Image courtesy of Robert S. Donovan and Creative Commons

Everyone wants  to know the secret formula for on-page Facebook engagement. It seems that the new buzzword is “engagement,”and followers aren’t as important as engaged followers (thankfully). A few recent discussions and reports have zeroed in on how fans respond to Facebook posts, want to interact with posts, and when they are most responsive.

How often to post updates

A recent Linkedin discussion around the question “How often should you post on your nonprofit’s Facebook Page, and when?” seems to typify the public discussion. From this discussion (79 comments) within the Social Media for Nonprofit Organizations group, the comments can be condensed into the following practitioner recommendations:

• Post a minimum of three times a week for engagement.
• Some organizations seem to feel that posting daily is a necessity, but never more than thrice-daily. It seems to depend on the size of the Facebook page and the organization.
  
• Relevant content is of primary importance; if it isn’t relevant, it is best not to post anything.

Within the comments, Shelly DeMott Kramer mentioned Dan Zarella’s recent webinar about how brands use Facebook. The webinar was based on his extensive research, which shows that the most successful brands post content to Facebook daily.

Based on my experience posting for other nonprofit organizations, I believe that daily Facebook posting is must for a vibrant and strong brand. However, if you are trying to build your brand that has few followers, posting three to four times a week can be sufficient, until the page reaches a critical engagement mass.

You know WHEN to post, but not HOW

Buddy Media identifies definitive best brand practices for Facebook engagement in its new report, “Strategies for Effective Facebook Wall Posts: A statistical review.” The study analyzed Facebook wall posts of 200 of the world’s largest brands over a two-week time period. Success was measured in relationship to number of comments and likes as a percentage of fan base.  The highlights are summarized in this chart, created by emarketer:

Other notable points from the Buddy media white paper:

• Do not shorten links with URL shorteners. Engagement rates are three times higher when posts contain the long URL than when they contain a shortened link. Perhaps, speculates the authors, fans are wary about what they are clicking on when the URL is shortened.
• Different industries have higher engagement on different days of the week. For example, the entertainment industry sees the highest engagement Friday through Sunday, when most brands do not post.
• To drive comments, ask a direct question and then ask for a response. Fans seem to like direction.
• If you want fans to like a post, ask them to do so in a forthright manner.
• When running a contest or other promotional offer, “softer sell” keywords resonate best. Fans are happier engaging in contests with the words “winning” and “events” than the words “contest” or “promotion.”
• As noted above, asking a question at the end of a post drives engagement. In particular, the words “where,” “when,” “would,” and “should” drive the highest engagement rates. Avoid asking “why” questions – this word has the lowest like rate.

You can download the entire report here.

WHAT to post to encourage comments

My colleague John Haydon just published a wonderful blog post entitled “16 Ways to Get More Comments on Your Facebook Page.” (Notably, it has been retweeted 312 times and recommended on Facebook 249 times.) Each of the sixteen ways cited in the blog post includes a link illustrating the example on Facebook. I’ve tried many of these methods, and I can attest that they drive engagement. Additionally, as I wrote previously, asking questions is also a great way to know more about who is engaging with your page.

We’ve come a long way towards understanding how to create engagement on Facebook. What have you learned?

You are a new organization or brand, and you want to build a Facebook presence. Pages are designed to most easily promote existing brands and organizations.  Pages cannot invite individuals to Like the Page – only individuals can invite other individuals to Like a Page. Pages cannot participate in Groups; only individual profiles can. Businesses cannot create an individual profile; doing so violates the Terms of Agreement with Facebook and subjects your company to being deleted and banned from Facebook.

You need at least 500 people to Like your Page so that it can begin to gain traction; 1,000 is even better. If you don’t have many customers, clients, or individuals familiar with your organization or brand, it’s difficult to gain traction  or buzz online because of limited interactions with your organization. How can a new brand or organization use the power of Facebook to attract people to its Page and gain fans? The bottom line: get creative, collaborative, and aggressive.

Here are some ideas to attract fans to a new organization’s Page:

1. Get Creative: Design the Page to retain fans and email addresses

Create a custom Welcome Tab as the default landing tab for your Facebook Page. You can design your own or try a free welcome tab application.  A few things to be sure and include:

Email capture. These are your most likely nonprofit fans! ONE.org has a great example of email capture in its Welcome Tab.

Why they should Like your Page. What value will your Page offer? A good example of this is EndCyberBulling’s Welcome Tab.

Latest call to action. Is your organization trying to encourage a specific action? Offer a special discount on classes? Create a box on your Welcome Tab that emphasizes how people who Like your page can get involved or take advantage of a good deal. The Human Rights Campaign asks for both your email address and that you take action today within their Welcome Tab.

Create an incentive for people to Like your page by offering special content. John Haydon came up with a great idea to offer free content only to people that Like the page. A hidden tab with the content appears once you click the Like button.

