Badgy's Social Commerce Optimization Blog

Just in time for Earth Day, Facebook is going green on their brand page Admin Panel. Not eco-friendly green, but promoted post green, with a major shift in the admin panel. 

First, a look at the previous version of the admin panel - the “Notifications” panel is prominent, showing likes and comments from your fans on your recent posts. The “See All” link takes you to an information overload page that summarizes daily engagement on all posts.

Now, consider the newly released version of the Admin Panel. The “Notifications” section has been rolled up into a small button, and replaced with a larger “Posts” panel that nicely shows the total reach of all recent posts. The focus on paid reach is evident. The “Promotion” column pulls up the standard dialogue to promote a post. The “Paid Reach” column focuses only on paid media, and the “Total Reach” focuses on the aggregate of Organic, Viral, and Paid reach. Most of the time, the opportunity for paid reach far exceeds the opportunity for organic reach, and usually exceeds viral reach.

This is a massive shift from a focus on engagement to a focus on paid reach. The other interesting tweak Facebook is testing is in the “Insights” section. We’re seeing varying color combinations for Reach and “Talking About This” (PTAT), and Facebook seems to be testing whether or not to show post frequency on the top level dashboard. A few other views:

We like the “Insights” views that include post density and the green-for-organic and blue total reach lines. Which do you prefer?

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For post level insights beyond what Facebook offers, check out our free analytics products. Sign up in 30 seconds here.

“What Type of Facebook Post is Best?” is a popular question, perhaps second only to “What Time should I post?” We’ve aggregated detailed data from hundreds of Facebook Pages using our free Page Analytics tool (sign up here) to bring you answers based on current, real data, not the dated anecdotes you so often see.

The answer to this is simple, but it depends on what you’re optimizing for. Based on the past week:

• Likes - if you want people to like your post, photo posts are currently performing best, followed closely by text posts, with link posts lagging far behind.
• Comments - photo and text posts are equally good at garnering comments. Link posts get 90% fewer comments.
• Impressions - if you want more people to see what you have to say, text posts still rule the roost. Photo posts are a distant second, with link posts far behind, underperforming in all categories.

Jon Loomer shared some great thoughts on post type this week. The most important thing that we agree on is that great Facebook post performance starts with great content. Thoughtful words and compelling photos are key. Post great content, arm yourself with the latest best practices, and learn what works best for your audience. While text and photo posts generate nearly equal results on average, your audience probably favors one over the other.

PostRocket shared a solid visualization of how Facebook decides what shows up in your news feed. We dig almost everything about it - Batman, the accurate factors in EdgeRank, everything but the goofy and ubiquitous Sigma-based non-formula for Edgerank. Everyone uses it, but it doesn’t really seem informative or illustrative.

And again, if you want our insights into when you should or shouldn’t post a new post on your page, check out our free analytics here.

While we learned last week that Facebook link posts are terrible at generating “likes” and comments and are given very little organic traffic by Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm, one big question remained. Is it possible that the auto-formatting of Link posts generates higher clickthrough such that they’re actually worth it for commerce-driven companies that may value clicks over engagement?

The best Facebook post type for getting fans to click through is a text post

Sadly, the answer is still a resounding no. The best post type for getting fans to click through is a text post, followed closely by photo posts. Both photos and text generate at least DOUBLE the clicks per post*.

The question isn’t whether Link posts are good at converting clicks - if someone sees a link post, they’re more likely to click on it than any other post type. The problem is that Edgerank doesn’t put link posts in Facebook feeds very often. Link posts are 52% more likely to convert an impression into a click, but get 60-70% fewer impressions than link posts.

So last week’s conclusion holds - at least for now, Link posts on Facebook are the “baggy sweatpants of social media”. There is no reason to use them in public. They are inferior at garnering impressions, likes, comments AND clicks, and it takes only a few seconds to convert a link into an effective photo or text post.

If you’re ready to start getting these Badgy insights on your own Facebook pages, go ahead and sign up here for free.

