Brands are posting Facebook updates at the wrong times. That is the key take-away from a new report by Buddy Media, "Strategies for Effective Facebook Posts: A Timeline Analysis". Audience engagement is highest in the evenings (+14%) and weekends but brands are disproportionately posting during weekday work-hours. The findings are based on a study of 18,000 Facebook Pages, between April 1 - May 31, 2012), immediately after the transition to Facebook Timeline.
Some Tips:
- Less is More: Posts with 80 characters or less achieve 23% higher interaction rates
- Descriptive URLs: Use links with a recognizable URL, like “www.shop.com/chairs”
- Call to Action: Inviting the audience to take a specific action, such as “Like,” “Caption This,” “Share,” “Yes or No” and “True or False”, increases interaction by 48%
- Finish with a Question: Asking questions drives 92% more responses. But do it at the END of the post- the difference will be 15% higher interaction and 2X more comments
- “Fill in the blank”: Gimmicky but effective...results in 4X more comments
- Emoticons: Those irritating emoticons actually increase interaction by 52%. Posts with emoticons have 57% more likes, 33% more comments 33% more sharing. The emoticons with the biggest lift are “:D” and “:P”
