Social Photos Generate More Engagement: New Research

#1: Photos Are Worth a Million Likes

Photos are the primary type of content posted and shared on Facebook. According to March 2014 research published on eMarketer, photos accounted for 75% of content posted by Facebook pages worldwide.

Photos are the main type of content posted by Facebook pages.

From a user’s perspective, photos are also the most engaging type of content on Facebook, with a whopping 87% interaction rate from fans! No other post type received more than a 4% interaction rate.

Photos receive the highest interaction from Facebook users.

Key Takeaway

Posting photos on Facebook is the best way to get more attention from your fans because images are easier to consume than text. However, be aware that not all photos are created equal. Not only must you share high-quality photos, you must alsoshare photos that interest your target audience.

If you haven’t done so already, start to increase the number of high-quality images that you post on your Facebook page. And of course, don’t forget toinclude relevant links with your images, to ensure that you’re sending all that traffic back to your website. Take note of the following:

• Only post images that you have created or that you have a right to publish.
• Mix up different types of images (e.g., banners, infographics, photos, memes, etc.).
• Take impromptu photos on your smartphone and post them in real time.
• Post “Caption This” photos – post a funny picture on your page and ask fans to offer their best caption for the photo.
• Avoid “selfies” unless you’re posing with a celebrity.

One last thing, it may be worth your while to hire a designer or a visual content creator as part of your social media team.

#2: Photos Get More Retweets

People don’t engage equally with every tweet. Research by Media Blog, which analyzed the content of over 2 million tweets sent by thousands of users over the course of a month, shows that adding a photo URL to your tweet can boost retweets by an impressive 35%.

Photos can boost retweets by 35%!

Key Takeaway

Just like Facebook, Twitter engagement can be boosted with photos. Only this time, you’re posting the image URL. Otherwise, here are some new tips to get more engagement from your Twitter photos:

• Tag people in a photo – Tagging other users makes conversation easy and sharing more likely. You can tag up to 10 people (tagging doesn’t affect the 140-character count on a tweet).
• Share up to four photos in a single tweet – This is a relatively new feature on Twitter, which allows you to upload multiple photos and automatically create a collage using your iPhone, Android device or straight from Twitter.com. For this to work, you need to download the latest Twitter app.

#3: Comments and Shares Outrank Likes

Comments and shares are beginning to overtake likes on Facebook, showing that brands are getting better at engaging with fans.

According to the Social Intelligence Report Q1 2014 by Adobe Digital Index, Facebook comments are up 16% compared to the same time last year, and up 40% compared to the same time last quarter. The report also shows that likes have actually gone down from 82% (Q1, 2013) to 78% (Q1, 2014).

Fans are commenting more on Facebook pages.

Key Takeaway

Since comments from fans require more time and effort than simply clicking Like, this trend shows that marketers are becoming rather savvy about fan engagement. Fans must be finding content posted by pages interesting enough to invest time and thought into their interactions.

If you’re seeing more comments on your page, keep up the good work! But don’t stop adapting. Find different ways for fans to see your content, even via paid posts if necessary.

Since Facebook introduced its new comments feature in March 2013, you and your fans are able to reply directly to specific comments on your page. This creates a conversation thread, which ties relevant conversations together.

Be sure to reply to ALL comments from your fans, and to like every commentfrom every user in two ways – as yourself, and as the page. Not only will the user get a notification about the like, which may spur more comments, but it’ll also create a “Ticker” story about your Facebook page.

#4: Fridays Rule on Facebook

More research published in the Social Intelligence Report indicates that brands are targeting Facebook users on Fridays because that’s the day with the highest engagement rates. For example:

• 17% of all comments occur on Fridays.
• 16% of likes occur on Fridays.
• 16% of shares occur on Fridays.
• Sunday is the least likely day to receive a comment on a post.

“TGIF” seems to be the theme among Facebook users.

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New Social Media Research That Could Change Your Strategy

#1: Users ‘Like’ Facebook for Social Logins

When logging onto sites with a social network ID, research by eMarketer shows that a majority of users (51%) prefer to log in using their Facebook credentials.

In fact, professionals across all industries favored Facebook. Only 28% of users log in with Google+. Facebook is also the preferred social login network ID for 63% of global mobile users.

Facebook login trumps all other social logins or registration requiring username and password.

Key Takeaways:

If you have a website that requires users to register, you should understand the concept of password fatigue. 92% of shoppers abandon a website rather than go through the process of recovering a lost or forgotten password. But if a website has a social login option, 65% of shoppers are more likely to return.

