Three quarters of Facebook engagement happens in the first three hours

by Stratton Craig

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A new study from Optimal Social, a company that won a Facebook competition for developing a measuring and optimisation tool for social marketing, has revealed that the first three hours after a brand posts on Facebook are crucial for engagement.
Researchers looked at data from hundreds of thousands of Facebook pages and 8,500 of the world’s top brands on the social network, technology blog VentureBeat reported. Analysing the way users engaged with posts and photos, the study found that 75% of engagement happened over the first 180 minutes and about half of the likes, comments and shares took place in the first hour. The research found that this pattern was “quite consistent,” Optimal Social’s CEO Rob Leathern told VentureBeat.
While it is true that a post on social media does not disappear, at least not for a long time after it was posted, each post made on Facebook has a lifecycle of its own. Marketers should keep this in mind and have an understanding of when their audience is online before consideringwhen to post content. Commenting on the study, Business 2 Community noted that the findings are very important for brands because at every given point in time each content item is actually visible to only about 16% of all users who have “Liked” the brand’s overall page.
One of the most effective ways to ensure engagement and a longer lifecycle for content is to always ensure it is relevant to your audience, offering them something new or useful. We can help to ensure your content ticks all the right boxes for your audience – please get in touch today to find out more.

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