* Due to widely reported issues in Facebook’s tracking of Insights links, we have chosen to combine “link clicks” and “other clicks”, since link clicks are frequently mis-reported as other clicks.

We started this weekly synopsis last week, looking at what posting format gets the most distribution on Facebook. It’s like the big case studies, but we’re sampling data every week so you’re never stuck with old information.

Like last week, the simple text post is king, reaching more fans than photos, videos, and links. Photos currently reach 33% fewer fans than text, Videos 38% less, and Links reach 60% fewer fans.

In short, Link Posts on Facebook are the baggy sweatpants of social media.

Proponents of the link post challenged us last week - organic impressions are great, but what about engagement? Let’s see what the numbers say:

• For engagement, Photo Posts lead the way over all other post types in both comments and likes.
• Text posts are a distant 2nd, with 40% fewer comments and 55% fewer likes on posts.
• Video posts follow close behind, with 55% fewer comments and 60% fewer likes.
• This is where it REALLY gets ugly for link posts. Link posts get 90% fewer comments and 87% fewer likes than photo posts.

In short, Link Posts on Facebook are the baggy sweatpants of social media. They scream “I either don’t know or don’t care what’s effective”. We’re all busy, but there’s every indication that it’s worth taking an extra 5 seconds to convert them into photo or text posts.

If you have a page with over 1,000 fans, we’re offering this information and more tailored to your page for free, just sign up here and we’ll get you hooked up.

There’s a lot of folklore out there when it comes to posting effectively on Facebook. While Nick Bilton mourns that nobody sees his Facebook posts,  our clients are reaching at least 60% of their fans every week. One thing we noticed at conferences and in customer conversations was that Facebook page managers feel like Facebook is a black box, and information on what’s changing is sparse.

With that in mind, we have enough data from our clients’ pages that we can regularly aggregate data from pages across industries and share what’s actually working. Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm adjusts to what your fans love to see. We’ll tell you what they want.

Edgerank is a score assigned to each Facebook post a brand page makes - it decides how many people will see your post, which defines how successful that post will be. One of the biggest factors in Edgerank is fully under your control - the format of the post. Here’s what’s working:

1. Text Posts - Although photos have the reputation of dominating the news feed, text posts are king. Text posts are currently reaching 2x as many fans per post as link posts. To get the best of both worlds, include a link in your text posts to get wide distribution and link clicks.
2. Photos - Adding a timeline photo is still supremely effective, reaching 70% more fans than the ubiquitous link post. Keep your caption short, and you can still fit in a link that gets clicks and results.
3. Videos - Video posts are high effort and low results, reaching just 15% more fans than a basic link post. Some of our clients see fantastic results when they post unique, videos that get lots of views, but it you don’t have truly superior videos, video posts are fairly ineffective.
4. Links - Facebook loves to let you post links to your page. Paste the link into the status update box, and they generate the link preview, and you hit post. Easy, fast, and thoroughly ineffective. Link posts are THE least effective form of Facebook post. We’ll be checking to see if this changes with Facebook’s new News Feed, but for now, an extra few seconds spend turning links into Photo or Text posts is totally worth it.

That’s what’s working this week - we’ve talked about optimizing for reaching your fans. What numbers are you optimizing for on your page? What other questions can we help demystify?

To get these insights for your pages, in real time, sign up here and we’ll get our analytics running on your most important, results-driven pages.

(photo from the Condescending Corporate Brand Page)

Why do your Facebook fans “like” you? Do they love your product? Did they click the “Like” button 6 months ago for a chance to win an iPad? Did you share a series of amusing posts from Star Trek alum George Takei? Did you cash in on their obsession with pregnant British royalty?

Facebook’s shift to charge for marketers to promote their Facebook page’s posts has confused marketers. We’ve been trained to do a good job building up likes, comments, “engagement”, etc. We’ve been trained to ask clever questions and show people cute cat pictures. Facebook charging for promoted posts triggers a huge question: Why would I pay to show cat pictures to people who only like me because I say funny things and offered them an iPad?

