Why Brands Are Posting Way More Content To Facebook | Social Media

In the second quarter of 2018, the top 20,000 pages on Facebook posted an incredible 8.1 million times, up 24 percent from the first quarter.

That’s according to analysis from a joint Buffer-BuzzSumo report, which analyzed 43 million Facebook posts to see how brands are performing on the platform this year.

It seems that in response to Facebook’s decision to emphasize person-to-person over Page-to-person interactions on News Feeds, brands are throwing as much content as possible against the Facebook wall to see what sticks.

So far, results—at least from an engagement perspective—are underwhelming.

Brands are flooding Facebook with way more content

Although there’s always been debate about this, the general rule of thumb has been that more posts and more content lead to more engagement.

So when brands were told that each post would get less reach in this new era of Facebook, they began to create even more content to compensate: According to Buffer, the world’s top brands posted nearly 20,000 more pieces of content every day in Q2 2018 than they did in Q1 2017.

While most pages put up new content a handful of times a day, some are hitting the Post button as much as 80 times in a 24 hour period, according to Facebook.

And yet: engagement is down across the board

Buffer’s research shows that overall page engagement is down 50 percent over the last 18 months, and individual post engagement is down a whopping 65 percent.

It doesn’t matter what pages are posting—engagement for images, videos, and links are all way down.

There are a few theories being floated as to why engagement is down, beyond a general reshuffling of what’s considered important by Facebook:

• Increased competition: The News Feed is the same size it’s always been, which means only so many posts can populate the feed at once.
• Improved content: The bar is higher than ever for putting out quality content, and only the best stuff will get the same traction that lower-grade content once did.
• Ad content is being prioritized: Facebook is making an effort to feature paid advertisements in the feed more often, and that’s crowding out unpaid content.

How to find your brand’s sweet spot

If you’re worried that your business’s content is getting lost in the deluge, you may be right.

Buffer recommends an average of five posts per day, with a greater emphasis on the quality of each post, rather than a larger quantity, to make sure you’re getting the most ROI for everything you produce.

Also, keep in mind that images primarily perform better than video at this point, and both do better than simple links to other sites. Your content should also be mobile-optimized and speak to your audience and their reasons for sharing.

If you’re still not getting traction, figuring out to how to create quality paid spots may be the way to go. There are more ways than ever to engage your audience with paid spots, particularly in long-form video.

Learn the latest trends, insights and best practices from the brightest minds in media and technology. Sign up for SMW Insider to watch full-length sessions from official Social Media Week conferences live and on-demand.