So if you have an ecommerce site and you let folks use Facebook to log in, then you already know their likes and interests. Use that information to personalize their experience:

• When they log into your website, offer them products that they actually like or have shown interest in to improve the chances of purchasing. In fact, one of the benefits of social login is that it limits the incidence of mistargeted ads.
• While they’re logged onto your site, they’re simultaneously logged onto Facebook, which means they can share a useful post or comment on a cool product. Make sure they find fresh, interesting, and shareworthy content every time they log in.
• Users want value in exchange for giving up their personal information on your site. So offer them premium content such as training videos, SlideShare presentations, free ebooks and how-to guides.
• To enhance brand interaction and social visibility, offer a community message board on your website that is only accessible to members who are logged in.

#2: Social Customer Care Demand Is Growing on Twitter

When it comes to social customer service (or social customer care), Twitter is becoming the place to be for consumers who want to reach out to brands. Research by Socialbakers indicates that 59.3% of customer questions are asked on Twitter, compared to 40.7% on Facebook.

Use Twitter rather than Facebook to address your customers’ concerns.

Key Takeaways:

Social media has conditioned consumers to get feedback fast. As a marketer, the risk of failing to meet this expectation can result in losing customers, getting a bad reputation or both.

• Twitter is especially fast-paced, so here are some tips to providing customer care on that platform:
• Train and empower your staff to respond promptly and directly to customers. If you can’t trust them to respond appropriately on behalf of the company, then you either have the wrong team or the wrong strategy.
• Don’t let customer complaints or questions go answered for over an hour. If you wait too long, the customer (or prospect) may decide to move on to a more responsive vendor.
• If you have to use your brand’s logo, try to personalize each response by signing each tweet with your name or Twitter handle.
• Don’t just monitor mentions of your brand’s name. Try to evaluate sentiments attached to those mentions. Tweets that include words like “not working,” “fail” or “poor experience” should be resolved immediately, and to the customer’s full satisfaction.
• Know when to jump into a conversation. Sometimes customers are just talking about your brand and don’t actually need your help or input.
• Decide how to prioritize inquiries. Should influencers get priority over urgent customer needs or will you use a first-come, first-served approach?

#3: Younger Audiences Are NOT Unfriending Facebook

There’s been a lot of talk lately about teens unfriending Facebook. Turns out it’s not quite true.

Facebook has indeed lost its exclusive grip on teens. Young audiences are flocking to more visual platforms like Snapchat, Instagram and Vine; however, these stats from eMarketer speak for themselves:

Teens and young audiences are still the largest demographic using Facebook.

Key Takeaways:

Like everybody else, teens and younger audiences have become multiple-platform users. That doesn’t mean they’re done with Facebook, it just means that their social interests are broadening.

Consider this: teens are particularly interested in image and video sharing. Sure, they can share images on Facebook, but they’re more comfortable on Snapchat and Instagram where there’s less drama—and parents are not present. So if your target audience includes teens and young audiences, don’t panic. Instead, try to enhance their experience by following these tips:

• Be everywhere. If teens are important to your business, follow them wherever they go. Create and distribute content across multiple platforms. Your brand will be more memorable for young audiences when they see your content across the board on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.
• Be relevant. Teens live in an “egosystem,” so the only opinions that matter are their own and their friends’ opinions. So whether on or off of Facebook, engage them with stories and visuals that show how other teens like them are interacting with your brand.
• Make it about them. Be very subtle when promoting your product. Instead, focus on what THEY can get out of it. Sweet Frog of Catonsville, MD does this well:
  

  When reaching out to teens on Facebook, make it about them, not you.
• Above everything else, make sure ALL of your content is mobile-friendly.

#4: Instagram Is the Fastest-Growing Site Globally

Facebook-owned Instagram may be the platform to watch closely, according to new research published on TechCrunch in January.

Active user base grew by 26% in the last six months of 2013. In addition, available data shows that Instagram had 90 million active users in January 2013. By January 2014, that number had doubled to 180 million active users.

Instagram is quickly becoming one of the most interesting places to be online.

Key Takeaways:

Users love Instagram because images are super-creative and interesting since users can choose filters after the photo has already been taken. But of course the best part is being able to instantly share those photos with a community of like-minded people.

Narketers can leverage Instagram to promote their brands. Some other tips:

• Make your followers famous on Instagram by acknowledging their photos and sharing them with your Facebook fans. Starbucks does this well! They even go as far as updating their Facebook cover with Instagram photos created by their fans.
  

  Nobody does it better than Starbucks when it comes to showing off their Instagram followers.
• Make videos. Instagram now has short video capability, which means you cancreate 15-second videos that capture the mood and lifestyle of your brand. For example, if you’re launching a new product, take a video of your staff members behind the scenes preparing for launch, or show the actual launch with excited customers waiting for the move that bus moment!
• Partner with other brands on Instagram. Whether you’re a small business or a big brand, you can leverage the relationships you have with other businesses by partnering to showcase each other’s photos. This works even better if your products are complementary.
• Ask questions about lifestyles. For example, if you’re a shoe store, ask followers what kind of outfit and accessories they would wear with a new line of boots.

