Facebook: Who Uses It, What Motivates Them, and What Content Engages Them
When someone says “social media” what do you think of? Most people including myself would probably say Facebook! Facebook is the most widely recognized social media platform and as a result, tons of businesses utilize it to publish content. Facebook can be a useful channel to publish on if you know what motivates your audience to be on the platform as well as how you can tailor your content to fit the channel. But first, let’s take a look at Facebook as a whole!
Facebook at a Glance
As a whole, 1.62 billion users visit Facebook daily, and Facebook’s overall active users continue to increase every year across the platform. Among active U.S. Facebook users, approximately 75% of Facebook users go on Facebook every day and users spend 38 minutes a day on average on Facebook.
Most Users Are on Mobile Devices
Studies show that 88% of users access Facebook on a mobile device. When creating content for Facebook, it’s important to think about how your content will appear on mobile. If you’re not tailoring your content to appeal to a mobile-using audience, then it would be worth considering to do so.
When Are Facebook Users Active?
Think about when you open up your phone and visit Facebook, when would that be? For most people, it would be during their lunch break! This is shown statistically as Facebook usage is at its highest between Tuesday and Thursday around midday. This is another interesting stat to considerer when publishing content. You want to publish content that is likely to be seen — which makes lunch hours the ideal time to post on Facebook during the workweek.
Unpaid Posting vs. Paid Posting
Facebook is one of the most frequently used platforms that businesses use to publish content. Unfortunately, there has been a downward trend in terms of engagement on unpaid content. The average organic reach for a Facebook post is 6.4% of the page’s likes. Facebook’s algorithms have decreased the reach of organic posts — which is seen as organic reach is on a continuous downslope year to year. It gets even worse when you look at the engagement rate in 2020, where a study found that the engagement rate for businesses publishing on Facebook was only 0.0166% for unpaid content.
What does this mean?
To get more eyes on your content, you have to pay to boost it. This means that brands need to begin utilizing Facebook as a paid ad platform to increase engagement. Facebook has quickly become one of the most competitive ad landscapes. In 2019, Facebook ad spending grew to $25.56 billion, an increase of over 100% since 2016. Spending will only go up as most marketers plan on increasing their ad spending this year. Not believing the hype? Overall, Facebook ad reach increased by over 35% in 2019 and that reach is only going to continue to trend upwards.
Get To Know Your Facebook Audience
A lot of people use Facebook, and most users tend to be on Facebook for a solid block of time per day.
General Stats to Consider
Users aged 65 and older are the fastest-growing demographic on Facebook. This group grew from taking up 26% of the platform in 2018 to almost 40% in 2019. More high earners are on Facebook compared to LinkedIn. This might be surprising, but 74% of high-income earners are on Facebook compared to LinkedIn, which only 50% of high-income earners are on
You’ve got a general idea of who makes up Facebook, but what truly motivates your audience to be on Facebook? Let’s take a look!
What Motivates Your Audience on Facebook?
- Connection: People want to be connected to their friends and family which is the biggest motivation to be on Facebook.
- Belonging: Facebook users need to belong which is accomplished through groups, pages, and interactions.
- Sharing: Facebook is made for the user to share about themself. This has remained a major factor for Facebook users as they want to share what’s going on in their lives through pictures, status updates, videos, or posts!
- Self-Image: Receiving a “like” on Facebook comes with a massive dopamine release within people which results in many Facebook users utilizing the channel for self-image.
- Entertainment: Ever watched a funny video on Facebook, immediately scrolled down to the next video and all of a sudden an hour passed where you were just watching funny videos on Facebook? Maybe you can relate to that, maybe you can’t, but one thing is clear: People love to be entertained on Facebook.
Tailor Your Content to Fit Facebook
Now that you know who is on Facebook and what motivates them to interact with content, it’s time to create content that engages them! Here are some tips that will help you craft content that engages your audience:
Visual
It has been shown that posts with images perform better than posts with no visuals accompanying them. Visuals that grab attention include quotes, memes, cartoons, or infographics relating to the post. If you’re posting on Facebook without an image or visual supporting it, then you won’t drive the engagement you want.
Videos
As we all know, videos are the most engaging form of content for most channels. In terms of Facebook, here are some tips that might help you take your videos to the next level: Consider utilizing Facebook Live – whether you Facebook Live an event, a QA where you chat with your audience or just to chat about some industry know-how, Facebook users are 4 times more likely to notice and view a live video compared to a recorded video. For normal video posts, it is suggested that you use square videos as they get 35% more engagement than horizontal videos (again, tailoring your content to a mobile-using audience). Also, make sure to have captions in your videos. You can either write your own captions, or Facebook also can auto-generate captions for you. This will increase viewership even if the user doesn’t open your video, and it makes your video more accessible.
Fun Posts
The value of entertainment cannot be understated for Facebook. That’s why fun posts are crucial to driving engagement. Fun posts can consist of events your team participated in, team bonding activities, and other personality posts that Facebook users resonate with. Other fun posts can consist of posting about a fun holiday. Even though it might not relate to what you do, it still drives engagement. This makes your audience more likely to engage in your other content. Polls and competitions are a great engagement boost as they are fun and encourage audience participation. Externally, you can even use polls to ask industry-related questions which you then can use as inspiration for your upcoming posts. These are a great way to drive engagement through entertainment.
Variety
Keeping your content fresh and not getting stuck in a rut is crucial to driving engagement from your Facebook audience. They are looking for different types of posts, different visuals, and different subjects. Also, try to keep your language fun as Facebook users are looking to be entertained and aren’t looking for an information overload. Another strategy is to end Facebook posts with a question relating to the post, prompting your audience to respond in the comments. This can drive engagement by potentially starting a conversation.
In Summary
Facebook is a place where people go to be entertained and to connect with the people they are close to. Posting content that keeps your Facebook audience engaged means really tailoring your content to fit the entertainment and connection that your audience wants. That means keeping your posts fun, conversational, and entertaining.
If you’re struggling with your content marketing efforts, head on over to our Resource Center to learn more about how you can effectively use social media to grow your business.