In this post, I analyze mainly SHARE results of 4 recent Facebook posts related to Macufe 2012, a 10-day annual event that is held in early October in Bloemfontein, South Africa, and that attracts over 150 000 revelers; to make the point that content is key to driving desired fan behavior.
All the 4 Facebook posts were drawn between 6:20 and 6:30 AM on 8 October (GMT+2), to ensure “comparison of apples with apples”. 3 of the posts come from Friends of Macufe fan page (run by my company, eNitiate Integrated Solutions), while the 4th post comes from Macufe 2012 fan page (run by Chillies).
Facebook fan posts – SHARE comparisons
- See SHARE‘s of 2 Facebook fan posts with the same image, both found in the Friends of Macufe fan page:
Macufe 2012 – Zonke at Amstel Golden Hour (Post 1)
VERSUS
Macufe 2012 – Zonke at Amstel Golden Hour (Post 2)
Notice that Post 2 was itself SHARE’d from Post 1.
Results: Post 1 had 30 SHARES, while Post 2 had only 4 SHARES.
- Next, check SHARE‘s of two Facebook posts with the same image from the two Macufe fan pages - Friends of Macufe and Macufe 2012:
Macufe 2012 – Zonke at Amstel Golden Hour (Post 3)
VERSUS
Macufe 2012 – Zonke at Amstel Golden Hour (Post 4)
It is worth pointing out that Macufe 2012 page has more than 3 times the number of fans compared to Friends of Macufe page.
Results: Post 3 had 28 SHARES, while Post 4 had only 6 SHARES.
Outcome
On the one hand, Posts 1 and 3 requested Facebook fans to SHARE the published images, and they (fans) obliged. On the other hand, SHARE’s were low for Posts 2 and 4, which did not include this call-2-action in their content.
Key insight
Posted content does influence behavior of Facebook fans, and this is good news for brands that are active on the behemoth social site.
In closing…
What do you think the content in this post should have been, to encourage SHARE‘ing of the image?
Macufe 2012 – Unathi at Amstel Golden Hour (posted on 7/10)
