How Often Should Brands Post to Facebook? (Or, Why Don't You Stop Annoying People)

I just found an interesting infographic about customer’s feelings on the Facebook Like. The infographic is from Lab42, who recently surveyed 1,000 social media users on why they like (or don’t like) brands. The entire infographic is interesting (and you can get to it by clicking the splice below), but I was most intrigued about a few results that had to do with customer retention—once you get people to Like you, why might they “Unlike” you? The most popular reasons:

In addition, those surveyed, when asked how to get non-likers to like them on Facebook, responded: 1. More giveaways. 2. Post less often.

So, do you want to keep your hard earned Facebook fans? Just what is the magic number of Facebook posts for a brand? In a recent Mashable article, Facebook’s communications manager recommends that less is more. She suggests you begin with one or two posts a week, and once you feel out what makes for a good post, increase to a maximum one excellent post per day. This is better than two so-so posts. This also prevents you from cluttering up people’s news feeds and annoying them.

Think of your most interesting Facebook friends. Likely they aren’t posting more than one time a day, and when they do, it is something thoughtful, interesting, and entertaining. Now think of your most annoying friends. They likely post too often, and aren’t entertaining enough. They probably did Crossfit this morning and posted a picture of an upside-down cat a few hours later and this afternoon will post a detailed list of chores that still need to be done around the house. You start to ignore the things they post, scrolling on by, sighing—just that person again. Post one time a day, and have it be the most interesting post your fans will see that day.

The above is a rule of thumb. You may have occasions where more than one post per day is appropriate. Maybe you are hosting an event where your fans will find regular updates interesting. As long as this is done with great discretion, you may go this route. As an example, one of our clients, United Way of Elgin , recently built a playground with volunteers in one day. We posted a photo update every hour of the playground build, and the fans truly enjoyed seeing all of the updates—evidenced by engagements with the posts—likes, shares, and comments.  In the final post of the day alone, 10 percent of their fans engaged with the post and 6 percent of their fans liked, shared, or commented on the picture. Clearly they weren’t annoyed by the end of a day full of posts.

We are with Facebook on the one post a day idea, although your brand may warrant more or less. We recommend keeping an eye on what your fans like, and how many you lose and gain as you increase or decrease your post frequency. (We can also help you manage your social media presence if you don’t have the time or even via consultation.)

What have you found success with on your Facebook page regarding post frequency?

2 Comments

  1. FaceBook Business Bullseye
    October 10, 2012

    I want to set up a Facebook business page and work on it and have it all in order before I put it on Facebook for people to view. Is there a way to keep it private until then?

    • Nicole Ciccone
      October 12, 2012

      You can access all of your Facebook page settings through the admin panel at the top of your page. Simply click into the Edit Page drop down in the top right corner and select Manage Permissions. The very first setting allows you to edit your page visibility. You can click the check box to unpublish the page and only allow page visibility to admins. When your page is completely set up, just uncheck this box and your page becomes visible to everyone again.