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The Top 5 Social Media Marketing Tools You Need to Check Out

Are you looking for new ways and tools to help manage your social media marketing campaigns? Would you like to learn how to gain a better insight into your target audience or compare your company against your competitors? The following are five social media management tools that you need to check out, to identify whether they’re

1. PlagTracker: Keeps Your Content Original and Copy-Free

If you are looking for a way to make sure the content you write for your company is plagiarism free? Then plagarism checker PlagTracker twill help you in keeping your content duplicate and plagiarism free. You can fix grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors, find out if your site is completely unique, and teachers can find out if their students’ papers have any issues. This tool allows the user to upload their document and it will scan it for duplicate content, and any grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors.

2. MarketMeSuite: eHas a Dashboard that Works Similarly to an Email

Everyone reading this article knows how easy it is to use their email. You receive a message, you open it, and then you respond back to the other party who sent you the email. MarketMeSuite is another tool that people can use for social media management. Their dashboard works the same way as your email inbox does. You will be able to view messages in a preview pane, and then open it up to see who emailed you the message. It works just like an email inbox does. A great feature of MarketMeSuite is that there is a tutorial that is built in to help you learn how to use the platform.

There is an easy nine step process that will get you up and working quickly. This tool also comes with a geo-targeting feature that lets people locate clients through social media. It also is designed to help you efficiently manage several social media profiles. This is a free service, and you can always figure out which fee-based program meets your needs.

3. Socialbakers: Has a Large Quantity of Data in an Easy to Use Interface

Socialbakers is one of the most expensive tools that is reviewed, but it could be worth the price for you. SocialBakers keeps track of fan growth across a variety of platforms so you can figure out which content is received well by your target audience. You can also analyze your fan growth by times of day and days of the week. This enables you to keep track when your target audience will respond to the content you have. This tool provides you with an easy to read format so you can look at a lot of data. You can keep track of all your social media campaigns as well as how well they are performing when compared to industry competitors.

You can also figure out how you compare on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, and you can view your competition’s pages. Plus, you are able to analyze the different types of content your target audience likes.  This tool also allows you to view a variety of reports on their site, including stats from all the social networking websites.

4. Sendible: Provides Sentiment Analysis and Brand Monitoring for Companies

Sendible has a 360 degree sentiment analysis and brand monitoring feature that allows you to read and respond to customers who are talking about your brand on the internet. In addition, you will be able to monitor what others are saying about your competition as well.  Sendible also lets you view both negative and positive sentiment related to your brand. This tool provides users with many features at a good price. You can interact with both existing and new clients across several platforms, track and analyze email and social media campaigns, and measure the success of your content that you share.

5. Sprout Social: Engage Your Followers and Respond to Them Live

A great thing about Sprout Social is the easy-to use user interface. Most people find it easy to digest and process data when it’s in a graphical presentation. One strength of using this tool is that you can find out how to respond to it and to check data quickly. This tool allows users to give you information in a graphic format that is easy to use and read. Sprout Social also comes with a Smart Inbox that helps you manage and respond to multiple social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, etc. You can also post different types of messages and then sort by keywords. You can use Sprout Social to manage campaigns for your business. There is a 30 day free trial that is available for people who want to try this tool.

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5 Social Media Management Tools You Should Consider

#1: Sprout Social Helps You Engage Followers and Respond in Real Time

One of the best things about Sprout Social is the user interface. Many people find it easier to process and digest data when it’s presented graphically. That’s one of the strengths of this tool—you can quickly check data and figure out how to respond to it.

Sprout Social gives you the information you need in an easy-to-read graphic format.

Another important aspect of Sprout Social is the Smart Inbox. It’s designed to help yourespond quickly and easily from different social media accounts (Twitter,Facebook, etc.), post different message types (mentions, direct messages, wall posts, etc.) and even sort by brand keywords.

Sprout Social offers different tabs for you to respond to messages.

There are a wide variety of ways you can use Sprout Social to manage your campaigns, but one of the best is the Twitter Comparison Tool. It’s a great way tocompare your Twitter usage to that of your friends and competitors.

Use Sprout Social’s Twitter Comparison Tool to compare yourself with others.

Sprout Social is ideally suited for people who like to digest and process information visually. It can be used by individuals or teams and has very solid reporting and analytics.

The cost is reasonable and their free 30-day trial is perfect for people who are interested in taking it out for a spin.