2. Use Internal Resources: Ask key staff and board members to build up their own Facebook accounts and promote the Page

Since only individuals can invite other individuals to Like a page, and your organization doesn’t have a large mailing list, the fan base begins with friends and family. Ask the Executive Director, Board members, staff, to begin collecting friends on Facebook, if they haven’t done so already.

Keep in mind that only up to 25% of  friends will Like the Page, if asked, so you need to invite a lot of friends!

If you have any mailing list contacts, send out an email asking people to Like the Page. If you haven’t yet built up an email list, then this is the time to start doing so.

3. Get Collaborative: It’s time for strategic alliances.

Who else can help you collect fans? Is there another nonprofit that you collaborate with or with which there is synchronicity? What groups exist out there that are naturally sympathetic to your cause? Some suggested actions:

Reach out to Facebook Groups. There may be existing Groups concerned about your issue. Join those groups, participate in the conversation, and reach out to the administrators of those groups personally. You may be able to become a co-administrator of the Group, or the Group admin may decide to add a link to your Facebook Page and post information on your organization’s behalf.

Don’t overlook Causes. Some fans may have gone to the effort to create personal Causes to benefit your organization. Again, don’t be afraid to reach out – these are “superfans” that are already interested in your cause – and ask for their help promoting and sending friends to your new Page.

Other Pages: If there are other Pages that could become natural collaborators, or of interest to your fans, add them to your Page’s “Favorite Pages.” You could also an @message in the status update letting another Page know you’ve added their Page as a favorite. Consider contacting the Page administrator personally and asking if he/she would post an update welcoming your organization’s Page to Facebook.

4. Get Aggressive: Promote your page with an Ad

Facebook Ads are an inexpensive way to attract new fans. You can create an ad for your Page and set the exact amount of money that you want to spend on the ad. You can target ads by different demographic groups, interest, likes, geography, and more.

5. Get Creative: Create a Marketing Campaign within Facebook to Attract Fans

Create a Facebook Contest using the Wildfire Application. Wildfire offers a very inexpensive option to create a photo contest, sweepstakes, coupons, trivia contest, quizzes and more. Pricing options are $5, $$25, or $250 plus a per-day charge.

Create your own event or contest within Facebook . Hebrew University created the “Einstein Birthday Celebration: Ask Albert” Event in celebration of Einstein’s birthday. The University’s Einstein scholar invited fans and non-fans alike to ask personal and professional questions of Albert Einstein himself. The most interesting questions were answered in a follow-up video. In order to generate traffic to the Event, Hebrew University asked several Einstein societies on Facebook to co-promote the event with them. The Event garnered 300 questions and a lot of new fans!

What other suggestions do you have for a new organization or brand trying to build a fan base within Facebook?  Can you share what has worked or not for your organization?

I asked Brenna Holmes if she would write a guest post for this blog after she commented on my last post, Understanding How Facebook Pages Grow. In this post, she details how the California State Parks Foundation’s Facebook Fan Page grew from 517 fans as of May 31, 2009 to over 45,000 fans today. Here is her story, as a Guest Author:

At the end of May, CSPF learned about state budget cuts that would great affect the parks. They alerted us at Adams Hussey & Associates (AH&A) and we quickly made plans for a full multi-channel effort to stop the budget cuts and looming 220 park closures. This effort included direct mail, telemarketing, emails, and social networking. As a main part of the online strategy, AH&A recommended daily updates to the homepage at www.calparks.org with the latest news, creating an Action Center on their site, and optimizing their existing Facebook fan page to promote issue awareness, discussion, and hopefully new activists and members for CSPF.

The Friend Get Friend campaign launched on Tuesday, May 26, on Facebook via an update to the 517 fans. The update (seen below) explained the imminent threat parks were facing and put a deadline – Friday, May 29 – and a goal – 5,000 fans to recipients.

“This year’s cuts are 10 times as bad, so we need 10 times the fans on Facebook.”

We also still have the message below on the fan page near the action links and logo. “Find us on Facebook” language and graphics are featured in every email and all over the site.  Here is our message:

By midnight on Friday CSPF had reached 4,467 fans – not quite the goal, but by Saturday they reached 6,263 fans! The second FB update was sent Monday, June 1 at 12:12 p.m. PST, stressing a 24 hour deadline, asking for fans and petition signatures. The California budget committee was scheduled to meet on June 2, so media coverage was at its height and we were in contact with the house file and CSPF’s partners online and on the phone. CSPF sent out emergency donation requests in all channels and had an online petition to stop park closures.

The chart below (from our Facebook Insights) shows the growth in NEW FANS daily.

As you can see the largest growth was on Monday, June 1, where CSPF gained 3,369 new fans in just one day.

A tight deadline always spurs action online and when supporters can get instant feedback on the effects of their efforts (seeing fan numbers grow) it makes them even more motivated. On average CSPF’s page still get about 100 new fans per day. And while the unsubcribes have increased over time, CSPF still nets growth on new fans and typically on daily page views and site interactions as well.

