The Simple Science of Engagement for Facebook

There’s no getting away from it, Facebook is the biggest social network!

Having high customer engagement rates is becoming essential for a business’ success on Facebook. Therefore we thought we’d put together some of the most important scientific facts, so that you can measure and compare how well your engagement with your fans is going.

We have broken down the science for you behind raising ‘Engagement Rates’, ‘Best Posting Times’ and ‘Rules for Images.’

Engagement facts:

• Keep your posts as short as possible – posts with 80 characters or less normally get up to 23% higher interaction rates.
• When posting pictures, why not ask fans to write captions for it now and again. This is a fun way to encourage engagement and can increase comments by 5.5 times!
• Ask a question! A simple opinion driven question or a request for fans to ‘fill in the blanks’, will bring in 90% more engagement than your average post.
• Post to your Facebook Page daily; remember that 96% of fans aren’t coming back to your page, so posting frequently is the only way to reach them.
• Be relevant and not too pushy – posts related to but not directly about your brand tend to perform best. No one wants to be directly ‘sold to’ on social. It’s a turn off – so keep that in mind.
• Almost 99% of brands do not actively network or engage with the brands they like. So, have a think about the brands or businesses out there that you like, or that could be really useful for your business or brand – look them up on Facebook, give them a ‘Like,’ say hello and start a conversation!

Posting Times:

• If you’re posting on weekdays during work hours, be sure to get a healthy number of updates in between the hours of 1pm and 4pm. Facebook is at its noisiest in the afternoon -so be sure to join the conversation and engage with your fans when they’re keen to engage.
• Test schedule some posts ‘out of hours’ after normal work hours and before 8pm.  This is the time people are potentially commuting and turning to their smartphones to catch up on news and chatter.
• Many research reports show that 3pm on a Wednesday is the optimum time to get interaction on a Facebook post. So, if you do only post one a week (which we hope isn’t the case!) make sure it’s on a Wednesday at 3.
• During the weekends, the worst times to posts are before 8am and after 8pm; as people tend not to engage before and after those times. Let’s think about that, who’s going to get up before 8am on the weekend?!  (Unless you have young children of course!)
• Generally, users tend to check their personal Facebook Page more than their Business Page. Around 41% check their Business Page up to 1-2 times a day! We hope this isn’t the case with you – because in order for your business page to be a success, it needs to be constantly checked for comments and opportunities to engage.
• These posting times and tips are taken from general research.  However, posting times will vary depending on the type of business you are – e.g. if you’re a bar/restaurant then you may get more engagement in the evening. Our advice is to watch, listen and learn. Test different times and see when it is that you get the most engagement, then be sure to share at the times you know you get the most engagement.

Facebook Images:

• Remember when posting on Facebook always include images.  Images increase interaction rates by 39% more than your average post!
• Images draw engagement rates in more than videos and text alone! Up to a whopping 120% more than your average post.
• Image posts generally attract 104 more comments than the average post.
• Link clicks are generally higher than text and link posts alone, receiving up to 84% more clicks.
• Posts that include photo albums receive 180% more engagement than the average post.

So folks, make sure you’re up to date with these important facts and don’t be afraid to experiment…

Happy Facebook posting!

Kat

Kat West is a Social Media Community Manager at Carvill Creative – the Online Visibility Experts. Kat spends her days, tweeting, sharing, listening, researching and blogging. (As well as a little sleeping and eating and having fun too)!