This may seem unfair, but paid posts highlight 2 deeper questions:

1. Do my fans really like me?
2. Is my content valuable?

Fans who “liked” your page because of “engaging” posts or prizes that had nothing to do with your brand - they probably DON’T actually like you.

The ability of Social Media to sell product has been grossly maligned. Exhibit A is Country Outfitter. They are unapologetic - they sell cowboy boots. They post pictures of boots on Facebook 4 times a day, with links to either buy or win boots. If you like boots, you’ll probably like Country Outfitter, and over 4.4 million people do. People who don’t like boots won’t like them, and won’t buy from them, so who cares if they like the page? It’s okay to drive away social media fans who aren’t interested in being your customer.

Yes, you want to post throughtfully, appropriately, in ways that capture the minds of your fans, but in ways that reinforce the business you are in, NOT as an amateur comedian.

At Badgy, we’re working with clients, increasing their sales and the reach of their content by rewarding their fans. As our clients build success, they gain new fans while losing the ones that liked them for all the wrong reasons. This creates a higher quality audience, more oriented toward buying products. It’s a lot easier to promote a post to an audience that actually likes you and is ready to buy.

So take the plunge. It’s time to stop posting kitten pictures and chasing engagement. If you’re in the business of selling something, be honest with your fans, talk about your product, involve your product in promotions, and you’ll find the right fans - the ones who actually like you.

If you’re a marketer who sells stuff and wants to learn how we can help, email info@bad.gy

We had the privilege of speaking at Digital Atlanta this week. We met a bunch of amazing people, had a great audience and fielded some great questions.

Here’s the slide deck from that presentation:

Engauge’s Executive Chairman Rick Milenthal and his son, Josh, who works in Engauge’s Atlanta office, had an interesting blog exchange observing the disconnect between Klout scores and real-world clout/influence.

Badgy has recently taken a deep dive into integrating Klout scores into our Social Dashboard so marketers can quickly identify the most influential people who have engaged with their brands. We’ve been looking at interesting things like the level of engagement, influence, and reach of college football rivalries, and finding some unexpectedly influential fans of different schools.

Klout runs on a 100 point scale, and is still heavily based on Twitter activity, though many other networks are now supported. Something like a score of 60 usually looks like a pretty good score. But a score of 60 doesn’t always mean a good account. It can still mean a very annoying account. An account that thrives on replying to people and asking them to retweet.

Still, based on our observations so far, here’s our subjective view of what Klout scores mean (get your own Klout score here):

10 or less: A new or highly infrequent user. Not well known

10-30: A casual Twitter user. Probably has more than 10 and less than 100 followers, mostly personal friends in real life.

31-40: A somebody. This person probably has a network beyond their personal friends, and has actual conversations on Twitter that others might see.

41-50: A local influencer. Local can mean geography or local to a specific industry, but this person knows something and can get other people to respond. Sometimes the “locality” of this can mean someone who chatters a lot with their friends.

51-60: An intentional influencer. One way or another, these people are very intentionally using Twitter as a tool to market themselves or a product. They’re probably doing a good job.

61-70: A Pro. These people know how to get their message out there on Twitter, how to get reactions, how to get retweets. None of this means they aren’t an annoying bot account. But annoying bot accounts also aren’t likely to claim promotions that are based on Klout score.

71-80: Monsters and Machines. These accounts are hugely influential. The best of the bots make it into this category, but if you get someone at this level engaged in what you’re doing, you should send them free product, hugs and kisses.

81+: The Stratosphere. It’s pretty rarified air up here. Anyone in this score range is truly and absolutely influential on a global scale.

For more information on how to use Badgy and Klout to identify, motivate, engage, and measure your social media fans, contact rob@bad.gy.

How does this compare to your experience with Klout scores? Any suggested changes to this scale?