Many companies are leveraging Facebook as a fun, interactive way to engage customers and increase brand loyalty. Given there are currently more than 845 million active users on Facebook, it’s likely that you’re reaching customers through a platform where they’re already highly active, which creates a low barrier to entry and provides an easy way for customers to interact with your brand. Since building a brand presence on Facebook can seem like a daunting task, last year, we provided companies with guidelines, tools and tricks to help get them started.
However, once a company goes through the steps to create a page, there are still several questions around the most effective ways to engage with fans. Although it sometimes feels like Facebook has been with us forever, the reality is, Facebook pages for businesses are still relatively new. Given this, we want to share research from Buddy Media, a social enterprise software solution, that helps to uncover the answers to some frequently asked questions from businesses around how often to post, what types of posts will drive the most engagement, etc.
Some key takeaways from the research include:
- Wednesday is the Day to Post: Although most brands publish evenly throughout the work week, engagement rates spike on Wednesday.
- Don’t Post too Many Times in a Day: Facebook users engage 40 percent more with less than three posts a day from a given brand.
- Short Posts Work Best: Posts with 80 characters or less receive 66 percent higher engagement.
- Questions Get Fans Talking: Posting questions generate more than double the amount of comments than non-question posts.
- Post During Non–Busy Hours: Engagement is 17 percent lower during “busy” hours of 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Given this, the best time to post is 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. when fans aren’t at work, and remember you can use a tool like HootSuite to pre-schedule your posts.
- Fill in the Blank is the Best Structure: This is one of the most underutilized post techniques, but one of the most engaging. Brands that utilize the fill in the blank strategy (i.e. I like to do “blank” on a sunny day) generate comment rates nine times higher than other posts.
Follow these tips and you’ll be on the right track to increasing your Facebook engagement. Also, remember to keep your content fresh and informal. The great thing about social media is that it gives your customers a human connection to your company so make sure to showcase your brand in a way that’s authentic and relatable.