A good deal of companies maintain a Facebook page as part of their web presence, for marketing, hiring new employees, even for customer support. It’s an excellent medium to interact with users, both to release information quickly as well as to receive feedback. The following are a few tips on how to increase your user interaction:
Make your profile noticeable, this is what your audience sees first
Your profile pic
“Profile pictures matter. The site feature that attracted most attention on Klout, Facebook and StumbleUpon was the profile photo.” Source Mashable: Here’s How People Look at Your Facebook Profile — Literally
Who you know
“Who you know gets noticed. Even if for no better reason than their placement on the page, people do look at those little thumbnails of friends that appear on many social profiles. You can see this in the data from the Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Klout profiles.” Source Mashable: Here’s How People Look at Your Facebook Profile — Literally
Posting for the most effective user engagement
Posting images gets more responses
“Post Effectiveness by Post Type: In a surprising turn, image posts are more engaging then video or text for Facebook as measured by the number of fan responses, likes and shares. Image posts received 22% more engagement than video posts and 54% more engagement than text posts. Video was a solid secondary favorite with more than 27% more engagement than text posts.” Source Social Media Modus: Effective Facebook Posts: Study Based on 42.6 Million Fans
Post during the week, in the morning
According to the last cited source, Friday is the most popular day to post, and before noon is the time you’ll get the most responses. Source Social Media Modus: Effective Facebook Posts: Study Based on 42.6 Million Fans
The next source disagrees on the day, but the general consensus across the board is that weekends are the least effective time to post, and more active posters generate more attention.
- “On Wednesdays, fan engagement is 8% above average.
- Posting one to two times per day produces 40% higher user engagement.
- Posting one to four times per week produces 71% higher user engagement.”
Source Social Media Today: Writing Effective Facebook Posts
Post about what’s popular in the news
In 2011, the top ten global topics being discussed on Facebook were:
- Death of Osama bin Laden
- Packers win the Super Bowl
- Casey Anthony found not guilty
- Charlie Sheen
- Death of Steve Jobs
- The Royal Wedding
- Death of Amy Winehouse
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Military operations begin in Libya
- Hurricane Irene
Source Mashable: Facebook Reveals 2011′s Most-Popular Status Trends
Controversy generates interest and engagement
Entertainment: “Take This Lollipop”, an interactive video about being cyberstalked, is the fastest growing Facebook app to date. Source All Facebook: Facebook’s Fastest Growing App Is Take This Lollipop
Social media uprisings: “Social media has not only been at the core of major protest stories, but drove some of 2011′s biggest news, from Occupy Wall Street to the Arab Spring.” Source Mashable: 9 Social Media Uprisings That Sought to Change the World in 2011
Guerilla tactics
“Social media marketing is a huge avenue for guerrilla marketers because of the high ROI possibilities. Ogilvy Tunisia recently did a campaign for Axe Body Spray through which guys can be ‘in a relationship’ with literally, hundreds of girls. When other users clicked on that status, they were taken to the Axe app, where they too make their friends jealous. The application spread virally through the facebook newsfeed and likes.” Source Creative Guerrilla Marketing: AXE Creates Jealousy with new Facebook Social Campaign App
What do you think?
The future of social media and its effectiveness in reaching out to a particular audience is an incredibly dynamic platform at present, and predictions on trends for coming years get fuzzier and fuzzier as technology begins to exceed the human ability to keep up. User generated content has been taking over corporate-owned media at an exceeding rate, crossing over borders, cultures, and languages. There are no longer six degrees of separation as users around the world continue to connect with each other, and the number continues to shrink. “Facebook users average 3.74 degrees of separation” Source BBC News: Facebook users average 3.74 degrees of separation
What will 2012 and beyond bring to the digital world how we interact through social media? How far can we really go?
