Big Data Archives

Big Data

18 Twitter and Facebook Business Facts

June 12, 2013/by Corey Padveen

At the end of the day, it all comes down to numbers, and these Twitter and Facebook business facts are some good ones.

The marketer in us wants to pursue the power of social media because we have studied and understand its potential. However, the business person in us (and those in our companies) want the cold, hard data to back up business decisions.

Social media measurement and social media ROI are still some of the most heavily debated points on the topic. We thought we would make the conversation a little easier for both the marketer and business person in all of us by sharing a few notable Twitter and Facebook business facts.

Twitter

37% of people on Twitter will purchase from a brand they follow.
79% of Twitter users are likely to recommend a brand that they follow.
67% of users on Twitter are more likely to buy from a brand that they follow than one that they do not.
In the last two years, there has been an increase of 663% of users asking for business recommendations on Twitter.
70% of small businesses in the United States are on Twitter.
33% of people on Twitter follow a brand.
40% of Twitter users use the network for information gathering.
69% of Twitter users follow brands based on recommendations from friends.
77% of online shoppers use Twitter and other reviews and comments before making a purchase.

Facebook

On average, ‘fans’ spent an additional $71.84 on products for which they are fans of, compared to those that are not ‘fans’ on Facebook.
Fans are 28% more likely than non-fans to be loyal to a brand.
Fans are 41% more likely than non-fans to recommend a brand they are a fan of to a friend.
The number of businesses that say Facebook is critical or important to their business has increased by 75% in the last year.
77% of B2C companies have acquired at least one new customer through Facebook.
43% of B2B companies have acquired at least one new customer through Facebook.
80% of social media users in the U.S. prefer to connect to a brand on Facebook.
Local businesses’ Facebook pages average 645 million views per week.
23% of users check their account 5 times or more daily.

These are just a few stats that should get your marketing side and your business to agree that, at the very least, Twitter and Facebook are important.

Which statistics do you think is the most interesting? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

(Sources: HubSpot, Social Media Today, Social Media Examiner, The Huffington Post, Search Engine People)

4 Ways to Increase Sharing of Your Blog

May 29, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Blogging can be an excellent business tool, but how can you increase sharing of your blog to get the most out of it?

You might be writing great content. You might be seeing your audience grow organically online. You might even see some backlinks popping up around the web to your blog. But how can you increase sharing of your blog to a wider audience?

There are a few tested and proven ways of going about increasing the sharing of your content, and these tips should help you increase sharing of your blog in no time.

Integrate Sharing Plugins on Your Blog

It may seem like a given, but you would be surprised at how many blogs do not make it easy to share. There should be a number of options all over your blog that allow users to share you content.

Put yourself in the position of your readers: you read an article, you like it, you want to post it to a social network. Would you be more motivated to do so if you had to copy the link, open a new window, log into your social account, paste the link and share it, or simply click a button and share it to every one?

Yeah, we picked the second one, too.

Promote Yourself

The best way to get your content out there is to get the sharing started yourself. Waiting for the numbers to increase organically is a slow, sometimes frustrating process. Give yourself an extra boost and get it started yourself by sharing all of your content on every network for each post.

Short and Original

Making it an easy read and something completely original stands a much greater chance of increasing shares when compared to a long, repetitive, unoriginal post.

People like reading content they have never seen before. Even if it is a subject that has been discussed a hundred times, a personal view is always going to captivate an audience. That, coupled with the short, to-the-point style of writing is going to encourage readers to share the great piece.

(Hint: Lists are among the most shared content on social networks, so try and organize your content into an easily navigable list for your readers to sift through.)

Ask!

According to Dan Zarrella at HubSpot, asking for a re-tweet generates four times the number of re-tweets. There is no shame in asking your readers to share your content. After all, you want people to see what you wrote – that’s no secret.

When sharing your own content, add that little request into your post and see how the response is significantly higher (assuming, of course, it is still great content) than it was before.

We all want to see our content get shared, and these tips are a great way to get you started when it comes to increasing the number of shares your blog posts are getting.

