel and hospitality industries.
We looked at three primary success metrics in relation to Wall Posts:
- Comment Rate: number of comments as a percentage of fan base
- 'Like' Rate: number of 'likes' as a percentage of fan base
- Engagement Rate: a combination of the above factoring in fan base size
Key takeaways from the research include (warning: interesting charts and info-graphics lie ahead):
Post Timing (Hour): Brands that posted outside of normal business hours had 20% higher engagement rates on their posts.
"Promotional" Keywords: Which keywords are most engaging when running a contest, sweepstakes or other offer?
Post Length: Posts between one and 80 characters had, on average, a 27% higher engagement rate than posts with over 80 characters, yet accounted for only 19% of all posts.
URL Shorteners: Engagement rates are three times higher for posts that used a full-length URL, as opposed to a URL shortener.
Keywords: Keep it simple. The left hand column shows the keywords that generated the most 'likes,' while the right hand column shows keywords that generated the most comments.
here is much more in the full report, which can be downloaded for free. We hope you enjoy it. We have much more to come. What type of research would you like to see us release next?
