It’s crucial that your business stays ahead of the curve, so we’ve put together a shortlist of the five major social media trends and the corresponding best practices to tackle them. Seizing these trends will give you a competitive edge and set you up for success this year and beyond.

So, what are the latest social media trends?

Social Media Trend #1: AI gets a promotion

In just a few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has shifted from being a futuristic buzzword to becoming a major part of social media marketing. Nearly 60% of marketers already use AI to enhance their social media efforts, and this number is expected to continue growing.

AI isn’t just about chatbots or scheduling posts anymore. It now plays a role in content creation, capable of everything from fully written tweets and media generation to voiceovers and closed captions. Today, social media managers who learn to collaborate with AI can lower costs, save time, and scale their campaigns faster than ever.

However, as an interesting experiment by Hootsuite found, while AI-generated social posts can be quite effective and engaging, they’re not necessarily a replacement for real people. In the case of the experiment, ChatGPT garnered more total engagement while the human-written posts led to more meaningful actions, such as profile visits, link clicks, and bookmarks.

And then there are the conversations around the ethics and accuracies of AI. As AI continues to evolve, concerns are rising about misinformation, bias, and the potential for dehumanizing interactions. Marketers will need to consider the implications of relying too heavily on AI-generated content, especially in terms of maintaining credibility and trust with their audience.

So what should you do?

Strike a balance by using AI as a collaborative tool rather than a standalone solution. While AI can be a fantastic starting point — used to spark ideas or draft initial content — it’s crucial to remember that a human touch is still needed. Authenticity, emotional connection, and a deep understanding of your brand’s unique voice are all elements that AI has yet to master.

Companies will also do well to create standards and guidelines for using AI in their content strategies. This includes outlining ethical practices, such as being transparent about AI-generated content and ensuring accuracy in messaging.

And of course, to ensure your content is performing well, it’s essential to establish metrics for success. Use analytics tools to track engagement rates, follower growth, sentiment, and more. By leveraging social analytics platforms like ours, you can gain insights into which types of content resonate with your audience and effectively refine your strategies.

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Social Media Trend #2: Authentic, playful personalities get lots of love

According to The Sprout Social Index, the number one thing consumers say they don’t see enough of from brands on social media is authentic, non-promotional content. Younger audiences, especially Millennials and Gen Z, want to see the people behind the brand — not just the brand itself.

Gone are the days when brands could hide behind logos and sleek product shots. Today’s social media landscape rewards authenticity, humor, and a less filtered approach. Social users don’t want to be sold to — they want to connect with people who understand and reflect their lifestyles.

The “Gen Z edit” and “Gen Z marketing script” trend is a perfect example of this. The video trend features an (often older) brand employee promoting their business but with a twist. They were given a script filled with the latest Gen Z slang or the video was intentionally edited to highlight funny habits and behaviors.

Across industries, companies are tapping into a more casual and comedic tone. With younger staff at the wheel, they’re playfully poking fun at generational gaps and using slang or references that feel fresh and relatable. Not only is this entertaining but it also builds a sense of connection, showing there are real people behind the brand, not just a corporate logo.

So what should you do?

For brands, this shift means dropping the corporate mask and embracing a more transparent, personal approach. Consider the fact that 90% of consumers say authenticity is a key factor when deciding what brands they like and support. Whether it’s sharing behind-the-scenes content, reacting to cultural moments, or simply showing your team’s faces, consumers are far more likely to engage with content that feels genuine.

Start by creating content that feels less polished and more real. Lean into playful campaigns that reflect your team’s personality, without shying away from humor or self-awareness. And instead of focusing solely on selling, think about how you can offer value or entertainment to your audience in a way that feels natural and authentic.

Social Media Trend #3: Micro- and nano-influencers take center stage as storytellers

Influencer marketing isn’t just a trend anymore — it’s a full-blown marketing strategy that brands rely on. But while big-name influencers once dominated, the spotlight has shifted toward smaller creators. Micro- and nano-influencers, with their more intimate and engaged audiences, are now the go-to for brands of all sizes.

With platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok giving rise to everyday people as content creators, it’s no surprise that audiences are gravitating toward influencers who feel like “real” people, rather than celebrities with unreachable lifestyles.

Another interesting development? While short-form videos like TikToks and Instagram Reels still reign supreme, there’s a growing demand for longer-form storytelling, especially in the form of “storytimes” told in short, engaging parts.