How do you increase sharing of your blog? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2013 – The Highlights

May 22, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Recently, Social Media Examiner published their 5th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report, and there were some rather interesting findings.

The Social Media Marketing Industry Report surveys thousands of marketers from a number of industries to get a picture of the state of social media marketing in our industry. The data compiled always provides some excellent insights, and this year proves no different.

Below are some of the most interesting highlights from this year’s report. To read the full report, click here.

The Importance of Social Media is on the Rise

Since last year, there has been a 3% increase – from 83% to 86% – in the proportion of marketers who believe that social media is important to their business. Furthermore, of the marketers surveyed, the most important area where they are looking to increase their presence and knowledge is in the realm of blogging. 62% of marketers want to learn more about blogging and 66% plan on increasing their involvement in the activity. It is, after all, one of the best ways of driving traffic and establishing your brand as an industry-leader.

Measurement is a Top Question

Among the most pressing questions marketers want answered when it comes to social media marketing is measurement criteria. Considering the relative novelty of the marketing platform, there are still a variety of ways in which people are measuring their efforts, and there is no one convention that the industry as a whole sticks to. That is why 87% of marketers are looking for answers when it comes to measuring the return on investment (ROI) from their social media efforts.

There Are Still Marketers Adopting Social Media

A whopping 75% of marketers have been engaging in some form of social marketing for less than three years. Of those, 23% have been engaging in social media marketing for less than twelve months! So if you’ve been involved for a few years now, you’re way ahead of the game.

Marketers Are Slow to Adopt to Mobile

Only about 28% of marketers have optimized their blogs for mobile. Though the number of mobile users accessing the web and blogs is on the rise, many marketers have been slow to match.

Social Media is Becoming Heavily Integrated

A staggering 79% of marketers agree to some extent or another that they have integrated their social media into their regular marketing efforts. It is important to note that social media is not a standalone tool; it is simply another piece of the marketing puzzle that will help you build your brand, and it should be properly incorporated into existing strategies, not replace them entirely.

Exposure and Traffic Are the Biggest Benefits

When asked about the greatest benefits of their social activity, a significant 89% of marketers stated that their brand’s involvement in social media has increased exposure, while 75% stated that they had seen their traffic increase.

Increased Leads from Increased Involvement

Perhaps the most impressive statistic from the report relates to lead generation from social media. According to the survey, by devoting a minimum of six hours per week to social media marketing, roughly 64% of marketers saw an increase in their lead generation from social networks.

These are just a few of the great stats and findings in the report. To read the full report, download it here.

What findings do you find most impressive/shocking/interesting? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Equity: The Viral Effect

May 17, 2013/by Corey Padveen

We all strive for the viral effect when sharing content on social media, and when it happens, we need to know where Social Equity is derived.

Virality is one of the most common terms when it comes to social media measurement. How many people are we reaching? Is our content being shared? Is our network growing? Is our business growing? It all relates to virality. Yet, while we measure what the viral effect might be, we may not be taking note of how it adds Social Equity, and therefore value to our business.

In this week’s Social Equity segment, we aim to explain how the viral effect on social media adds value to your business in three ways: credibility, exposure and network growth.

Credibility

If Company A and Company B are both pitching your project but Company A has an outstanding track record, dozens of referrals, an impeccable portfolio and a proven history of success, whereas Company B has no distinguishing benefits, you will most likely choose Company A. That is not to say that Company B might not be capable of producing good work, but without the same level of credibility that is backing Company A, it is hard to choose Company B.

The viral effect adds a tremendous degree of credibility to your brand. Your name popping up on news feeds, timelines, in groups and on search engines means you have made a name for yourself. When it comes to making a choice between you and your competitor, you can bet that the credibility garnered from the virality of your company’s content will make a big impact.

Exposure

Once again, if you are choosing between two companies, and Company A is easily discoverable for a given topic while you have to dig deep to even find a mention of Company B, chances are the choice is Company A.

