smo tips for better-performing posts to facebook and twitter

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SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMIZATION TIPS FOR BETTER-PERFORMING POSTS TO FACEBOOK AND TWITTER

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Трюки SMO (Social Media Optimization) для лучшего представления постов в Facebook и Twitter (by Shoutlet)

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Page 1: SMO Tips for Better-performing Posts to Facebook and Twitter

SOCIAL MEDIAOPTIMIZATION

TIPS FOR BETTER-PERFORMING POSTSTO FACEBOOK AND TWITTER

Page 2: SMO Tips for Better-performing Posts to Facebook and Twitter

Shoutlet, Inc. 2012 • v12.022 shoutlet.com • facebook.com/shoutlet • twitter.com/shoutlet

In February 2012, Facebook announced at the Facebook Marketing Conference that just 16% of

fans on average see the posts on most Facebook Pages.1 This percentage came as a shock to Page

admins. But it illustrated that despite the enormous growth of social media over the past several

years, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to cut through the noise of the feeds on multiple

social networks.

How does a social team keep up and consistently produce engaging posts across social networks?

Optimization. Now, it is more important than ever to optimize each post for each social network

in order for more people to not only see your content, but feel compelled to interact with it as

well. Social post optimization requires big thinking as well as intense attention to detail. The

tricky part about getting the details just right is that there are many moving parts.

Optimizing your social media posts for engagement is an ongoing quest, but one that can do

nothing but boost your exposure and your ability to solicit interaction from fans and followers.

OPTIMIZING FOR ENGAGEMENTAmong the primary goals of many social media programs is engagement. The most successful

Facebook Pages and Twitter accounts have histories of social media research and testing that

have allowed them to uncover what types of posts work for them.

Optimizing social posts for any network includes optimizing for reach and optimizing for interaction.

Planning for enhanced reach helps engagement, and engagement, in many cases, can propel the

content to a wider audience.

Post optimization can broadly be broken down into these focus areas:

SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMIZATIONTIPS FOR BETTER PERFORMING POSTS TO FACEBOOK AND TWITTER

1 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/facebook-posts_n_1311330.html

CONTENT FORMAT TIMING CALLS TOACTION

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CONTENTWhat content will result in the interaction you are hoping to generate?

Content is the driver for social media engagement. As content marketing leader Joe Chernov

said, if social media is a sports car, then content is the gasoline. “The sports car goes nowhere

without a tank of gas.”2

Even the most perfectly optimized posts could fall flat if content doesn’t resonate. Brands are

faced with the challenge of creating content that will help them meet their goals, whether that

means driving traffic and sales from social sites, generating leads, or sparking engagement and

interaction to help reinforce the bond with their community. An added challenge is striking a

good balance of content types, with directly promotional content balanced with topics that

inform, educate, or entertain.

FORMATWhat format should the post adopt to get the most reach?

Will the post include a photo or video, for example? This will depend on the social network, and

in many cases one piece of content might take on different formats to suit the social network it’s

being posted to. While format can help determine reach, as in the case of Facebook’s EdgeRank

algorithm, it can also help encourage interaction.

TIMINGWhen should the post be published to be seen by the most of my community?

How often should I post?

There have been a slew of studies that offer data analysis about the best times to post and how

often to post. While these can provide guidelines to experiments with, the best times to post and

receive the most exposure is determined by your own audience’s habits on each social site and

uncovered by your social media analytics.

CALLS TO ACTIONWhat calls to action will result in the outcome I’m looking for on this post?

Calls to action are the gateway to the results you are trying to achieve. These will vary from network

to network based on the audience, the content, the goal of the post, and the functionality of the

platform at hand.

Optimizing for reach and interaction will provide a basis for each post that helps you no

matter which network you’re publishing on. Each social network has its own additional

requirements for excellent optimized posts. But by evaluating these criteria for reach and

interaction, you’ll be able to reach as much of your audience as you can, while encouraging

the interactions that help you meet your goals and create positive social media ROI.

How do these factors translate to Facebook and Twitter? Here is a breakdown of what

optimization for reach and interaction mean in real-world terms for these networks.

2 http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-pros-podcast/eloquas-approach-to-the-future-of-content-marketing

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FACEBOOKOptimizing posts for Facebook requires a varying set

of factors to consider. In addition to the chief goal of

generating interaction through great content, Page

admins also must take into account Facebook’s internal

algorithm that determines what shows up in the news

feed, also known as EdgeRank.

The classic definition of EdgeRank that social marketers

have come to know is the formula above, comprised

of these components: affinity, weight, and time. In

short, it says that each time a user or Page creates

an “object” that is eligible for placement in the new

feed, affinity, weight, and time are taken into account

to determine whether it becomes visible. Affinity is

the relationship between a Page and a user, including

how often a user interacts with a Page. Weight assigns

a value to a specific action, such as a like vs. a share,

and time takes into account the elapsed time a post

or interaction as taken place.