We saw this earlier this year when the viral TikTok series “Who TF Did I Marry?” — in which a woman told her story of being married to a pathological liar — took the internet by storm. What made it so powerful was the sense that you weren’t just watching a video but were on FaceTime with a friend telling a wild story.

This shift shows us that while quick, engaging content is crucial, audiences are equally drawn to authentic, longer stories when done right. Whether it’s a one-off 15-second clip or a multi-part series, smaller influencers are proving they can drive massive engagement by being real and relatable.

Find out what is a good engagement rate on social media.

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So what should you do?

When choosing influencers for your brand, sometimes it’s better to stick with less mainstream figures rather than pulling big names like the Kardashians (if your brand could even appeal to these names). While those big names work best for major brands like Coca-Cola, Ford, and Microsoft, small-to-medium-sized businesses are better off sticking with influencers with a subscribed audience range of 1,000 to 100,000 followers.

Partnering with micro- or nano-influencers allows you to tap into more niche, engaged audiences without breaking the bank. These creators are also often seen as more authentic because their lifestyles feel closer to their followers’ own. Ask yourself, who do you relate to better? Matthew McConaughey and his multi-million dollar lifestyle or the middle-class social media influencer who’s actually tried a product or service?

Also, embrace long-form content if you’ve got a captivating story to tell. While short-form is great for quick hits, long-form storytelling — especially when broken into digestible, binge-worthy parts — can help your brand build a deeper connection with your audience. At the end of the day, it’s all about trust and relatability. The more down-to-earth your influencer, the better the connection an audience is bound to make with your brand.

Social Media Trend #4: Social platforms are the new search engines

More and more, social media isn’t just where we scroll for entertainment—it’s where we go to search for information. Whether it’s discovering a new restaurant, finding product recommendations, or looking for how-to videos, people are turning to platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and even Pinterest to get answers, instead of heading straight to Google.

According to recent data, nearly half of Gen Z prefers searching on TikTok or Instagram over traditional search engines. And it makes sense. Social media’s visual format makes it easy to find exactly what you’re looking for and fast.

Knowing this, platforms have leaned into this trend by enhancing search features to make it easier to find content based on keywords and hashtags. Instagram, for example, now allows keyword searches beyond just hashtags, and TikTok has been optimizing its search function to help users discover more targeted content.

So what should you do?

Simply having a presence on social media isn’t enough. Brands should start optimizing their content for social SEO. That means incorporating keywords, hashtags, and clear descriptions that match what your target audience might be searching for. Pay close attention to the types of search queries happening on social and make sure your content aligns with those trends.

Think of your social media posts as answers to potential customer questions. If your content provides value, it’s more likely to show up in search results and keep users engaged.

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Social Media Trend #5: Social media e-commerce thrives

The monumental growth of online shopping has put certain social media markets on a path to serious expansion. With platforms like Facebook Marketplace, Instagram Shop, and TikTok Shop leading the charge, social media has changed the way consumers discover and purchase products — and there seems to be no going back.

For instance, in 2023, TikTok saw an estimated 33.3 million users shopping directly on the platform, with 51.9% of marketers actively selling through TikTok.

Meanwhile, Facebook Marketplace and Instagram (also owned by Facebook) have seen massive success in making their interfaces easier for shoppers. Instagram, for example, cleared up the clutter of online shopping by allowing users to purchase products from businesses without leaving Instagram using its own Checkout feature.

This trend means your business has more avenues for making a sale than ever before. Lifestyle brands are particularly set to dominate the Instagram market since the platform is based around the idea of sharing said lifestyles and experiences.

So what should you do?

Don’t wait to get in on this trend. The combination of e-commerce and social media is such a natural marriage that up-and-coming brands can’t afford to ignore TikTok Shop, Facebook Marketplace, and Instagram Shop. Millennials and Gen Z are all about experiences and social media is where all of those life events are shared. It’s crucial that your business makes inroads into those experiences as soon as possible.

So here are a few pointers for conducting business in these spaces:

• Trim down the buying process. If you’re selling products that are simple and straightforward, then don’t clutter up the process by redirecting customers to your website from your social media posts. Engage in transactions directly through social media platforms like Instagram whenever possible. The last thing you want to deal with is an excess of abandoned internet carts.
• Utilize user-generated content. Your customers are not only a source of revenue, they are also your best chance at winning over new customers. Happy customers are worth far more than singing your own praise, so borrow their own words and images when marketing the products they choose. Of course, it’s best to ask for permission first.
• Use video whenever possible. Images are great, but videos are even better. Seeing video of your product in action gives your customers a real glimpse into what they can expect when they make a purchase.
• Use high-quality images. I cannot stress this enough. Time and time again I find businesses marketing their products on Facebook Marketplace or Instagram Shop using grainy or pixelated images. These low-quality images inspire more mistrust than a willingness to buy. Take the time to generate quality images to market your products and business.