Discoverability is at the heart of success in the online world. The goal we are all aiming to achieve is inbound business. According to the inbound marketing company, HubSpot, inbound leads cost 61% less than outbound. The exposure you receive from viral content can translate directly into inbound traffic, calls, leads and business.

Network Growth

If you’ll recall, our first Social Equity segment discussed the example of the dentist. Essentially, the added value of the dentist’s online presence and the size of his network allowed him to sell his practice at a much higher price than if he was relying solely on his current patient roster. The growth of your network resulting from the viral exposure of your content will lead to Social Equity in the long-run.

Keep in mind, virality is not a one-hit-wonder concept. Of course, there are examples where content goes viral without a business strategy behind it. (It is almost guaranteed that the sneezing panda wasn’t intending to capitalize on the massive audience that watched the video.) In business, if your content goes viral, you can expect to see a spillover effect. While not everyone exposed to your content will look to familiarize themselves with your brand, there are those that will. Down the road, this increased network will mean big value for your business.

Have you seen any of your content go viral? Tell us what you noticed in the comments below or on Twitter!

How Organizations Structure Social Media Teams [INFOGRAPHIC]

May 15, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media teams can be responsible for some of the most crucial marketing decisions when it comes to your business, but how are social media teams structured?

The importance of strong social media teams is right at the top of the list when it comes to modern marketing. Yet, because social media is so new and so fast-paced, many businesses – both large and small – are not sure how they are supposed to go about structuring their social media teams.

One of the most interesting figures in the infographic from Go-Gulf below is right at the top: 65% of organizations assign social media tasks on top of regular job responsibilities. Furthermore, 25% of companies are using interns to manage social media! The many benefits of social media for business are of growing importance to a company’s success. That being the case, assigning an inexperienced staff member to manage your social media will certainly not lead to a revenue-generating program, and the numerous benefits that can be derived from social media will be lost.

The result of this lackluster effort on the part of most organizations? Only 5% of organizations are highly satisfied with the results generated from their programs. It doesn’t take a statistician to see the correlation: if you are not devoting the proper resources to your social media program, you cannot expect to be satisfied with the results!

Have a look at this infographic to see how companies are structuring their social media teams. What data do you think is most interesting/surprising? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Equity: Social Media and SEO

April 5, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social Equity stands to increase significantly as a result of the benefits social media has with regards to SEO.

The secrecy surrounding search engine algorithms has resulted in a great deal of conjecture when it comes to social media factoring into SEO. That said, allusions made by executives, such as Matt Cutts at Google, have led to inferences that social media is a major factor when it comes to optimizing your content for search engines. As a result, your brand’s Social Equity stands to benefit greatly due to the fact that SEO is still one of the most successful means of getting found.

In today’s Social Equity segment, we aim to show where Social Equity is derived from the incorporating of social media into your SEO.

Where Are the SEO Benefits from Social Media?

In order to understand how an intertwining of social media and SEO add value to your business, it is first crucial to understand where SEO stands to benefit as a result of social signals.

The chart on the left was derived from research conducted by Searchmetrics. What the data shows is how heavily social signals (data from activity on social media channels) weigh into rankings on search engines. (For the graph on the left, rankings in the U.S.) Last year, traditional link-building, one of the cornerstones of conventional SEO, had been surpassed by Facebook shares.

Essentially, social signals and sharing register with search engines as links (if, of course, what is being shared contains a link to your content or a landing page). Thus, as the popularity of social media continues to grow, the importance of factoring SEO into your social strategy grows with it.

This is where Social Equity comes into the mix.

Social Equity Derived from Social Media and SEO

A properly formulated SEO strategy that incorporates your social media will result in a tremendous value added with regards to Social Equity. This holds true for two reasons.

First, traditional SEO is an ongoing process that requires numerous man hours and ongoing expenses. With social media factoring as heavily as it does into the equation, you stand to save quite a bit of resources when it comes to your investment in SEO. Considering the strength of social sharing, the link-building process is both faster and collaborative. So there is a two-fold benefit here: both your audience and your search rankings are being built up as you invest in your social media strategy.

