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How Can I Get People to Read My Social Media Post?
Shameless Self-Promotion
"Show me an actor who doesn’t want to be famous and I’ll show you a liar,” says Kevin Bacon in a telegraph.com article. I love his shameless self-promotion, because he speaks of a truth evident in all of us - I want you to pay attention to me and what I have to say!
Facebook is a social network of self-promotion. We can call it a network of give and take, but if we were as truthful as Bacon, we would fess up about checking the site over and over to see if someone has acknowledged our post.
Whether you are promoting a product, a cause, a community or just your own personal opinions, it all comes down to hits, clicks and likes. Who is paying attention to what you have to say and when?
When to Post
Facebook claims over 1 billion people strong and boasts, "We help you reach the right ones!" All well and good, but branding consultant, Simon Mainwaring puts it into perspective saying, “One of the greatest challenges companies face in adjusting to the impact of social media, is knowing where to start." Because, yes, there is a method to all this madness when it comes to promotion on social network sites.
A good place to start is identifying the best day to post. Entrepreneur.com presents a Linchpinseo infographic that outlines the best days to post on Facebook outlined by industry. (See summary in chart below)
Facebook & Best Times to Post (Source: Entrepreneur.com/Linchpinseo.com)
INDUSTRY
| BEST POST TIMES
|
|---|---|
Advertising and Consulting
| Weekends are best for postings in this industry receiving 69% more traffic.
|
Automotive
| Weekend posts are best receiving 15% more than weekday traffic.
|
Clothing & Fashion
| For this industry, the traffic slowly increases as the week goes on and peaks on Thursday. Saturday is above-average for traffic to posts.
|
Consumer Packaged Goods
| Weekend posts are best for packaged goods as well, but don’t totally rule out weekdays, as Wednesday is above-average.
|
Entertainment
| It is no surprise that weekends are highest for entertainment - 20% higher than weekdays.
|
Finance
| Traffic is high between Monday and Tuesday and Friday and Saturday, but strangely peaks on Sunday which may be when people play catchup on bills and banking.
|
Food & Beverage
| It is weekends again due to when most Facebookers choose to dine out.
|
General Retail
| Mondays are best with traffic to these posts being 19% higher on Monday.
|
Health & Beauty
| The best times to post are Sunday and Monday.
|
Non- Profits
| Posts receive significantly higher traffic on Saturday and Sunday.
|
Publishing
| Fans play catch-up in this category on Sunday. If posting is to happen during the week, avoid Mondays.
|
Sports
| Since the biggest events are held on weekends, Saturday and Sundays have the highest interaction rates.
|
Technology
| One of the only industries to see low interaction on weekends, Monday are the best day to post with rates 30% higher than average.
|
Telecommunications
| Fridays, Sundays and Mondays receive highest interaction.
|
Travel & Leisure
| Interaction rates start climbing on Thursday and peak on Sunday.
|
Facebook is not alone in this age of social networking. Other sites have their best posting times as well. According to Eric Savitz on Forbes.com, it’s all about timing. Savitz shares the following data for best daily post time:
Best times for sharing on social channels:
- Twitter: 1 p.m.
- Facebook: 5 p.m.
- Pinterest: 11 p.m.
- Google+: 10 a.m.
- Email: 7 a.m.
And according to Savitz, it’s not just about the channel, but where we are on the globe:
Peak times for sharing content, by country:
- United States: 9 a.m. is Highest Share Count, 1 p.m. Most Clickbacks
- Great Britain: 6 p.m. is Highest Share Count, 4 a.m. Most Clickbacks
- France: 12 p.m. is Highest Share Count, 5 a.m. is Most Clickbacks
- India: 12 p.m. is Highest Share Count, 11:30am is Most Clickbacks
Other Tips
Brandon Leibowitz, of Socialmediatoday.com, shared that most companies are using the wrong approach. “Most companies, says Leibowitz, "are posting at the wrong time. Wednesday is the most common day for brands to post on Facebook, while they only post about 14 percent of their content on weekends. To some extent, this makes sense, as companies generally take the weekend off.” But according to the above table, most traffic is incurred over the weekend (with a few exceptions).
Other key factors when it comes to successful posting that Leibowitz brings to the forefront are:
- keeping yourself from verbosity (limiting your word use)
- the positive use of emoticons (which produce twice the response rate)
- the posting of questions (which can generate 92 percent higher traffic on a post)
In fact, author Susan Orleans has been quoted as saying, “The one thing I've discovered about social media is that people love answering questions. In fact, it sometimes feels like at any given moment, millions of people are online who have been waiting for exactly the question you fire off."
Susan Cain, however, on Psychology Today, brings up another important point for posting success. "If you want to succeed at effective use of social media, you have to dialogue with people. Social media is intended to be a conversation," says Cain, "not a monologue." She suggests that promoters respond to most tweets and comments unless they are in poor taste. “If you interact with people in social media," she says, "suddenly you will discover you’re not alone in marketing …”
CONCLUSION
Promoting businesses and organizations has become so important on Facebook, that even the giant, for a fee, is jumping on the bandwagon by offering “promoted posts”. “Promoted posts appear higher in news feed," Facebook claims, "so there’s a better chance your audience will see them.
But promotion doesn't have to cost. Discovering the best days and times to post, as well as following a few simple posting rules, may well give a company, organization or individual the advantage they need and set them on a path to successful promotion. With a small amount of research, stimulating traffic and getting a response could simply be a post or two away.
References
Cain, Susan. "Ten Steps to Promoting Yourself and Your Work." Psychology Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. <www.psychologytoday.com/blog/quiet-the-power-introverts/201109/ten-steps-promoting-yourself-and-your-work>.
Leibowitz, Brandon. "Optimum Facebook Posting Times." Social Media Today. N.p., 9 Oct. 2012. Web. 26 Mar. 2013. <socialmediatoday.com/bosmolskate/882661/best-times-use-facebook>.
Meyerson, Mitch. "The Best Days to Post to Facebook, Based on Industry (Infographic) | Entrepreneur.com." Business News & Strategy For Entrepreneurs | Entrepreneur.com. N.p., 8 Jan. 2013. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. <http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/225419
Mulkerrins, Jan. "Kevin Bacon interview for The Following: ‘my career went down the toilet’ - Telegraph." Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph. N.p., 22 Jan. 2013. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9806535/Kevin-Bacon-interview-for-The-Following-my-career-went-down-the-toilet.html>.
"Promoted Posts." Facebook.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2013. <https://www.facebook.com/help/promote>.
Ross, Bill. "Infographic Design Company: Designers Specializing in Data Visulaizations | LinchpinSEO." LinchpinSEO: Content Creation & Digital PR To Fuel Social & SEO. N.p., 22 Dec. 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. http://www.linchpinseo.com/infographic-design.
Savitz, Eric. "What's The Best Time To Share Social Content? - Forbes." Information for the World's Business Leaders - Forbes.com. N.p., 26 Jan. 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/11/26/whats-the-best-time-to-share-social-content/.
"Social Media Quotes - BrainyQuote." Famous Quotes at BrainyQuote. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords
