In the past, we’ve written about how you can use BuzzSumo to create a media list and identify influencers in your niche prior to launching a crowdfunding campaign.
Many popular brands like Yahoo!, BuzzFeed, National Geographic and TED use BuzzSumo to research content that’s going viral as we speak, so that they can get in on the frenzy.
Now, there’s another way to study what’s working well right now on social media.
SumoRank is a new tool that was launched in September of 2015 and it reveals the types of posts that are working well for any Facebook page that you plug in.
All you need to do is enter a Facebook page name and you’ll get a bunch of analytics for that page, like:
- the most popular post type
- most popular day and time
- estimated monthly total interactions (shares, likes, comments)
To help launch this new tool and show everyone how useful it can be, BuzzSumo recently got together with Buffer to put together a study of 500 million Facebook posts to figure out the best way to use Facebook to get the word out about a new product!
If you are currently planning out a social media strategy, this post (which goes over some of the research’s key points) will show you some of the best ways to achieve high engagement on Facebook.
1. Most and Least Popular Times of Day
The most popular time of day to post on Facebook is 11 am, with an average posting volume of almost 13 million! The least popular time of day is 1 am, having an average posting volume of under 4 million.
But those are just aggregate numbers. If you’re just starting to put together your social media strategy, I’d recommend experimenting a bit to find out what works best for you.
Some people will argue that the busiest time of day is the best time to post, because there are more people online to engage with your content, but that could also mean that your posts get overshadowed by posts from much larger Facebook pages.
Others believe that the best time is the slowest, when your post has a higher chance to stand out from the crowd.
I’d use SumoRank to see when competitors and others in your industry have decided to post on Facebook.
2. Most Popular Days of the Week
The most popular days of the week to post updates on Facebook are Tuesday and Wednesday (with over 50 million posts per day). The least popular days to post are Saturdays and Sundays with an average of just over 30 million posts per day.
Again, it’s ultimately your job to determine which time of day works for your page, but by plugging in other pages in your industry, you’ll get an idea of when they’ve chosen to post updates and benefit from their trial and error decisions.
3. What Types of Facebook Posts You Should Try Next
With text, video, images and more, there are a bunch of different options when it comes to what you choose to feature in your Facebook updates. The study found that three of the most popular categories to use were: photos (with no link), question posts and videos.
On CrowdCrux’s Facebook page, we definitely see an increase in engagement when posting photos when compared to simple links, which leads to a greater reach.
Although it’s not set in stone and Facebook’s algorithm is always changing, in general, any time you link to an outside website, Facebook doesn’t like it. They prefer to have videos, photos, and content hosted on their website.
Posting visual content is a great way to increase engagement with your posts. Photos and videos attract a lot of attention, so if you’re primarily posting text updates it’s a good idea to change it up a little.
4. Ways to Ask a Question on Facebook
Questions are another popular post type on Facebook. Kevan Lee from Buffer suggests that:
“One reason in favor of questions like “who” and “which” and “would” is they are simple questions that are easy to answer (often with a multiple choice or yes/no), and they also help strengthen the identity of the person commenting on the question—a key element of the psychology of sharing to Facebook.”
You can use questions as a way to engage your backers, customers, and early adopters. Asking them questions gets them involved in the creative process and gives them that community feel.
5. Most Popular Tools Used to Post on Facebook
It turns out that the most popular way to post on Facebook by far is with Facebook itself (75%). The second most popular way is HootSuite (5%) and the third is Instagram (3%). Here are some of our tips for making the most of your Instagram posts.
The most popular applications used by small businesses are Post Planner, Buffer and Sprout Social, while the most popular applications used by enterprises are Adobe Social, Spredfast and Sprinklr.
Conclusion
SumoRank is a great new tool because it allows you to see how well your Facebook posts are doing and gives you useful information to help improve your reach and engagement. By looking up CrowdCrux, for example, we can easily see that our most popular post type is links, our most popular day is Thursday and most popular time is 6 pm.
As the creator of a crowdfunding campaign looking to promote their project on Facebook and gain a following, SumoRank can be invaluable. By looking up similar projects in your category that have been successful and analyzing their Facebook activity, you can save some time by figuring out what strategies will likely work best for you.