Whatever you do, just don’t leave this open market on the sidelines to collect dust. Embrace the new way to sell.

And the shifts are bound to continue

Considering the speed at which the landscape has changed over the last year, there’s no telling how many of these social media trends will continue into 2025. If you’re looking to stay up-to-date with the latest social media news and best practices for business, be sure to check in with our blog regularly. Additionally, if you have any thoughts on our suggestions, feel free to find us on Twitter to share your feedback. We’d love to hear from you!

This post was originally published in 2021 and has since been updated.

The post Top 5 Social Media Trends for 2024 (and Beyond) appeared first on Rival IQ.

In that time we’ve seen the rise of multiple social competitors, including Twitter, Instagram (now owned by Facebook), Snapchat, Vine (R.I.P), TikTok, and many others. With every addition to the market, the list of Facebook best practices has had to shift to meet the expectations of changing features and audiences.

While it may not have the virality of TikTok or the glamour of Instagram, Facebook remains an essential channel to be active on for its business and community benefits. 

To get the most out of Facebook in 2023, here are 10 Facebook best practices for your brand to follow for success on the platform.

Facebook Best Practice #1: Verify your Facebook business page

This is the easiest way to distinguish your brand from the rest. Verifying your Page doesn’t just provide your business with a small blue checkmark next to your page name — it’s bigger than that. A Page verification signals to your audience that your business is the real deal, which helps build trust.

The best part is verifying your Page only requires a few steps to set you on the path to earning the coveted blue checkmark. Once you’ve completed those steps, you have one more set to go through. This process requires you to request a badge from Facebook and provide the following documents and assets:

• Photo ID (Drivers license, passport, national identification card)
• If your page represents an organization, one of the following: Phone/utility bill, certification of formation, articles of incorporation, or tax exemption documents
• Relevant URLs to your businesses’ webpage to illustrate your notability

Once you submit this information to Facebook they will make a determination as to whether your page warrants a blue checkmark or not.

In addition to the added credibility, verifying your page grants your business additional tangible benefits, such as:

• Access to new tools before they are made available to other brands
• Boosts in Facebook’s search algorithm

These added benefits put your business Page in a better position in terms of traffic and consumer confidence in your brand.

Facebook Best Practice #2: Properly size your images

Imagine sending only 60% of an email to a coworker or starting a story three chapters in without any background information. This is what it’s like to share improperly sized images on Facebook. You’re only conveying the information that is visible to the average Facebook user scrolling through their feed while leaving the rest hidden. Additionally, improperly sized images also lead to diminished quality, such as pixelation when dealing with smaller visuals.

There are specific image sizes that are optimized for maximum visibility on Facebook and tailoring your visual content to these specifications will ensure the highest levels of engagement possible.

Optimal Facebook Image Sizes:

• Profile Picture: 400 x 400 px
• Business Page Cover Photo: 1200 x 674 px
• Event Cover Photo: 1920 x 1005 px
• Group Cover Photo: 1920 x 1005 px
• Photo Post: 1200 x 630 px
• Story Post: 1200 x 445 px
• Carousel Ad: 1080 x 1080 px
• Single Image Ad: 1200 x 628 px
• Catalog Image: 1080 x 1080 px

Don’t count on your users to click on your images to get the whole picture (pun intended). Tell your whole story the first time while your audience scrolls over your content. Be sure to save this list of image sizes for your own reference when creating new visual content for your business page.

Facebook Best Practice #3: Engage your audience with giveaways

Facebook is a participatory medium. With over two billion daily active users, Facebook continues to be an active platform with users who are ready to participate in a conversation — and giveaways are a great way to capture that engagement.

The giveaway below shared by Rare Beauty generated an engagement rate of 0.88% which is 31 times higher than the average for beauty brands on Facebook and almost 15 times greater than the median Facebook engagement rate across industries.

While giveaways have been less popular compared to previous years, they can still be an effective way to boost your engagement and let your Facebook audience know you’re still engaged and dedicated to them on this channel.

