Customer Crossroads: Using Facebook to engage with consumers: keep it simple

12 April 2011

Using Facebook to engage with consumers: keep it simple

New media channels are becoming as complex as the old media channels were. Actually, scratch that -- I think they are more complex, because they are interactive and dynamic.

So the things that work for blogging (or general content marketing strategies), let's say, don't necessarily work for Facebook marketing.

Buddy Media just released a study suggesting that successful FB marketing strategies in some cases are counter-intuitive.They looked at two weeks of FB activity for 200 of their clients to come up with the strategies discussed.

Here are a few of the things that caught my attention:

Wall posts of 80 characters or less had 27% higher engagement rates (likes, etc.) than longer posts. 80 characters is not a lot -- a Twitter post is maximum 140 chars -- so keep it short.. A short post, almost by necessity, has to have something useful in it, like a new product launch, a sale, etc.

Full-length URLs do better than shortened URLs -- 3 times better. The report suggests this is because readers know where the URL will take them. Note that URL shortening is virtually a necessity in Twitter, so this is also different.

Posting outside business hours (referencing Eastern Time) creates higher engagement than posting during business hours. Considering how many businesses block access to social media sites, this isn't all that surprising. What IS surprising is how few of BuddyMedia's clients are posting outside business hours -- 60% of the posts in their study were between 10 am and 4 pm.

Thursday and Friday are the best days to post, followed by Sunday (see graphic above). The report shows some differences by industry which are quite dramatic. For example, Sunday is when people pay attention to automotive. Food and beverage is highest on Tuesday. Fashion is highest on Thursday. Their advice: study your own patterns.

Soft-sell key words seem to work best, but direct and simple calls to action get results. Do you want people to click "Like"? You need to ask them to do that.

You know that phrase, "conventional wisdom"? It doesn't have any relationship to new media. Test and learn should be your mantra.

Resources

Download the Buddy Media Facebook study here.

I learned of the Buddy Media report from Marko Saric's very good blog, How to Make My Blog

Susan Abbott in social media, Talking to Customers | Permalink

Comments

New media channels are becoming as complex as the old media channels were. Actually, scratch that -- I think they are more complex, because they are interactive and dynamic.

So the things that work for blogging (or general content marketing strategies), let's say, don't necessarily work for Facebook marketing.

Here are a few of the things that caught my attention:

Wall posts of 80 characters or less had 27% higher engagement rates (likes, etc.) than longer posts. 80 characters is not a lot -- a Twitter post is maximum 140 chars -- so keep it short.. A short post, almost by necessity, has to have something useful in it, like a new product launch, a sale, etc.

Full-length URLs do better than shortened URLs -- 3 times better. The report suggests this is because readers know where the URL will take them. Note that URL shortening is virtually a necessity in Twitter, so this is also different.

Posting outside business hours (referencing Eastern Time) creates higher engagement than posting during business hours. Considering how many businesses block access to social media sites, this isn't all that surprising. What IS surprising is how few of BuddyMedia's clients are posting outside business hours -- 60% of the posts in their study were between 10 am and 4 pm.

Thursday and Friday are the best days to post, followed by Sunday (see graphic above). The report shows some differences by industry which are quite dramatic. For example, Sunday is when people pay attention to automotive. Food and beverage is highest on Tuesday. Fashion is highest on Thursday. Their advice: study your own patterns.

Soft-sell key words seem to work best, but direct and simple calls to action get results. Do you want people to click "Like"? You need to ask them to do that.

You know that phrase, "conventional wisdom"? It doesn't have any relationship to new media. Test and learn should be your mantra.