Part 1 was published last week, highlighting the average lifespan of a Facebook post, the average % of total fan base willing to engage with a brand page average engagement, rate of a Facebook fan page.
We continue this week with part 2 and it is our hope that with this understanding, we can help you set more realistic goals, put more effective strategies in place and build stronger fan communities:
4. Posting Less Will Garner Stronger Results
After seeing these stats, the natural reaction is to want to publish content even MORE often to do everything you can to build this number higher than a measly 1%, right?
Well… sorry, but that won’t work either.
Further studies from several sources have shown that the sweet-spot of 1 -2 posts per day on Facebook fan page will garner the strongest results. Anything more than that and you will actually start to see increasingly diminishing results.
This graph below from Jeff Bullas shows how meaningful the difference between 1-2 vs. 3+ posts can actually be. His research shows that by posting only 1 to 2 times per day, your page is likely to receive 32% more likes AND 73% more comments when compared to the engagement you’re likely to receive from posting 3+ times per day.
Image Source: Jeff Bullas
5. You Will Be Published For Being Efficient
Because consistency is key to a strong social media strategy, it is critical that you publish content every single day. No breaks.
Even though you should only post one (or possibly two) posts per day, this can get overwhelming quickly. But thankfully there are several apps, such as Hootsuite, that allow you to schedule content for Facebook ahead of time.
PHEW… Great News!
Don’t get too excited just yet. Let’s see what Facebook’s Edge Rank algorithm has to say about this…
Unfortunately, a study by Hubspot has shown that publishing content from any 3rd party (yes, including Hootsuite) will average a whopping 67% lower engagement rate than content published directly to Facebook.
Do to so, go to your fan page, click the Status Update box, and click the little clock icon and add in the date and time you’d like to publish each post:
6. Likelihood of Posts going ‘Viral’ of Facebook
We have all seen those photos, memes or videos that have gone viral in the past. And understandably so, this idea of ‘going viral’ is why many people started using social media to promote themselves or their brand in the first place.
Well, we’re sorry to say that it look’s like Facebook’s Edge Rank algorithm has reared it’s ugly head once again.
Edge Rank algorithm is a system that ranks and displays only the most ‘relevant’ and ‘important’ content on your news feed from your friends and pages you have liked…
Not that it has EVER been easy to ‘go viral’ online, and the fact remains that most viral videos, photos and memes do so because of chance.
There IS NO science behind viral content.
But with that said, Facebook doesn’t make it easy for this type of viral reaction to ever happen to content published from a Fan page.
In the suite of Facebook Insights data (Facebook’s native analytics tools given to all Facebook fan page admins) there is a stat called ‘virality’ which is the percentage of fans who have shared your content on their own timelines for their own friends, family and fans to see.
A recent study from Edge Rank Checker shows that as of March 4th, 2013, the average ‘virality’ rate of a post on Facebook fan page only 1.5%. This means that of your 100 fans, only 1.5 of them (on average) will share the content with their communities.
Image Source: Edgerankchecker.com
Which Shocking Facebook Stats Have Your Hair Standing Straight Up?
These stats are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what is actually available for Facebook, as new studies are being done every month, week and day of the year. There is no question that when working with Facebook to build a community, there are some obstacles surrounding engagement and visibility that need to be considered when building a consistent content strategy.
If you have found any alarming stats that we should be aware of, please share them below in the form of a comment.
