Facebook, as we know, is a social media platform deeply integrated in individuals’ personal, social and even professional lives; and therefore, is a prime marketing and communication tools used by organizations to engage with target audiences.

A recent study by Buffer and BuzzSumo analyzed more than 43 million Facebook posts from the top 20,000 brand accounts to identify the trends with Facebook user engagement from Q1 2017 to Q2 2018.

The study is one of the largest conducted in 2018 and involved sorting through top companies’ videos, stories and posts. Its findings provide insight that marketers and business owners can use to revamp their social media marketing strategies for 2019.

Below is an overview of the top five takeaways Buffer and BuzzSumo highlighted after analyzing Facebook data over the past year.

1. Post frequency is increasing, the study found that from Q1 2017 to Q2 2018 there was a 24 percent increase in the number of posts per quarter from 6.5 million to 8.1 million posts.
2. Total page engagement decreased more than 50 percent, and continues to decrease, which increases the competition in the News Feed each year.
3. Images (not videos) receive the most engagement; however, average engagement per video, image and link collectively decreased from the year before.
4. Posting five times per day resulted in the highest engagement and business pages that posted less than one time per day had the lowest overall levels of engagement.
5. Top business accounts’ engagement levels dropped between 49 to 70 percent, artist pages witnessed the largest decrease in engagement at 70.6 percent followed by movie and media/news pages.

So what can marketers do with this data?

At first glance the results may turn individuals away from utilizing Facebook. However, instead of abandoning the social media platform and potentially the target audience who favors it, marketers can turn these findings into actionable tactics with future social media campaigns.

Share higher quality content. For example, if post frequency is increasing, it is natural for page engagement to decrease because users can only sort through a finite amount of content without losing focus. Businesses can increase page engagement by maintaining high-quality content in a time of increased competition. Social media experts can create higher quality content by understanding Facebook’s new features and the types of posts their target audiences prefer to engage with (i.e. knowing when to post videos over an images, etc.).

Optimize content for mobile use. Another actionable step marketers can take is making content easily accessible from mobile devices. More than 95 percent of Facebook users access the platform from their phones, so the ability to cater to this platform will help to increase page and post engagement. For example, as engagement with videos is decreases, companies can change old practices to incorporate newer video trends such as vertical video viewing or including text on all video content.

Post more than once a day. It is important for marketers to note that as the frequency of posting increases, the overall levels of engagement rise – but only to a certain point. The study found that accounts posting five times per day received an average of 2,466 “engagements” per post; and pages posting 10 or more times per day received nearly half as many engagements per posts (1,202). With that being said, companies should test frequency. For example, consider posting three or five posts per day for a month or quarter, measure engagement levels and then adjust frequency up or down as needed for the next month. Not all companies will have the same pattern because of different target audiences and number of followers, etc. but identifying the sweet spot of how many times to post per day will help business maintain or raise levels of engagement.  

Another battle marketer’s face is the “Facebook News Feed algorithm.” The study also confirmed that the News Feed algorithm favors families and friends over pages, this means that businesses are not only competing with other brands to capture a user’s attention, but also competing with every personal profile, business page and group in the network.

Before marketers begin designing social media plans for 2019, they should asses their company’s Facebook practices and engagement levels, and use this study as a guide to develop a targeted and successful Facebook marketing strategy.