Facebook Best Practice #4: Optimize your posting frequency

If you rarely post on your brand’s Facebook page, you won’t see any real benefits to your business. But what about the opposite situation? On the other hand, posting too much can be harmful to brand engagement where you run into issues of oversaturating your audience with content. This will either cause more important content to get lost in the noise or alienate your audience altogether out of sheer annoyance.

What matters most is finding a posting frequency that works for you. If posting too little or too much are the extremes, what is the optimal posting limit for increasing engagement with your audience in 2023? While posting frequency varies by industry, the average number that brands across industries are posting is five posts per week.

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Deciding how many times to post per day is relative to your return on investment. That’s why it’s crucial to track the clicks, impressions, and shares for your page, and Rival IQ has just the right tools to help you optimize your social strategy. Our platform will analyze your social channels and top-performing content to determine when the best times to post during the day are for your brand. Speaking of best times…

BONUS: What about the best times to post?

Great question! Luckily, we’ve done extensive research into this subject at Rival IQ and there are a few general takeaways you should consider for Facebook:

• Move away from lunchtime: Much like on Instagram, weekday mornings and afternoons see the highest concentration of posting, but don’t have much to show for themselves by way of engagement. Experiment with late night Facebook posts to see if you can catch your followers outside of work.
• Try posting on weekends: Brands are seeing above average engagement rates on Facebook on the weekends, especially in the evenings.

Outside of this, the best times to post on Facebook are specific to your brand and the historical performance of your page. This information is found in your Facebook Page Insights. Once you select “posts” in the Insights section, you’ll find a breakdown chart that shows average post traffic throughout the day so you can find the optimal times to post.

Facebook Best Practice #5: Implement a video strategy

It’s not enough to use images in your social media post lineup. If you’re only using images and not video to convey the power of your brand on Facebook, then you’re missing out on a huge marketing opportunity — specifically with Reels.

While Reels are huge on Instagram, you can get even more out of them by sharing your Reels on Facebook. After you post a Reel, you can automatically share it to your linked Facebook account to reach that audience without having to post twice. The video below from Siete Family Foods, a top health food brand on Facebook, is a Reel that the brand also shared on Instagram. This video generated an engagement rate that’s eight times better than the average engagement rate on Facebook.

If you’re just developing your video strategy for Facebook in 2023, here are a few more best practices to follow:

• Create a short intro trailer for longer videos: Not everyone has minutes to figure out what you’re hoping to convey in your video before scrolling on. A short three- to five-second intro trailer that hooks your audience is the perfect way to keep them on the leash for the valuable content you’re looking to convey.
• Don’t go overboard on length: Nobody has time to watch a thirty-minute diatribe about your brand, product, or topic, especially while scrolling through Facebook. Keep your video length anywhere between one to five minutes to convey your message.
• Use the correct aspect ratio: Just like the optimal image sizes, Facebook also has an optimal video aspect ratio. Use a 4:5 aspect ratio when releasing content on this social platform.

As long as you stick to these best practices and keep your video content fresh, your audience should reward you with the engagement and clicks you’re looking for.

Facebook Best Practice #6: Take advantage of Meta Business resources

Facebook, which is now under the umbrella of Meta, offers countless resources directly on its website to help businesses and creators get the most out of the platform. 

For instance, you can learn more about the latest updates and platform-specific tips for Meta Business Suite, which is the central place to manage your brand’s Facebook page and Instagram account. 

 There’s also Facebook for Creators, a dedicated resource for creators and brands. Facebook provides countless how-to guides, case studies, guidelines, and best practices for you to follow. Who better to take advice on using Facebook than the creators of the platform itself?

If anything, you should at least read through their “Get Started” resource to help you establish your brand as a significant force when it comes to video content creation. One thing to keep in mind is that this guide will lead your page down the path to becoming a video creators page and if that is not your only goal, make sure you skip over some of the steps that lead in that direction. Chances are you’ll use this resource as a way to find new ideas for content and promotion for your business rather than a tool to becoming the next big online influencer or commentator.

Facebook Best Practice #7: Use alt text

To make sure your content is accessible to everyone on Facebook, add alt text to your images. Alt text is the written text that’s embedded in an image’s HTML code and is used to describe the content of the image. Alt text is helpful for users who may be visually impaired and use screen reading tools. It can also provide context for all users if your image fails to load for any reason and helps search engines better categorize your content.

While Facebook automatically generates alt text if you don’t add your own, it’s usually pretty nondescript. To make sure your alt descriptions are painting an accurate picture of what’s being shown in the image, it’s best to create your own.

