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8 Facebook Engagement Stats Every Marketer Needs To Know

By Mari Smith | September 15, 2015 |

Does publishing Facebook posts through a third party tool affect your reach and engagement? What types of Facebook posts get the most interactions? What is the best time of day to publish Facebook business posts? Which day of the week is best for publishing posts? These are all questions I hear regularly from businesses using Facebook.

Good news! Our friends at content discovery tool, BuzzSumo, analyzed 500 million Facebook posts to discover what types of posts create the most likes, comments and shares. The results may surprise you!

8 facebook engagement stats link preivew

8 Eye-Opening Facebook Engagement Stats

  1. Posts published from 10 – 11 PM EST get 88% more interactions than the average Facebook post. *
  2. Image posts get 179% more interactions than the average Facebook post.
  3. Posts ending with a question get 162% more interactions than the average post.
  4. Videos are the most shared post type, with 89.5 average Facebook shares. **
  5. Posts published on Sunday get 52.9% more interactions than the average Facebook post.
  6. Excluding images, posts with 150-200 characters performed the best, averaging 238.75 shares.
  7. Posting with a 3rd party tool results in 89.5% less engagement than directly posting to Facebook.
  8. Posts that link to long form content (2000+ words) receive 40% more interactions than linking to short form content.

FOONOTE:
* Interactions = likes + shares + comments
** BuzzSumo counted only shares, not likes + comments.

Use these facts and stats to adjust your Facebook content publishing strategy and you may start to see an increase in engagement. Remember, each Page and audience is different – experiment to find your own sweet spot.

mari smith buzzsumo 8 facebook stats infographic

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Content discovery tool, includes trends

Find the most engaging content on the web at BuzzSumo. (I recently started using this tool and totally LOVE it! Stay tuned for even more awesome Facebook-related features coming from BuzzSumo!). 

NEW Free Facebook Tool!

BuzzSumo just released a brand new tool today, called Sumo Rank! You can check the engagement of any Facebook page for free! Go to: www.sumorank.com

Let’s hear from you…

Did you find value in this post and the infographic? Any questions or comments, let us know below – we’d love to hear from you.

Please do share this post on your social profiles, too. Feel free to embed the infographic on your website/blog as well — use the code above! 🙂

UPDATE – 1.21.16

First, please do watch this video:

 

Does Posting to Facebook Using a Third Party App Lower Reach &…Does Posting on Facebook via 3rd Party Tools Lower Your Reach?! BuzzSumo analyzed 500 Million Facebook Posts and discovered that publishing through 3rd party tools *may* lower engagement and, as such, possibly reach, too. See this blog post with infographic: http://www.marismith.com/8-facebook-engagement-stats-every-marketer-needs-to-know/ and this post as well: https://blog.bufferapp.com/facebook-data-study-insightsHowever, Buffer also conducted their own analysis of 500 Million Facebook posts and show that 3rd party posts are not ‘penalized’ in any way on Facebook. See: https://blog.bufferapp.com/3rd-party-facebookSee also this conversation thread on Buffer cofounder, Leo Widrich’s profile: https://www.facebook.com/leonhardwidrich/posts/1152218541457892 Your thoughts?! #FacebookApps #SocialMedia #ContentScheduling #ThirdPartyApps

Posted by Mari Smith on Thursday, January 21, 2016

To explain further, Buffer App conducted its own research of 500 million Facebook posts and “debunked the age old social media myth that posting via third party tools get penalized by Facebook.” As a result of that blog post on Buffer + this comment thread on Leo Widrich’s (Buffer App cofounder) Facebook profile, along with ensuing discussion between Joshua Parker (Post Planner cofounder) and Steve Rayson (Director at BuzzSumo) and myself, I wanted to clear up any misunderstanding about this topic of using third party tools.

Personally, I’m a big fan of third party tools. I use HootSuite every day for scheduling my posts on Twitter and LinkedIn. My own personal preference is to publish natively (directly) on Facebook. However, it’s really important that Facebook Page Admins conduct their own experiments to see what works for you. There is no prescriptive, one-size-fits all approach here.

