Facebook posting strategies: the 8 commandments

BuddyMedia (www.buddymedia.com), one of the most famous social media/marketing companies that have recently been bought by salesforce.com for $689M, has published a white paper (http://www.buddymedia.com/newsroom/2011/09/introducing-our-latest-research-a-statistical-review-for-the-retail-industry-strategies-for-effective-facebook-wall-posts) describing a series of golden rules companies should follow regarding their posting activities on Facebook.

The research has been conducted analyzing the Facebook page of 200 BuddyMedia’s clients (in the entertainment, media, retail, automotive, business and finance, fashion, food and beverage, healthcare and beauty, sports and travel and hospitality industries) for two weeks focusing the attention on the liking rate and the comment rate (both related to the fan size). Here a summary of the rules:

1)    Post Length

·      Keep It Short and Sweet: Posts 80 characters or less in length have 27% higher engagement rates.

2)    URL abbreviations

·      Think Twice before Using Them: Engagement rates are 3 times higher for Posts that used a full-length URL.

3)    Best Time to Post

·      Post When People Are Listening: Brands that posted outside of business hours had 20% higher engagement rates.

4)    Best Day to Post

·      Determine Yours: e.g. for the healthcare and beauty industry, engagement rates peak on Thursday so healthcare and beauty brands should publish then to capitalize on higher engagement rates. Save the best content for Thursday, whenever possible.

5)    Action Keywords

·      Fans Follow Instructions Well: To drive Comments, ask a direct question and ask for the response. Ask fans to “post,” “comment” or “tell” you something. Fans will listen and respond by commenting.

6)    Promotional Keywords

·      “Softer Sell” Keywords Resonate Best: Fans are happy to engage with “events” and “winning” offers. Stick with this language, as opposed to more direct language such as “contest” or “promotion.”

7)    Question Placement

·      Ask Questions at the End: Posts that end with a question have a 15% higher engagement rate.

8)    Interrogative Keywords

·      Don’t Ask Why; Ask Where, When, Would & Should: “Where”, “when”, “would” and “should” drive the highest engagement rates (but are used less frequently, leaving an opportunity for brands to increase use of these keywords). Avoid asking “why” questions. “Why” has both the lowest like, and comment rates, and may be perceived as intrusive and/or challenging.