Social media marketing firm Buddy Media released a very interesting report that looked at how marketers use Twitter – and they found some surprising mistakes. In the study, they analyzed 320 Twitter handles from large brands between December 11, 2011 and February 23, 2012. Instead of making the same mistakes as big companies with large marketing departments, learn from them!
Here are the top findings of the study, along with 9 easy ways to get better engagement on Twitter and Facebook:
1. Twitter engagement is 17 percent higher on Saturday and Sunday
Takeaway: save your best tweets for the weekend, and don’t be afraid to tweet more than once.
2. Beginning on Monday, Twitter engagement falls off as the week progresses
Takeaway: Don’t stop tweeting, but tweet less between Monday and Thursday.
3. Twitter engagement drops off on Thursday but picks up as Friday progresses
Takeaway: Send out tweets on Friday afternoon/early evening when people are winding down from the week and getting ready to dive into the weekend.
4. Tweets perform best during “busy hours”
Takeaway: Keep tweeting between 8am and 7pm to get the most engagement.
5. Facebook status updates perform best during “non-busy hours”
Takeaway: Shift Facebook updates to publish between 8pm and 7am.
6. One tweet per day has the highest engagement rate
Takeaway: While 2-4 tweets still perform well, Twitter engagement nosedives beyond 4 tweets per day, so spread out your tweeting.
7. Tweets of 100 characters with working links get much higher engagement rates
Takeaway: Keep your tweets to the point, and be sure your links work.
8. Tweets with hashtags and photos get twice the engagement
Takeaway: Research hashtags first to be sure you’re using popular ones, but don’t add more than 2 or engagement will drop off. And be sure to say if a link is a photo.
9. Asking for retweets works
Takeaway: if you ask for a “RT,” you’ll get a 12 times higher retweet rate; if you spell it out instead of using the abbreviation, you’ll get a 23 times higher retweet rate.
What other tips can you offer for better engagement on Twitter and Facebook? Leave a comment below.
Image courtesy of avenuesocial.com
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Tags: Buddy Media, engagement, Facebook, Marketing, social media, Twitter
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