#2: MarketMeSuite Provides an Easy-to-Use Dashboard That Works Like Email

If there’s one thing everyone reading this article has in common, it’s that we’re all comfortable using email. A message comes in, you open it and then you respond.

That’s the approach MarketMeSuite uses for its social media management tool. The dashboard is designed to work the same way an email inbox works. You can look at messages in the preview pane, and then open them up to explore more about the person who sent the message.

MarketMeSuite is designed like an email inbox.

If you’re like many people, you’re busy trying to run the day-to-day operations of your business, so sitting down and learning a new tool by trial and error is time-consuming.

One of the strengths of MarketMeSuite is that it has a built-in tutorial to walk you through the basics of using the platform. The tutorial guides you through a simple 9-step process to help you get up and running fast.

Best of all, it takes the guesswork out of trying to figure out all the bells and whistles—just complete the tutorial and you’ll have a great foundation to work from.

MarketMeSuite has a built-in tutorial.

MarketMeSuite has plenty of other strengths, too. Their geo-targeting feature allows you to locate customers using social media who are near your business. It allows you to manage multiple social media profiles. And you can schedule messages across social networks with just one click.

You might be interested in taking advantage of MarketMeSuite’s free service as you make up your mind about which of their fee-based programs suits your needs.

#3: Sendible Provides Brand Monitoring and Sentiment Analysis for Businesses

Here’s a question: If you found out that 70% of your customers described your product as “cheap” while only 30% described it as “a good value,” would that be important to your business? Absolutely. And that explains one of the strengths of the Sendible platform.

With its 360° brand monitoring and sentiment analysis feature, you’re able to read and respond to what people are saying about your brand across the web. Plus, if you want to really be proactive, you can monitor what people are saying about your competitors’ products, too.

That way, when someone posts an update about a negative experience with a competitor, you can gently (and politely) introduce him or her to your brand. (Note: Be cautious with this tactic, because if you’re too aggressive, it can backfire.)

Sendible allows you to monitor both positive and negative sentiment about your brand.

Like other social media management platforms, Sendible provides a wide variety of features at an affordable price. You can engage with new and existing customersacross multiple platforms, analyze and track your social media and email campaigns, measure the success of the content you share and a multitude of other things.

Sendible is terrific if you’re a data junkie; there’s a lot of information to plow through with their platform. The user interface isn’t as elegant as some of the other options mentioned here, so if “look and feel” is important to you, it might not be perfect. But if you’re more focused on content, then Sendible has plenty of data that can be put to use for your business.

#4: Socialbakers Provides Large Amounts of Data in a User-Friendly Interface

If you want to combine the data available in Sendible with the user interface available with Sprout Social and MarketMeSuite, then you might want to check out Socialbakers.

It’s the most expensive of the tools reviewed here, but it may be worth the price. (Note: It’s just the most expensive of the batch here. There are more expensive tools aimed at big brands.)

Socialbakers tracks fan growth across multiple platforms so you can determine which content was the most well-received by your audience.

It also allows you to analyze fan growth by days of the week and times of the day. That way, you can track when your audience is most likely to respond to your content.

Socialbakers gives you a lot of data in an easy-to-read format.

Are you interested in tracking how your social media campaigns are performing compared to your competitors? You’ll like some of the tools available with Socialbakers.

You can compare how you stack up on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube and see all of your competitors’ pages, profiles and channels in an easy-to-understand dashboard.

Best of all, you can analyze the content that prospective customers find most engaging, which leads to better content from you.

Socialbakers lets you compare results.

Socialbakers also has a number of reports available on their website, including statistics from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn. It even breaks some of the data out by country, making it perfect for the international crowd.

#5: Crowdbooster Does Much of the Thinking for You

Is the idea of drilling down into vast amounts of data and analyzing what to do with it is a bit daunting? Enter Crowdbooster, a social media management tool for people who want their tools to make recommendations for them.

With Crowdbooster, you can check the number of retweets, replies, impressions, likes and comments by date range or in real time. You can also drill down to see who retweeted you, how many shares were organic and how effective your campaigns have been.

Crowdbooster provides you with the data you need to determine the success of your marketing campaigns.

One of the strengths of Crowdbooster is that it provides email alerts that are dropped into your inbox each day. The alerts give you a summary of the data that Crowdbooster collected and, best of all, provides recommendations on how you should respond.

That way, for example, when someone with a high Klout score follows you, Crowdbooster will recommend that you follow her back and engage with her.

About the only weakness of Crowdbooster is the fact that it currently only supports Twitter and Facebook, so if YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+ or any of the other social media platforms are an important part of your mix, Crowdbooster may not be for you. But if you like the idea of having a tool that provides data and recommendations, then you’ll want to check it out.

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