Creating the Most Effective Facebook Content StrategiesAn in-depth analysis that dispels the myths and informs best practices in the creation of effective engagement strategies

The purpose of this study is to answer the question…

“How do I create the most engaging content strategies in my social media

plan.”

Executive Summary

Key Findings:

– Facebook posting engagement rates are on the decline, with an average engagement per thousand of 0.79

– There is no significant impact of time of day or day of week on posting effectiveness

– As a Fan Base grows, expect engagement rates to decline

– The optimal post frequency is 6-8 posts per week

– Posts with under 11 words performed the best

Executive Summary

Recommended Actions:

– Create an engagement strategy that keeps posts relevant and engages the user (i.e.: questions, clear messaging)

– Set benchmarks for posting performance, with an expected outcome of various types of posts (remember, not all posts will over perform so a balanced approach is key)

– Implement tools to help the scheduling and deployment of posts

– Post when it is relevant to your target audience and when you have something interesting to say

– Experiment - test, analyze, learn and test again

MethodologyThis analysis is based on an ongoing study that has amassed over 97,000 wall posts across 333 Facebook Pages of many Fortune 500 brands. Data analyzed was collected from August 2010 to June 2011.

About SyncapseFounded in 2007, Syncapse Corp. has quickly become a global technology leader in social media management by delivering solutions that empower brands and agencies to build, manage and measure their digital customer relationships.

A member of Facebook’s Preferred Developer Consultant program, the Syncapse Platform has connected brands with millions of consumers globally, delivered tens of millions of dollars in earned media value and has been recognized as one of the top social technology providers for brand marketers.

Engagement Per Thousand (EPM) = the response rate to a Facebook post

EPM = (Like + Comments/Fan Base)*1000

Engagement is on the declineObservation: The global EPM benchmark has steadily declined consistently to 0.79, normalized to account for seasonal posting schedules

Opportunity:

Set standard performance indicators like EPM to understand comparative performance against the industry, the category and key competitors.

Time of day doesn’t matter, timeliness does

Observation:The only relevant fluctuation in time of day is early morning, +13% above industry average – time of day only matters if the time will have a significant impact on the relevance of the content

Opportunity:

Deliver content that is relevant to the time it is delivered.

The day doesn’t drive engagement, relevance does

Observation:Day of week of a post did not have a statistically significant impact on response, but interestingly there is a massive reduction in brand generated posts on weekends

Opportunity:

Create content that is relevant the day it is released, and create content for deployment on weekends.

Post frequently, as long as you have something to say

Observation:The optimal number of posts ranges from 6-8 per week

Opportunity:

Create a publishing strategy that is geared to engage fans more frequently, constantly experimenting with new approaches.

As the fan base increases, engagement declines

Observation:Higher engagement occurs as pages go through growth stages, but as the fan base increases, EPM declines

Opportunity:

Establish targets in accordance to the lifecycle of the page. Begin to mine data with mature pages to understand who are the active members and what content they engage with.

Be briefObservation:The greatest EPM is achieved with posts that contain less than 11 words, but interesting, longer posts perform almost as well

Opportunity:

Create best practices in the development of content plans and exercise creativity in the development of posts.

Dissecting a great postThe post below achieved a 5.37, well above the industry average of 0.79

Key Learning:• On first glance, this post may not be perceived as being a post

that would produce positive results with Netflix 1.5M plus fan base• This product announcement has a great conversational tone and

offers multiple linking opportunities to drive the user to the movie section to order

• Multiple movies mentioned provides a broader opportunity • Although a longer post, the clear call to action of ‘liking’ creates

obvious potential for the post to appear in newsfeeds

Conclusions

Keep it simpleSimple concise posts outperform.

Keep it relevantIf the post is relevant to the audience at the time it is posted, that will create the best engagement. Consider using creative means to manufacture relevance or the tie to the time/day the post is made.

Benchmark and learnCreate standards around performance management and continue to experiment and learn from results.

Thanks.

Paul CowanVP, Measurement & IntelligenceSyncapse@cowanpkc

syncapse.com