BuzzSumo’s analysis of 500M Facebook posts did not reveal that posts via third party apps get ‘penalized.’  The data does not mean that using a tool actually lessens engagement of itself. Rather, some possible reasons for lower engagement when posting via third party apps include:

  • people creating less engaging content when using a tool
  • cross-posting content from other platforms such as Twitter, rather than crafting a post specific to the platform which will perform better
  • not optimizing images for Facebook
  • scheduling content for later, which simply gets posted after a story has already gone viral or is no longer as relevant
  • no one wanting to engage with a post that looks automated, which could explain why tools like IFTTT performed particularly badly in terms of engagement

See Buffer’s post for more on this topic, as well:

Mari Smith

Often referred to as “the Queen of Facebook,” Mari Smith is widely known as the Premier Facebook Marketing Expert and a top Social Media Thought Leader. Forbes describes Mari as, “… the preeminent Facebook expert. Even Facebook asks for her help.” IBM named Mari as one of seven women that are shaping digital marketing. Mari is an in-demand keynote speaker, corporate social media strategist, dynamic live webcast host, and popular brand ambassador. She is coauthor of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day, and author of The New Relationship Marketing.

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27 Comments

  1. Angela Drt on November 3, 2015 at 7:18 pm

    Great article ! I really like how you bullet pointed everything, it’s very easy to get even if I’m not that familiar with Facebook ! It’s crazy how videos are becoming more and more viral on Facebook and other platform, people just want shorter content and something that can gather them ( cute, knowledge etc…) any ways thanks for sharing !



  2. Karen Lefkowitz on October 27, 2015 at 10:31 am

    Terrific tips presented in a very clear fashion. I don’t want to focus on garnering X amount of “likes” – I’m more concerned with deepening the engagement with my audience, sharing information, and changing behavior. Since I also want my FB content to differ from what I post on Twitter your suggestions are very helpful in terms of what strategies and tactics work best on this particular platform. Thanks!



  3. DanieC on October 20, 2015 at 4:06 pm

    This was a great post, very informative with the stats. I really enjoyed reading it and I can defintlety see myself referring to this for future posting.



  4. Andre Ank on September 26, 2015 at 2:01 am

    Facebook range is not influenced by outsider applications, for both paid and natural brand posts



  5. Alex Toffy on September 24, 2015 at 3:23 am

    Really this is a wonderfully examine each terms. What great explanation ? I like all that Facebook Engagement Stats.



  6. Ethel Paderes on September 21, 2015 at 2:46 am

    I also used Buzzsumo to check which topic has more buzz that are in line with my industry. So, it’s great that you’ve mentioned that in your post. #2 about image posts — thumbs up on that. Visuals play a key role for better engagement because people are guided (mostly) on what they see first. 😉



  7. Sherman Smith on September 17, 2015 at 4:52 pm

    Hey Mari,

    This is my first time on your blog and I really like the value here. I took a break from using facebook for a while, and now I’m getting back into it. I really like the infographic because it gives me some type of direction to go when it comes to facebook.

    Thanks for sharing Mari! Have a great upcoming weekend!



  8. Chris Hodgeman on September 15, 2015 at 7:32 pm

    Mari, interesting stats, especially point 7. This is completely at odds with Social Bakers saying in June 2015 that “your Facebook reach is not affected by third-party apps, for both paid and organic brand posts”,
    Do you have any further thoughts on this?
    https://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaMinute/videos/480474632111622/

    Thanks



    • Scott Ayres on November 20, 2015 at 7:32 am

      That 89% stat is not accurate and isn’t being used correctly IMHO.



  9. Rodrigo DB on September 15, 2015 at 11:57 am

    Great content @MariSmith:disqus!!! You are awesome!!! It would be huge if you come to Brazil some day! I´ll be on the first row!

    Love your posts.



  10. Will Irish on September 15, 2015 at 7:45 am

    7 more reasons that I think Mari is tops when it comes to Facebook Marketing. Great discovery and partnership data with BuzzSumo!

    You are magic, Mari! Thanks for sharing !!



    • Mari Smith on September 15, 2015 at 11:01 am

      Thank kindly @willirish:disqus!!!



    • Mari Smith on September 15, 2015 at 11:01 am

      Thank kindly @willirish:disqus!!!



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