But the true, working version of the new feed algorithm

is constantly changing, with Facebook making tweaks

roughly every week, said Will Cathcart, Facebook’s

product manager of news feed.3 Some of those tweaks

become more apparent to page admins than others,

as in the case of a major update Facebook made to

the algorithm in September 2012.

What started as a noticeable change in metrics,

especially reach, prompted theories that Facebook

had altered the News Feed algorithm.4 Some argued

that it had done so to encourage Page admins to

invest more heavily in Promoted Posts to boost the

reach of posts to more of their fans.

The discussion surrounding that change prompted

Facebook to share more details about the algorithm. In

November 2012, it described the four factors the algorithm

takes into account, as reported by TechCrunch5:

How often a user has interacted with posts from

that Page in the past.

The more a user engages with posts, the more likely

he or she will see future posts by that Page in the

news feed.

How others interact with posts from a Page.

Whether others are engaging heavily with a post –

or if those who do see it do not interact or they

provide negative feedback – determines if post will

be shown to other fans of the Page.

What type of content a user engages with.

Does a user always interact with photos, for example?

Photos are then more likely to be displayed to that user.

How much negative feedback a Page as received

on a post or overall.

Negative feedback on Facebook posts include

these actions:

• Hiding a post

• Hiding all posts from the news feed

• Unliking the Page

• Reporting a post as spam

The more users take these negative actions, the less

likely content is displayed. Pages that have lower the

average rates of negative actions are also rewarded,

said Facebook’s Cathcart.6

NFO: News Feed OptimizationEdgeRank

- affinity score between viewing user and edge creator

- weight for this edge type (create, comment, like, tag, etc.)

- time decay factor based on how long ago the edge was created

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3 AllFacebook, Nov. 16, 2012: http://allfacebook.com/facebook-news-feed-placement-is-all-about-relevancy_b1049094 https://social.ogilvy.com/facebook-algorithmic-change-to-decrease-reach-on-brand-page-posts5 http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/16/facebook-page-reach6 http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/16/facebook-page-reach

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(In an effort to make the news feed more relevant to users,

the changes made in September to the algorithm include

a much greater emphasis on these negative actions,

which had a negative impact on reach for many Pages.7

In September Facebook also made the option to take a

negative action easier to access through a drop-down

menu on every post. The decrease in the reach of posts

that do not see engagement has led to an increase in

engagement, according to Facebook’s Matt Idema,

the company’s product marketing director of ads.8)

TACTICS FOR OPTIMIZING FOR FACEBOOK

Even with the frequent changes in the algorithm behind the news feed, there are ways to optimize

posts to reach more people and generate interaction. Tips for optimization in each of these areas:

All of this new information about the News

Feed algorithm points to the main concept

that Page admins need to know is that

engagement is the most important factor

in getting your content to rank higher

in the News Feed.

CALL TO ACTION

FORMAT

TIMING

CONTENT

7 http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/16/facebook-page-reach8 http://allfacebook.com/facebook-news-feed-placement-is-all-about-relevancy_b104909

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CONTENT

What content engages your Facebook fans? Engagement is the driving force behind News Feed

visibility, not to mention great content’s impact with each fan.

• Use Facebook Insights to learn more about your fans and merge those insights with what you

know about your customer base overall. If your key demographic is moms, for example, and you

see that you’re reaching younger moms on Facebook, tailoring a greater percentage of content

to women with younger children could help boost interaction. Knowing which subset of customers

are fans of your Pages helps focus potential topics.

Also studying negative feedback for each post provides indicators of what content has prompted

fans to take a negative action. One PageLever study found that users are most likely to hide all

posts from a page when they take a negative action – 60 times more likely than unliking a Page.9

This, coupled with an algorithm that takes negative feedback into account, highlights the need

to invest in analyzing your data, which can help build content that compels users to engage.

• Experiment with Facebook Page post targeting. By using the new Facebook page post targeting

options, you are able to make posts as relevant to a sub-segment of users as possible. Target

specific content to fans filtered by everything from location to relationship status, education,

and gender. The greater the relevance, the more likely content is to strike a chord and

generate engagement.

• Analyze what’s been successful in the past. Only by knowing what’s worked will you know

how to boost your numbers of Engaged Users and the likes, comments, and shares of posts.

FORMAT

Working in tandem with content is the format that content will take in the Facebook post.

• Post photos. Images have been the star of 2012, with visual content exploding on places like

Pinterest and Instagram. On Facebook, photos are consistently receiving the highest engagement

rates, beating text updates, links, and videos.10 They’re getting up to 20x the engagement

of other post types, wrote PageLever’s Brian Carter.11 Brands continue to see success with

photo posts.

• Experiment with other formats to see what resonates with your audience. A well-crafted status

update can garner more likes, comments, and shares than a photo post that isn’t as engaging.

9 http://www.fastcompany.com/3001871/your-facebook-fans-are-hiding-your-posts-alarming-rate10 http://mashable.com/2012/08/30/improve-facebook-edgerank11 http://mashable.com/2012/08/30/improve-facebook-edgerank

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CALLS TO ACTION

Great content in the right format still relies on a well-crafted call to action to generate engagement.

