Many Facebook marketing strategies are getting quite popular these days, yet not too many people are questioning which are good and which are not. As a social media analytics company, we decided to chime in and see which strategies works, and which ones are just Facebook myths.
In this iteration of our myth debunking series, we took a look at whether photos get more interactions than any other type of post. In our previous posts, we looked at Facebook fanpage size, question posts, and the frequency of posting. And we’re not stopping here, so stay posted to see what other Facebook myths we debunk!
Do posts with photos get more attention?
Let’s get straight to the point: Yes, posts with photos get more attention than other posts. Posts with photos really provoke more activities (proportionally to the number of fans) than other types of posts (links, videos, or text).
It’s a very important thing to remember for the vast majority of Facebook Pages administrators, because over 65% of posts on the average Facebook page contain photos. Posts with links come in second, while posts with videos in third. On the other hand, plain text statuses are hardly ever published. However, keep in mind that video is becoming increasingly popular in social media communication strategies, and the most popular type of post is likely to change soon.
What about videos?
Engaging photos are the domain of big Facebook pages, as they are a great way to promote one’s product or services. Just share a picture demonstrating the product or service, and share it with your fans. However, in the group of pages with 0-5k fans, video posts result in more engagement. In general, the rule is that the bigger the Facebook page, the bigger the difference between posts with photos and posts of other types (with photos taking the advantage). This means it’s very probable that photos are a particularly good solution when we want to target our message to a mass audience. When content should be more individualized, and we want to target our message to particular groups, videos become the better option.
It’s important to remember that out of all post types, photos have the highest variance in relation to the number of fans. This means that it’s very difficult to foresee whether a picture we want to add will really provoke people to interact. And that’s the main drawback of photos as a post type; it’s very easy to make the decision to like a photo, but also very easy to make the decision to ignore it.
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Methodology
We analysed almost 1m posts from different countries, mainly the UK and the USA to discover that photos really gather the highest number of activities. Not only in relation to the number of fans, but also in relation to the number of views. In comparison to other types of posts, we can note a significantly bigger conversion (even 1 out of 100 views ends with user interaction. In comparison to posts with text, which gain on average 1 interaction for every 200 views and videos – 1 interaction for every 300 views). Data was collected using Sotrender social media analytics and elaborated by the Sotrender research team.
In conclusion, yes, when posting a picture you are likely to get more interactions. But always remember, photos should be catered to your target group. Secondly, you’re not very likely to gather a lot of shares and comments, which means that your post is less likely to go viral. Consider what your goals are before you put all your faith into posts with photos.
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Torrey Tayenaka
Klaudia Żyłka
Marta Bongilaj
