Zombies Love 2 Share on Facebook
Dan Zarella is an award winning, Zombie loving Social Media Scientist who studies social media behavior from a data-backed position providing key insights for best current practices in SMM.
Dan’s analysis provides key insights into how, what and why people share content on facebook. Let’s start with the effect of readability on Facebook sharing. Interestingly enough, the lower the reading grade level the higher a social object’s rate of sharing with major spikes in the grade 2 – 6 range. The takeaway is to write your copy in a simple yet effective manner and limit the use of sixty-four dollar words.
Titles with the digits 1 through 9 outperform text only titles. Once you rise above 9 there’s a drop off in shareability. Most likely because it’s too much of a commitment for readers to make. Consider replacing ‘To’ with ’2’ and incorporating numerical values into the titles of your social objects.
Saturdays and Sundays are the prime days for sharing on Facebook. Mainly due to the ‘working week’ and the chagrin employees face when accessing their social networking profiles from work. The takeaway here is to release prime content late Friday or early Saturday morning and let the sharing frenzy begin.
Being positive and sexy pays off on this platform. Referencing ‘sex’ is one of the most popular and least discussed subjects on Facebook. You can use this strategically to your advantage. Also, negative updates earn the lowest rate of shareability, confirming what most of us already know; no one wants to manage the complaint department.
When you add it all up, if one were to personify Facebook in human form you’d have a weekend loving sex addict, all about positive vibes who stopped paying attention somewhere around the fifth grade with a pathological fear of commitment. I love Facebook!
Social 2 Noise
As the signal to noise ratio widens marketers respond by increasing the number of messages they send through the pipe leaving consumers to wade through the social distortion in search something of value.
We are firmly ensconced in the era of permission marketing where consumers have more than rights, they have control and it’s the marketers responsibility to continue to provide them with great content to keep the channel open, less they be unliked, unfollowed and unfriended.
Create great content with built in value and respect the intelligence of your audience. Take the time to understand and build upon their interests. Find out what they want to know and tell them.
Social networks are dynamic, keep your content fresh. The current rate of media consumption is unprecedented and is increasing as you read this. If you want to build your audience, engage your fans and they will become advocates of your brand sharing your content across the Social Web.
Start conversations on your fan page, respond to every comment and give them props by calling out their names and commenting on their activity. Engage your key advocates with posts that ask questions, reveal exclusive content and calls-to-action that are simple, easy and fun.
Quality engagement earns respect over time. Focus on creating great content and your audience will find you.
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