You’re sitting at your computer, you’ve got your general social media strategy in mind, perhaps some 
content that you will post or share about, but you feel your content should really be feeling much more of the love than your analytics are showing you. “But why?” you ask yourself. After time, you start to question yourself and the effectiveness of your current methods and practices. Should I be writing shorter or longer posts to get more likes, comments and shares on Facebook? Should I embed my videos directly to my social media profiles or use YouTube links? When are the best days and times to post to see the most engagement on my content? What good is a best billboard if it’s in the desert.
So, how do we finally figure out how to work this thing? We want to see numbers and we want to see them now!
Well, Buzzsumo, an online company and functional platform that specializes in analyzing what content performs best for any topic or competitor online conducted an analysis of more than 1 billion posts published in January 2016 by 3 million brands all over the world, from small businesses to giant corporations such as Nike.
Overall, the analysis showed these interesting and useful findings when creating content for your Facebook and other social media profiles:
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Image posts and those that ask questions received the highest rates of engagement (likes, shares and comments).
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Shorter posts of less than 50 characters receive the highest rate of engagement of any post type.
According to Buzzsumo, research revealed evidence that indicated that Facebook users are now using the platform as a discovery tool and/or space to react in, rather than reading in-depth pieces.
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Videos that are directly embedded get over six times the engagement of embedded YouTube videos.
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Surprisingly posts without hashtags see more interactions than posts with hashtags.
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Posts published between 10PM and Midnight of your audience’s local time zone receive the most engagement.
It appears that publishing where there are less posts being published and vying for attention actually increases your engagement. Thus attempting the art of learning to zig while others zag.
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Posts published on Sunday get more engagement on average.
Again, seems due to less competition with other posts and brands.
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Posts that link to longer form articles over 1,000 words get the most engagement.
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Posting images via Instagram appears to provide a 23% increase in your post’s engagement.
The Takeaway
Trends are always changing and what might have propelled you to the top yesterday can get you banished down to the bottom tomorrow just as quickly. It is important to stay up on these trends and changes so that your online presence does not fall behind that of your competitors – Am I right? Increase your presence, engagement and reach with these tips and increase your bottom line by integrating the digital world into your marketing strategy.
Interested to learn more? Check out Neil Patel’s full insights, case study, and conclusions he learned from analyzing 1 Billion Facebook posts here.
How do these findings chime with your own Facebook experience? Have you found these changes to be effective, about the same, worst advice ever or really successful in maximizing your social presence? We would love to hear about your experience, answer any questions and hear any new or additional ideas or practices that might help in keeping your social engagement trending like the hottest new #hashtag out there in our comments section below!