Infographic: What Works for Brands (and What Doesn’t) on Facebook

For even the most experienced marketers, Facebook can be an elusive platform. How do you create content that not only reaches a wide audience but also spurs user engagement?

To help decode what works and what doesn’t, social media marketing agency Ignite studied more than 18,000 posts from 30 brands between Jan. 1, 2015 and Dec. 31, 2016. The takeaway: Video works, to an extent.

“Given Facebook’s recent focus on video content, it isn’t surprising that video posts typically reach a larger percentage of fans than link and photo posts … [but video content] is not for generating likes, comments or shares,” said Ryan Sweeney, director of metrics and analytics at Ignite. “Marketers should also keep in mind the objective of each post and how it ladders up to their social strategy and business objectives,” he added. “If they want to reach more than 2.5 percent of fans or followers as well as a larger audience, they will need to invest in paid promotion on their social channels.”

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This story first appeared in the Oct. 9, 2017, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.