Want to know what kinds of posts and ads actually get traction on Facebook these days?
Meta just released their Widely Viewed Content report for Q2, and it contains some important insights…
Links don’t work: According to the report, 90% of content views in the US came from posts that didn’t contain a link to a source outside of Facebook.
Which means that, if you want to link users away from the platform, you have to be either hella likable or ready to spend money.
Still social: Only 12% of views came from Feed recommendations, while most views came from Pages, Groups, and friends followed by users.
It will be interesting to see whether this number changes as Facebook transitions into a recommendation-driven feed in the coming months.
It’s all about the thumbnails: The report also shows that the most engaging posts all had similar elements, namely…
- They were all short videos.
- They had catchy thumbnails.
- They had captions that were visible in the thumbnail.
Why we care: If you’re a content marketer, organic reach on Facebook is grim, but there’s still some hope…
By focusing on Groups and community-building, you may be able to maintain brand visibility on the platform.
And if you’re running ads, the above bullets could help you to turn brand videos and user generated content into successful creative assets.