Written by Poojah Shah
We’ve all heard it before, Facebook is king. The social site’s prominence shows no signs of slowing down this year. The media giant caters to several sectors on one platform like finance, e-commerce, gaming, entertainment and tech, and with a recorded 2.32 billion active users per month, it’s no wonder marketing an communications pros are keeping such a close eye on Facebook. It’s no secret that Facebook is a popular site, but here are 8 lesser-known stats that comm pros should know, and ways that they can utilize them in the new year.
1. 95% of Facebook users are active through the Mobile app
Facebook ranks fifth for the most downloaded app in the App Store, comes third in Android Playstore. We all know the importance of mobile-first design, but are we really practicing it? Spending all day creating content on our desktops, it can be easy to forget to test and preview your content and designs on mobile before making them public. Grab the token Android user in your office too (or do a street shout out cash cab style, if necessary) to test how your content looks across all devices.
2. 300 million Facebook users worldwide view Facebook stories
Facebook stories are viewed by 300 million users daily. The number is enormous- but still less than Instagram. Instagram records 500 million story viewers on average daily. While you should still prioritize IG stories over Facebook in this sector, it doesn’t hurt to modify your IG content a little (there is a different aspect ratio/text allowance, etc.) and consistently post stories to your brand’s Facebook to tap into that 300+ mil audience!
3. Facebook has 10 million groups with 1.4 million active users
Creating a group for your brand is a great way to encourage building an engaged audience/community around your brand or product. Groups allow you to create an interactive medium for fans, and recently brands/pages can join groups as well. It’s a good idea to join groups that are relevant to your brand, as it’s a way to study and interact with potential customers, but PLEASE note that many of these groups will flag you as spam and remove you from the group if all you’re doing is posting irrelevant self-promotion. Nobody likes that guy. Don’t be that guy.
4. The highest traffic occurs in mid-week: Wednesday to Thursday.
The best days and times to post will vary from brand to brand, but if your client is just starting out, or you’re just now starting to manage their social and don’t have access to your audience’s metrics or preferences, a good rule-of-thumb is to post during the middle of the week. Typically, Wednesday and Thursday, between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. is the best chunk of time to reach out to most viewers. Start here and occasionally post at different dates and times to see what your audience responds best to, then adapt your social calendar accordingly.
5. The average engagement rate for Facebook posts is 3.6%
This is a good baseline to use as a comparison for how well your content is performing on Facebook. If you’re far, far lower than this number, it’s high time to re-evaluate your strategy. Look at your audience demographics and which posts they are responding the best to, and replicate that content (and posting schedule!) as best you can.
Good luck!
About Poojah
Pooja Shah is a Creative Writer at Auto Monkey. We provide an original analysis of the latest happenings in the social media industry. Connect with Latest Social Media Trends and News plus tips on Twitter, Facebook and other social tools on the web.