Since the launch of that second update, CSPF has sent four other FB updates and has made many status updates that send the messages into fans’ newsfeeds. Most of the time the updates give supporters the latest news, but they also sent acknowledgements, posted two subsequent petitions, and promoted an offline event – SOS Weekend and asking supporters to download signs and send in pictures of themselves with the signs. Many parks held large organized events that weekend too. Over 5,000 people went to more than half the state parks that weekend (June 20-21) and sent in pictures as well as posting them to the fan page. All of the updates encourage fans to post to the wall, upload pictures, share their stories, concerns, and hopes about California’s state parks system.

The graph below shows the number of interactions per post, which includes comments, photos, and “likes”, so you can see that the fans really use the page to talk to each as well as to CSPF. We have even seen supporters create videos and individual fundraising drives all on their own and promote their activities on the FB page.

The massive growth of this fan page caught the media’s attention and was mentioned on several TV news spots and in national news articles.  While Sacramento never made a public mention of the social media activist efforts, but CSPF’s “State Access Pass” bill came up for a vote. Thought the vote failed, this was the first time in many years that the legislature even brought it out of committee for a floor vote.

AH&A is still working with CSPF to save the parks. The California budget passed at the end of July will not close the originally proposed 220 parks, but 100 are still on the chopping block. CSPF has recently expanded its outreach to Twitter. Please follow @CSPFoundation and help us save California’s magnificent state parks and beaches! We are also focusing on converting the 45K activists from Facebook into full CSPF members, and of course maintaining activities and engagement on Facebook.

Adams Hussey & Associates will be publishing the full multi-channel case study on this campaign in the fall or winter of this year.

Brenna Holmes is an Online Account Executive at Adams Hussey & Associates. She is responsible for implementing innovative and successful email and social media campaigns by applying cutting edge Web 2.0 techniques. Brenna is also a graphic designer and a fervent foodie and wine lover – being from the Napa Valley, CA it’s only natural ☺ Brenna tweets as @bfholmes.

Brenna Holmes

Ever wondered how some businesses attract over 1,000 fans to their Facebook Pages, and others don’t? A new research report on Facebook Pages offers insights into how Pages grow and debunks the myth that a few people can create a “snowball effect” of Fans. Inside Facebook recently revealed the results of a study of Facebook Page popularity growth by researcher Cameron Marlow. The report (Gesundheit! Modeling Contagion through Facebook Newsfeed) paints a picture of exactly how Facebook Pages become popular. Marlow’s empirical investigation of 262,985 Facebook Pages reveals that Facebook Page growth is “not usually the result of a single chain-reaction event,” but rather the confluence of a large number of users. After looking at every Facebook Page with over 1,00 fans (as of August 2008), the report concludes:

Pages accrue fans as a result of many different clusters of connected people becoming fans.

The single most important action that creates these clusters is when a user becomes a Fan and broadcasts this action to their friends’ news feeds.

Here is how it works: individuals arrive independently at a Page,  become a Fan, and (ideally) publicize this action through the News Feed. Publicizing the action creates that person’s chain of “start nodes.” A start node is a mini-cluster of Fans. The mini-clusters eventually merge through interconnecting relationships to form a relatively large-sized cluster. According to Marlow’s research, the median large Page had 69.48% of its fans in one connected cluster.

Here are some interesting findings pulled from the report:

1. People within the “start nodes” tend to have more Facebook friends than those who do not start nodes.

2. More of the “start nodes” have active Facebook users than the non-start nodes. The study concludes that active users are more likely to understand how to find, use and pass along Facebook fan pages to their friends.

3. The large Facebook Pages consist of a majority of Fans who are connected in one large cluster consisting of many chains of start nodes. In other words, there are many, many small nodes/chains of people that converge rather than a few large chains that converge to create Fan Page with high numbers.

4. Facebook chains of Fans tend to involve more people and be longer-lasting than word-of mouth chains. In this study, 86.4% of paths that people took to become fans involved a chain of at least four people. In an earlier word of mouth study, only 38% of paths involved four individuals. What does this mean? Fan Pages can fully leverage the “six degrees of separation” inherent in a large social media platform, and especially Facebook.

5. The only way to assure that the chain of people is long is to “increase the likelihood that a Page fanning action occurs in other users’ News Feeds.”

Implications?

Creating a Facebook Page is much more than “opening the doors” and simply inviting people to “fan” the Page. The News Feed acts as the “ignition” to influence and entice new followers. The implications for Facebok Page owners are:

• Creating a Fan Page must take into account a strategy to encourage supporters to broadcast their decision to become a Fan in their News Feeds. Just inviting people to become fans will not be enough to create a large Fan page.
• Organizations and businesses with Fan Pages should think strategically about working with groups of interconnected people to become “evangelists” for the Page.

How will you incorporate the findings from this research into your Facebook Page strategy?