Study Says Video Posts Get the Most Organic Reach on Facebook
The lack of organic reach on Facebook has been a thorn in the side of many content creators and content marketers over the past year. The percentage of people who organically see posts from brands in their News Feeds – even from brands they Like – is so low that companies have been essentially forced into paying to boost their posts or promote their page.
However, it’s still debatable whether or not Facebook ads are actually effective. So, if you’re still holding out for organic reach, you may want to try creating more video content.
Video Posts Reach More People
According to a new study from Socialbakers.com, brands were promoting Facebook posts over twice as often at the end of 2014 than at the beginning of that year. No doubt this was due to dwindling organic reach. Also, photo posts were the most common post type as well as the most frequently promoted. However, the new study suggests that photo posts might actually be the least effective at getting organic reach.
Socialbakers analyzed 4,445 brand pages and over 670,000 posts between October 1, 2014 and February 4, 2015. The percentage of organic reach broken down by post type was:
- Video Posts – 8.7 percent
- Statuses – 5.8 percent
- Links – 5.3 percent
- Photo Posts – 3.7 percent
This data means that, on average, brands could see a 135 percent increase in overall organic reach when creating video posts instead of posting photos. When considering just a brand’s fans, the spread was in the same order. The average organic reach just for fans was:
- Video Posts – 5.7 percent
- Statuses – 4.8 percent
- Links – 3.8 percent
- Photo Posts – 2.3 percent
It must be noted, however, that video posts must consist of uploaded native video. Posting a YouTube video is considered a link.
Quality Trumps Post Type
Of course, the most important thing to remember when trying to get organic reach on Facebook is that post quality will ultimately matter more than post type. Just like with Google’s algorithm, there aren’t really any guaranteed ways to have success. Even the most tried-and-true strategies are really just educated guesses as to how Facebook decides what posts deserve more reach than others. One thing that Facebook will always value, however, is post quality. It’s in Facebook’s best interest to provide the best possible content in users’ News Feeds; otherwise, more and more people will keep leaving.
Socialbakers.com admits that the reach gained through video posts is probably not a trend that will last forever. However, all the other advantages that video content provides – whether it’s used on Facebook or not – makes it an effective content marketing strategy either way.
