Setting up a Facebook marketing strategy
For marketers seeking to use Facebook to promote their brands, there are several tips and tricks that can optimise those social media campaigns, according to research report from Buddy Media.
The report, entitled 'A Statistical Review for the Retail Industry: Strategies for Effective Facebook Wall Posts', identified the key variables that influence the performance of brand posts on Facebook, specifically for the retail industry.
The company analysed user engagement with existing Facebook wall posts from nearly 100 of the world's largest retail brands during the first six months of 2011, examining three main success metrics for those posts:
- 'Like' Rate: the number of 'likes' as a percentage of fan base;
- Comment Rate: the number of comments as a percentage of fan base;
- Engagement Rate: a combination of the first two rates, factoring in the actual size of the fan base.
Among the strategies identified as having the greatest impact:
- Wednesday is the best day to post Although retailers publish evenly throughout the work week, engagement rates spike on Wednesday, at about 8% above the average engagement rate.
- Don't post too often in a day Facebook users engaged 40% more with fewer than three posts a day from a given brand. Retail brands who post fewer than three times a day receive a 32% higher 'like' rate, coupled with a 73% higher comment rate.
- Short posts work best Posts with a maximum of 80 characters earned 66% higher engagement than longer posts.
- Questions get fans talking Although retail brand wall posts containing questions receive slightly lower overall engagement (in terms of both 'likes' and comments), this type of post also generated more than double the number of comments compared to non-question posts.
"Social media is changing the way people buy and sell online, as the majority of online shoppers trust recommendations from friends more than any other source," concluded Buddy Media CEO, Michael Lazerow.
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