A recent study conducted by ViTrue came to some very interesting conclusions in regards to the engagement habits Facebook Fan Page “Likers”. The study was based on Facebook postings made from 5/1/2010 to 8/11/2010 for more than 100 randomly selected streams or pages, representing 42.6 million Facebook fans and 32,000 posts.
Post Effectiveness by Post Type: In a surprising turn, image posts are more engaging then video or text for Facebook as measured by the number of fan responses, likes and shares. Image posts received 22% more engagement than video posts and 54% more engagement than text posts. Video was a solid secondary favorite with more than 27% more engagement than text posts.
Post Effectiveness by Day of Week: Post effectiveness varies greatly by industry vertical, but when all the data is viewed in aggregate, Friday posts generate the most engagement while Saturday and Sunday posts have the least engagement. Overall, Friday gets the most engagement with 64% more shares, likes and comments than Sunday (least engagement). Friday is only 7% more effective than Monday and 3% more than Tuesday and Thursday.
Post Effectiveness by Time of Day: Though for some verticals, such as quick serve restaurants (i.e. Taco Bell, McDonalds) the data skews differently as consumers search for dinner coupons, overall Facebook posts made before noon (12AM to 12PM) get 65% more engagement for all fan pages analyzed. This correlates to the theory that many people check their Facebook profiles first thing in the morning, quite possibly over a cup of coffee at the office and before the day gets busy.
Here are some additional user engagement statistics regarding the average user compliments of Mashable.com:
The Average Facebook User:
- Spends 55 minutes on Facebook per day
- Has 130 Facebook Friends
- Is a member of 12 groups
- Sends 8 Friend requests per month
- Uses the ‘like’ button 9 times per month
- Writes 25 comments per month
- Becomes a fan of 2 pages per month
In addition, according to some recently published statistics by Facebook, people who click on the “Like” button are more engaged, active and connected than the average Facebook user. The average “Liker” has 2.4x the amount of friends than that of a typical Facebook user. They’re also more interested in exploring content they discover on Facebook, and click on external site links 5.3x more frequently than the typical Facebook user.