Second, for many verticals, SEO is still a major focus when it comes to determining market share. In fact, a study conducted by Optify showed that the top result on Google receive over 35% of clicks from a search. Social media activity allows you to rise through the Google ranks, and when you stand a chance to generate more than a third of all traffic for a given keyword (or better yet, multiple keywords) the value of your website and business as a whole stands to rise.

Traditional SEO is still of great importance to your business’s value. But when it comes to Social Equity and the value added to your business as a result of social activity, it is essential that you incorporate social media into your SEO strategy. Your shareholders will thank you.

Have you seen your search rankings rise since beginning your social media program? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

10 Free Social Media Monitoring Tools

April 3, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media is all about listening to what people are saying about you, and monitoring your brand online. These 10 free tools are a great asset for any social media marketer.

While all of these tools feature paid and enterprise versions, the basic, free versions contain a wealth of information and are fantastic resources for any marketer looking to optimize his or her social media marketing.

1. HootSuite

Many people know about HootSuite. And for anyone who has used it, it should come as no surprise that it sits on top of this list. There are plenty of neat listening and monitoring features available in HootSuite, including the ability to listen to keywords and geo-target your monitoring to see what people are saying in a given radius.

2. TwentyFeet

Ever wonder how you can optimize your social media activity for maximum results? TwentyFeet is a great tool to help you get there. TwentyFeet aggregates your social media activity and mentions from a number of social media channels and helps you determine where your social efforts are paying off and where you could use some help.

3. PeerIndex

PeerIndex is a great tool for those looking to build up their influence in certain categories. The tool helps users determine their level of authority in different niches based on conversations taking place and the level of engagement a brand has with its fans.

4. SocialMention

With regards to free listening tools, SocialMention is among the best. This tool allows you to listen for your brand, company, product, service, competitors or industry keyword mentions across a multitude of social media channels. Data is pulled from dozens of social media services to give you the most accurate, real-time information.

5. SocialPointer

Engagement with your audience is crucial to the success of a social media program, and SocialPointer allows you to track mentions of your brand on different channels and respond to your audience in real-time. This is a great tool for those engaging in social care (social media customer service).

6. HowSociable

Ever wonder if your social media marketing efforts are enough? HowSociable measures your social media activity and provides you with a score to help you determine whether or not you or your brand are engaging enough on social media to be successful.

7. Brand Monitor

For every conversation you find about your brand, there may be hundreds if not thousands more taking place across the social sphere. Brand Monitor helps you track all of the mentions of your brand on different social networks to give you a better feel of how the conversation is taking place and where you should be involving yourself to improve your brand’s online reputation.

8. Kred/Klout

Kred and Klout are two scoring services that review your social media activity, engagement, influence, authority, etc. and provide you with a score that tells you how you rank compared to others on social media.

9. SocialBro

SocialBro is a great tool when it comes to determining your influence and success on Twitter. The insights offered drill deep into your follower lists and provide helpful analytics to determine if your Twitter marketing is paying off, if you are targeting the right audiences and whom you influence.

10. Topsy

Topsy is a real-time social media search engine. Configure your account to pull data only relevant to your industry, brand, product, competitors, etc. and receive plenty of real-time information that you can use to improve the success of your social media marketing.

As we always point out, these tools are a great asset to compliment your social media strategy, but real success is ultimately going to come from a well developed and properly implemented social media strategy. Tools alone cannot run a social media program. People are out there talking and you need to be able to use these tools to listen and then properly engage with your audience.

Which of these tools have you used? Which ones are you going to try? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Equity: The Value of YouTube

March 22, 2013/by Corey Padveen

The Social Equity of your business is increased with a presence on each social network, but there is a three-fold value added that comes from YouTube.

YouTube is among the most interesting of “social networks” due to the fact that it is not. Well, not in the conventional sense, at least. YouTube is a search engine. Like Google (YouTube’s owner), Yahoo! or Bing, YouTube is a medium in which people can post content and generate traffic. Where YouTube differs, however, is in the ability for an individual or brand to engage with their audience directly on the site. That is where the social aspect of YouTube comes into play and that is one of the three key generators of Social Equity when it comes to Youtube.