On Facebook, testing what phrases and requests for action works for you over time is crucial.

Other tips:

• Double-check you have a call to action. Even when posting links, include a specific action that

can drive engagement on Facebook.

• Either/or questions and fill in the blank messaging helps guide comments and solicit opinions.

• Integrate your call to action with your photo for a quick impact in the news feed that is

designed to generate comments.

TIMING

There have been numerous studies on when the best times are to post on Facebook. Some have

pointed to the hours of 1 to 4 p.m., with the peak times being 3 p.m. on Wednesdays.12 Others

encourage posting on weekends, others advise against publishing after business hours. The only

definite point in terms of timing are that each company is different. Ultimately it depends on your

unique audience and their habits. Experiment with posting times and days of the week. Enlist a

social media measurement tool that can help you uncover the reach and interaction rates of posts

at different times throughout the day.

12 http://mashable.com/2012/05/09/best-time-to-post-on-facebook

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TWITTERTwitter is a substantially different social network than Facebook when it comes to optimization.

Although it doesn’t rely on an algorithm to be seen by followers, the lifecycle of a tweet

is much shorter. Still, here are ways to optimize your tweets to get the most out of your

efforts on Twitter.

TACTICS FOR OPTIMIZING FOR TWITTER

CALL TO ACTION

FORMAT

TIMING

CONTENT

CONTENT

Like content for all social networks, content that is relevant for your audience works best

and is the foundation of optimizing tweets.

• Use the 80/20 rule as a guideline for the content you’re publishing - 80% relevant content

that’s educational and from reputable sources, and the other 20% to promote your

company’s own content.

• Add appropriate hashtags. Carefully selected hashtags can widen your reach. Hashtags

for an event let your company contribute to the conversation.

• Add context to information you share with followers. Knowing what your audience is

interested in and what they tend to interact with can help you tailor tweets to them.

Adding a few words about how a particular article or video can help them specifically

encourages them to click.

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FORMAT

• Attach images to tweets for greater context. Twitter and many third-party Twitter

clients include in-line display of images. One recent study found tweets with images

outperformed text-only tweets by 91%.13

• Include links to provide followers with external resources, and be straightforward about

where the links are taking users. Use a trackable short URL service to see which links

received the most clicks.

• Condense to less than 140 characters.

Make it easy for those sharing to add their

input and RT your content.

TIMING

Like the timing of Facebook posts, the timing of tweets depends on your audience. Bit.ly

found that tweets that included links were published after 8 p.m. every day and after

3 p.m. on Fridays are among the worst times, compared to tweets sent between 1 and

3 p.m. Eastern time which performed best.14 HubSpot’s Dan Zarrella found that tweets

posted on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday had higher clickthrough rates than other days of

the week.15 Possibly in part because there are fewer tweets posted during those times.16

• Tracking tweet timing will help you assess when your followers are most likely to both

click on your links and share with their followers. Tools like Shoutlet and free tools on

the market can help you track clickthroughs and retweets.

CALLS TO ACTION

• Asking for a retweet is among the most direct

calls to action, and there’s evidence that asking

does help generate added shares. Zarrella’s

research also found that using key phrases in the

tweet were more likely to have higher CTRs.17

Source: DanZarrella.com

Via

CTR

@

RT

Please

Check

@AddThis

Marketing

@GetGlue

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

Tweets with the Word

Tweets without the Word

13 http://socialmediatoday.com/morgan-j-arnold/890546/optimizing-twitter-engagement-tweet-content-works14 http://mashable.com/2012/05/09/best-time-to-post-on-facebook15 http://danzarrella.com/infographic-how-to-get-more-clicks-on-twitter.html#16 http://danzarrella.com/infographic-how-to-use-contra-competitive-timing-for-more-retweets-likes-comments-and-clicks.html#17 http://danzarrella.com/infographic-how-to-get-more-clicks-on-twitter.html

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Shoutlet, Inc. 2012 • v12.0210 shoutlet.com • facebook.com/shoutlet • twitter.com/shoutlet

Even with slews of studies and guidance from the social networks, the best way to

uncover the right mix of great content, perfect timing, effective calls to action, and the

right format will be to learn as much about your audience as you can, then experiment

and continue to optimize as needed.

ABOUT SHOUTLET Shoutlet is a leading cloud-based enterprise social marketing platform that enables

marketers to publish, engage, and measure social marketing campaigns and activities

on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Its industry leading functionality includes a Social CRM for Facebook, Twitter, and

YouTube management; Social Canvas® for Facebook tabs, HTML5 pages, and custom

contest and web app design; Social Switchboard® for trigger-based campaign publishing;

Social Profiles for data acquisition and interest segmentation; Social Enterprise for

corporate-level control of multiple brands, franchises, and agents; and Social Analytics

for metric tracking and custom reporting.

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