Social networks are more than a chit-chat hub for the young and young-at-heart, and marketers know it. Brafton recently covered a study that found brands are making headway with their social strategies and seeing results. Surveyed marketers said they are nearly as satisfied by social campaign results as they are with those from essential internet marketing strategies like search and email.
Because social is becoming a basic practice, marketers must refine their approaches and deliver custom content at times of low interference – when it’s most likely to captivate the intended audience. This can prevent their brand messages from getting lost in the shuffle during social traffic jams at the end of the week.
Don’t skip Facebook posts on Monday
It’s easy to build momentum throughout the workweek, but gaining steam with social posting might be the wrong approach because it’s what everyone else is doing. Social monitoring firm SocialBakers studied the success of more than 2 million Facebook posts between April 30 and July 28, 2013 and found the first part of the week might present the best engagement potential for brands. SocialBakers discovered that:
– 17 percent of all Facebook posts go live on Friday
– 14.8 percent of all Facebook posts go live on Monday
– 9.9 percent of posts are published on Saturday
– 8.2 percent of FB posts go live on Sunday
At first glance, it might seem that Saturday and Sunday are the best choices for social sharing – and companies should pilot weekend posts to gain reach during periods with less brand activity. But marketers must keep in mind that brand posts will also be up against personal updates. Therefore, brands might get a bigger bang for their buck by saving their best updates for Monday, when followers are looking for fast information or a post-weekend pick-me-up.
Tweet on Tuesday
A separate study from SocialBakers found brands face stiff competition for follower engagement when they publish posts just before the weekend. Friday and Saturday see the highest-volume of engaging Tweets, and they also have the strongest engagement rates relative to the number of Tweets.
To capture their audiences’ attention, marketers may want to step it up Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday, in particular, had a lower portion of highly engaging Tweets compared to relative engagement rate, which suggests people are ready and waiting on the network, should brands send interesting content their way.
Social listening is the secret formula
As interesting as these findings are, marketers can’t throw out their old social media schedules and pop in this framework. This should be inspiration that makes them ask questions of their campaigns: Are we seeing engagement growth? When do people comment most? What posts garner the most Likes, and when? It’s important to use reliable social analytics tools to find the best days for an individual brand, and have strategies and content in place to act on insights. By taking a step back and approaching strategies with a fresh perspective, social marketing plans will become stronger and more successful.