Today, we aim to pinpoint where it is that we see value added to a company as a result of having a YouTube presence, and how video marketing combined with the power of YouTube stands to increase your Social Equity more so than almost any other network.

Why is YouTube Important?

To understand where the Social Equity is generated from the video-sharing portal, we need to first understand what makes YouTube crucial when it comes to online marketing. Let’s take out the social aspect for a moment and look at some facts and figures that explain the importance of YouTube.

Raw Data

Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
Over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US
YouTube is localized in 53 countries and across 61 languages
In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or around 140 views for every person on Earth
Millions of subscriptions happen each day.

(Data taken from YouTube Press Center Statistics)

There are constantly eyes sifting through the content loaded to YouTube, and by properly optimizing your YouTube videos, you stand a greater chance of reaching the people looking for you on the network. Furthermore, video marketing is a growing trend as it adds an entirely new element to your business.

Giving people a chance to attach a face and voice to your brand takes social engagement a step further with regards to humanizing your brand. People like to engage with personalities, not simply corporate entities. Video marketing is a way to offer this and YouTube is the medium in which to publish it (in addition to your own corporate and personal blogs). Enter the Social Equity of YouTube.

The Three Pillars of Social Equity Derived from YouTube

As noted above, there are three features related to YouTube that generate Social Equity for your brand.

Engagement

When it comes to being social, the ability to engage with your audience on YouTube is a huge asset with regards to Social Equity. As with any social network, people are reaching out to you when they watch your videos. Whether they like it, share it, comment on it or simply watch, they are in some way engaging with your brand on YouTube.

Social Equity is derived in part from the growth of your brand. Video marketing on YouTube is a way to do that. Furthermore, the free analytics made available by YouTube (and Google) in the backend of your account are invaluable. These measure everything from engagement statistics to traffic sources. Thus, by observing and analyzing these insights, you can efficiently and quickly modify your campaigns and strategies in order to maximize the return from your YouTube marketing efforts.

Humanization

There is a humanizing characteristic associated with a corporate video. Even if it is as simple as an introduction, a YouTube presence gives brands a face and voice that people can relate to and appreciate. In our case study about Old Spice a little while back, we noted that through engagement (primarily with videos) Old Spice was able to increase their sales by 107% very quickly. Old Spice has been known to engage with their fan base using personalized videos, making fans of all kinds feel personally connected to the brand.

Old Spice is owned by The Procter & Gamble Company, a company with 2012 revenues of nearly $84 billion. But you wouldn’t know it by the attention Old Spice’s YouTube channel gives to its fans.

Direct Revenue

There are over one million advertisers buying ad space on YouTube and guess what: you’re selling it. By creating videos that people want to see and building a following on YouTube, you increase your chances of having ads placed on your videos and money coming in as a result.

There is constantly the question of direct ROI generated from social media. If this does not answer that question then nothing will.

YouTube is a fascinating network that adds value to your company at every turn. The growing popularity of video marketing and the industry-wide focus on marketing virality are two perfect reasons why every brand should have a presence on YouTube. Your Social Equity stands to benefit tremendously as a result.

Where do you find the value added to your business as a result of Social Equity from YouTube? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: KLM Airlines

March 21, 2013/by Corey Padveen

This week’s social media case study focuses on one of the most socially innovative airlines around: KLM.

When it comes to social media case studies, airlines often prove to have some of the most impressive, influential and trendsetting results. Yet, despite all of the data that supports the adoption of innovative social media marketing initiatives for airlines, few seem to be as willing to go the distance as KLM.

KLM’s social media program is brilliant…and they know it. When it comes to converting social media fans into paying customers, KLM is among the most successful brands around. In fact, on the KLM Facebook page, there is a section that breaks down their social media campaigns, explains how they went about executing them and posts the results. Effectively, they are their own social media case study as to why social is important to business. But our focus is a little deeper than that when it comes to our weekly case study. We aim to pull out the lessons marketers can learn from the KLM social media program as a whole.

