In social, video is the new photo
Individual photo posts receive the least organic reach on Facebook
Socialbakers, a social media analytics company, conducted a study on Facebook brand page posts between October 2014 and February 2015. The company analyzed 4,445 brand pages to find which types of Facebook posts receive the highest organic reach in fan news feeds. Here is what they found:
- Video posts: 8.7% reach
- Text-only posts: 5.8% reach
- Link posts: 5.3% reach
- Photo posts: 3.7% reach
What’s so astounding about these findings is that until now, photos have always been the number one way to reach your Facebook audience and promote engagement. Now, photos have fallen to last place. This could be because Facebook has been pushing the use of video in attempt to beat out YouTube, and as a result, is awarding brands who post them.
Or 2015 could really be the year of the video. Maybe consumers are in photo-overload and now they need video to be engaged. Only time will tell, but if your organization wants to see success organically, it’s a good idea to add some videos to your Facebook editorial calendar.
Remember that videos for social media don’t need to be polished with paid actors and high-quality editing. Quite the contrary, content that is grittier tends to perform better across social channels. Consumers like to see content that looks like something their friends created because it feels less like an ad. Below is a video post from the Smith & Jones Facebook page that was shot with an iPhone.
Also, don’t give up on photos. We’ve found that adding photo albums generates a lot of engagement and reach, especially if it’s photos from an event. Facebook creates a cool collage of your album that is more likely to make followers “stop the scroll” than a single image. Below is an example of a photo album we added to the Smith & Jones Facebook page from our Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk.
If your organization wants to highlight a single photo, try posting it on your Instagram or Twitter account instead of Facebook, where single photos still perform very well.
What types of Facebook posts has your hospital seen the most success with?