6 Data-Driven Ways to Boost Your Facebook Presence

PBM Staff Writer //PBM Staff Writer//May 2, 2018

6 Data-Driven Ways to Boost Your Facebook Presence

Retailers looking to give their store traffic a boost should consider a handful of simple tweaks—along with powerful new tools from Facebook—that could lead to a measurable increase in sales. A data-driven strategy helps posts gain traction, and new features released last month can help you deliver more relevant ads and track their success in driving in-store furniture sales.

Keep It Tight
Social media analytics firm Quintly recently studied 10 million Facebook and Instagram posts and found some surprises. Perhaps the biggest was that less text in Facebook posts actually increased the number of interactions. The research found that posts with no more than 50 characters were the most likely to drive interactions. In second place were posts with no text at all.

Try Video
Posts with video “get the most interactions by far on Facebook, followed by images,” the Quintly report found. Interestingly, video posts appear underused, and posts with links are used most frequently—three-quarters of the time—yet those posts came in fourth, after video, photo and status posts, in terms of interactions.

If you’re looking to mix in other types of posts that go light on text but lead to greater interaction, consider that Facebook in February announced the ability to post 3-D objects in posts, and Wayfair is one of the early adopters.

Rethink Weekend Traffic
Conventional wisdom suggests posts delivered during the weekday are more likely to be successful, where potential customers have access to Facebook for long stretches at work. The Quintly report found, however, that interactions were actually greater on weekends, by nearly 10%. The data suggests increasing weekend posts could lead to better results, and the finding held true for Instagram, as well.

Drive Offline Sales
Facebook in March rolled out three new tools to help retailers create better ads and drive retail sales. “While 45% of all shopping journeys involve a mobile action, the majority of retail sales still happen in stores,” the company said in a release.

One new feature, store sales optimization, uses a form of artificial intelligence—machine learning—to help stores show ads that are more likely to lead to in-store purchases. The tool is matched with offline sales tracking, which helps match information on purchases with Facebook data on your ads to measure success.

Create Personalized Catalogs
Another new Facebook tool lets retailers upload their catalogs to create new ads, which show potential shoppers products from the catalog based on their interests. The move taps into buyers’ desire to see more images before making a purchase. “Shoppers will see a collection ad in their feed, and when they click on the ad, they will be taken to a full-screen experience and see pages of a personalized catalog organized according to their interests,” the company says.

New Catalog Features and Dynamic Ads
A third new feature uses Facebook’s dynamic ads module to show people ads meant to reach customers who have shown interest in a product category but haven’t made a move yet to purchase.

“For example, let’s say someone is generally interested in new furniture, but has not shown interest in a specific product yet,” the company said in a release. “Businesses can use categories for dynamic ads to display images corresponding to that category of product, such as couches or tables, and inspire the person to take the next step in their shopping journey.”

Get more insights and share new ideas on using social media at the NEXT Conference Sept. 24-26, 2018 in Austin, Texas. For more information and to register now, visit www.pbmnext.com