The Campaigns

Featured on the KLM Facebook page are seven of their most successful social media campaigns. These campaigns include everything from “KLM Surprise” whereby special gifts would be presented to passengers who checked into flights using Foursquare or Twitter, to the “KLM Tile & Inspire” campaign whereby Facebook fans were asked to convert their Facebook profile picture into a Delft Blue tile and complete that tile with an inspiring message to be used as part of a mosaic design on a KLM aircraft that would travel across the globe. Below are two videos breaking down these campaigns.

KLM Surprise

KLM Tile & Inspire

Each campaign was equally inspired and generated similar results. For the two campaigns above, KLM reaped some considerable social benefits. The breakdown of the two featured campaigns by the numbers is below:

KLM Surprise Analytics

Foursquare	17.528 followers
Youtube	154,722 views
Twitter	1.597 followers
Tweet reach	2,6 mln

KLM Tile & Inspire Analytics

Created tiles	120.000
Number of countries where tiles were created	154
Views of the 2 videos	1.3 million
Number of destinations the 777 flew to	23

While the analytics are impressive enough as it is, the fact that KLM went on to further convert many of these fans is all the more notable. But what we wish to focus on is what KLM did that was as innovative and bold as it was simple and calculated.

The Lessons

Be Bold (But the Right Way)

KLM has had far from a conventional approach to their social media program. From presenting new meal options using Facebook videos that introduce the “chefs” (the “KLM A La Carte” campaign) to the controversial “KLM Meet and Seat” campaign that gave passengers the ability to preview their seat mates based on social profiles, KLM has dared to be innovative with each of their social media campaigns. But it is important to keep something in mind: the marketing execs at KLM knew exactly what they were doing, and these risks were as calculated as any.

By understanding the lead to conversion process, the KLM executives were able to put these campaigns together using careful market research, amalgamated and improved data from their own failed exploits (discussed below), and a clear understanding of the sales process for both the customer and the brand. You don’t garner new customers from social media by doing the same thing as everyone else (hence, the “Be Bold” part of the lesson) but you certainly won’t find them if you scare them away (and that covers the “Right Way” aspect). So keep in mind that for a social media campaign to work, you need to impress your audience and have the data to support your seemingly daring decisions.

Never Be Afraid to Try Something New

Social media is still in its infancy, and social media marketing even more so. There is no shortage of innovation out there, and with the ever-changing landscape of social media, you should never be afraid to be first to market. Your first-mover advantage will be huge when people see you doing something that no one has done before. KLM understands that and they have capitalized on it at every turn.

The airline only jumped into social media in 2009, but in these short few years they have managed to try their hand at virtually every campaign available on social media. Whether it is a Facebook campaign, a Foursquare promotion, a YouTube contest or a Twitter “Live Reply” campaign wherein the airline responded to user tweets using up to 140 REAL people to spell out the message, you should never be afraid to try something that has never been done before. When it comes to social media, people want something they have not yet seen.

Try, Fail, Fix, Repeat

No one knows failed experiments better than KLM. Sure, they might have the budgetary luxury of making these mistakes, but over time they have learned exactly what they should not be doing in order to perfect their social campaigns. And on a smaller scale, you should never be afraid of the mistakes you make when it comes to social media. As we noted above, this is an incipient form of marketing; people are bound to make mistakes. But when you do, note your errors, redraft your campaign taking that into account, and start again.

For KLM, one of their big blunders came in 2011 when they offered a promotional gift to the first 50 male and first 50 female “Likers” of a post. Within minutes they had 1,500 “Likes” and no way of knowing which came when. Oops! But what is important is that KLM recognized their mistakes, fixed them and, more importantly, accepted their failures. And that brings us to our final lesson.

