Facebook now claims over 1.1 billion users. These impressive numbers point out both the opportunity and the challenge of popular social networks:
FACEBOOK FINDINGS
1. Post weekends and evenings.
The best days to post can vary by industry, but weekends are generally best. One study reported 14.5% higher interaction with posts on weekends. Wednesday was the worst day. During the week, avoid posting during business hours. Posts from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. got 14% higher interaction.
2. Be frequent but brief.
Post once or twice a day to your Facebook page, but not more than seven times a week. To hit the best days, post twice on the weekend, then once on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Keep them short! Posts with 80 characters or less scored 23% higher interaction than ones with more characters.
3. Yes, emoticons work.
Emoticons humanize a business and posts that use them got up to 57% more “likes.” However, emoticons do tend to work better with consumer products.
4. Encourage comments.
Ask readers about their experiences or views on the topic you’re covering. Questions attracted 92% more comments than statements. You can also put a “caption this” under images and invite readers to “fill in the blanks” as part of your post.
5. Close with a CTA (call to action).
If you ask readers to like a post or comment on it, the response rate can be more than three times higher than when such a CTA is left out.