Humility is an Underrated Trait

People appreciate humility. It is a humanizing trait, particularly when it comes from a company as large and reputable as KLM. That is why the last important lesson to pull from KLM is that, while you might be a big brand, social media is a place for you to simply be a voice in the conversation. While an image needs to be maintained, you can be a little less corporate and little more fun when it comes to social (respecting professional boundaries, of course). As we never tire of pointing out, social media is about exactly that: being social. Not only does KLM have a post on their blog detailing some of their yearly bloopers, but they also make an important point in their step-by-step guide on running their social media program:

“Not that campaigns always need to be global and spectacular. Many of our establishments have successfully launched their local pages, and we’ve learned that the power often lies in simplicity — like showing the interior of a cockpit, or thanking someone for notifying us about broken lighting on our KLM sign. Our creative editorial board delivers a daily dose of captivating, engaging posts through our various channels.

Social campaigns have won us several awards, but it hasn’t been one success after the next. We’ve certainly had our share of bloopers. But rather than hushing them up, we decided to make them public and take them as a learning experience. And as it turned out, people liked us even more for it.”

Well said.

What lesson do you think is most important in the case study of KLM? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Hints: Best Times to Post

March 20, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media is a worldwide network, but every aspect of that network – from Facebook, to LinkedIn, to Twitter – is different, and as a result there will be different posting strategies employed in each.

Social media marketing is all about expanding your reach at every turn. Considering the vastness of your audience, it would be devastating to waste a solid piece of content on a dormant audience. As we like to say, if a post falls on social media at the wrong time, will anybody see it?

We thought that it might be helpful to break down where and when you should be posting based on best times to post by network. Before you can employ these tips, however, you need to answer two questions. First, what are the features of the audience you are hoping to target? In other words, what demographics are you targeting? Second, where does you content best fit when it comes to social media? Once you have established answers to these two important questions, then you can apply these tips and see your reach skyrocket on social media!

Best Times to Post

People are constantly asking what the best times to post on social media are, and the reality is that the easy answer is, “It depends.” Who are you looking to target? Night owls? Then these general data will not apply to your niche. However, based on amalgamated survey data, these are the best times to post to different social networks.

Facebook

For Facebook, traffic hits a peak between 1p.m. and 4p.m. The best time for traffic on the social network is Wednesdays at 3p.m. On the other hand, posting first thing in the morning (as people are getting to work) and between 8p.m. and 8a.m. will leave your post stranded on Facebook with few, if any, being reached.

Twitter

What is important to note for Twitter is that business hours are key, with an emphasis on the afternoon (1p.m.-3p.m. more specifically). After 11a.m., traffic on Twitter begins to build and by mid- to late-afternoon, it reaches its zenith. However, posting in the late afternoon on Fridays, or between 8p.m. and 9a.m. will, once again, leave your tweets with few users engaged.

Leading up to and away from business hours is when you stand to see the highest exposure on LinkedIn. From 7a.m.-9a.m. and 5p.m.-6p.m. is when your reach will be maximized on the social network, while 10p.m.-6a.m. will generate the least exposure. Traffic also tends to fade during business hours on LinkedIn, and Mondays and Fridays are statistically a little quieter than the rest of the week.

Google+

Google+ is most active during business hours, with a peak being hit between 9a.m. and 11a.m. However, as you head out of the business day, traffic tends to slow and doesn’t pick up until the following morning. Evening posts generate the lowest reach on Google+.

Pinterest is where the night owls show up. (Well, also the afternoon owls.) Traffic on Pinterest begins to build after noon, and peaks between 2p.m. and 4p.m. and again between 8p.m. and 1a.m. However, avoid posting to Pinterest during dinner hours! Between 5p.m. and 7p.m. is when your exposure stands to be the lowest, and the same holds true for the couple of hours leading up to dinner. But Saturday morning is the Pinterest gold mine – this is the point in the week where the network has its highest traffic.

Now, these are all the hours where your content stands to garner the most exposure due to the traffic on the social networks. However, consider in your strategy whether you want to be competing at peak hours, or if you would rather be one of the few competing for attention in non-peak hours. For example, the weekend may not be the busiest time of the week for Facebook, but there is still a large audience on the network and very few businesses posting to it. Furthermore, there is a higher share ratio on Facebook on the weekend. Think about it!

When have you found is the best time to post to different social networks? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter! And don’t forget to ‘Like’ us on Facebook!

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