For example, the alt text on this photo shared by sparkling water brand Spindrift perfectly describes the photo while still weaving in its brand. The description says: “Two Spindrift cans laying atop a pile of apples and cinnamon revealing the new flavor for sparkling and spiked: Spiced Apple Cider.”

Facebook Best Practice #8: Make customer service a priority

Your Facebook page is more than just a giant digital billboard for you to share the latest company updates. It’s a platform for you to connect with your audience and offer support when followers reach out. Over 54% of people use Facebook to keep up with brands, and that includes reaching out for questions or support. 

If you want to build engagement and trust between your brand and your audience, then make customer service a priority. Have a plan for how you’ll manage customer questions, inquiries, and feedback and how you’ll respond. 

Being responsive on your brand’s Facebook page has a huge impact, especially if you respond in a timely fashion. Facebook will actually display a badge on your page denoting the fact that you are very responsive if you have:

• A response rate of 90% or more
• A response time of less than 15 minutes

Below is an example of the badge you’ll earn from Facebook for being responsive. If a potential customer sees this, they’ll trust that they can reach out for support.

Being responsive is one of the easiest Facebook best practices to jump on, but answering all of your messages will require constant attention. Make sure all of your message notifications are turned on and someone on your team is responsible for monitoring your page’s activity. Answering messages on your page is the perfect way to connect with your audience on a granular level.

Engagement is a two-way street when it comes to social media — the more you engage with your audience, the more likely they are to feel connected to your brand.

Facebook Best Practice #9: Boost your highest performing posts

What if the popularity party could run for just a little bit longer? Boosting popular posts is a great way to double-dip on the engagement you receive and get your content in front of more eyes. Instead of relying on Facebook’s algorithm to build organic reach, you can pay Facebook to put your content in front of more people. Out of all of the Facebook best practices in this list, this one is the only one that’ll require a real monetary investment in the platform.

The key to boosting Facebook posts is to choose ones that already performed well. When you boost a high-performing post, you can target a wider audience so that people who don’t already follow you can also engage with it. 

In the Facebook post from good culture, another top health food brand on Facebook, we can see in our analysis that the image was likely boosted (as indicated by the tag by the red arrow). While the engagement total was primarily made up of likes, we can see that the post also generated a decent number of comments and shares. It also gave the brand an engagement rate lift that was 32 times better than similar posts the brand shared.

The process for boosting posts is also much easier than setting up a formal ad campaign. Here are the steps:

1. Choose the post you want to boost
2. Click “boost post”
3. Choose which objective you’re looking to accomplish with this post: website visits, engagement, or direct messages
4. Choose your CTA button
5. Select your audience
6. Set your budget and duration

When boosting your posts, you set the budget you are comfortable spending with the minimum spend set at $1 per day. The days of massive organic reach on Facebook may be over, but there are still opportunities to amplify your reach and boosting is an effective method.

Facebook Best Practice #10: Be authentic

Millennials and Gen Z are very quick to pick up on insincere and contrived marketing. Instead, these generations support brands that promote honesty, civic engagement, corporate responsibility, and real connection with their customers.

One easy way to connect to your audience, particularly a younger audience, is through relatable and candid content. This includes the use of features like Stories and Reels to release personable content about your brand, such as staff highlights, production processes, POV videos of events, and AMA (ask me anything) posts.

However, it’s not enough to just release a few videos and stories. The tone is everything when it comes to this kind of content, so relax and be your genuine self (or selves). Self-awareness and a relaxed tone go a long way, as does humor for many brands. Top-performing convenience store Kwik Trip offers an excellent example of how to tap into the authentic and relatable content that ties into your brand in the post below.

Final Note on Facebook Best Practices in 2023

Things are changing quickly and these Facebook best practices are expected to change along with it. The key is to always be aware of what the latest engagement rates are both across industries and within your specific industry so you have a benchmark to work towards. As different strategies and trends arise, it’s important to track and measure your efforts to see what’s working. 

Facebook may be different than what it was a few years ago, but it continues to be an effective channel for communicating with your audience, sharing important updates, and cross-posting when it makes sense. Experiment with these tried and true Facebook best practices to boost your engagement on the channel in 2023.

This post was originally published in June 2021 and has since been updated.

The post Top 10 Facebook Best Practices for 2023 appeared first on Rival IQ.

It’s critical that you dive into your metrics and truly understand what you’re doing right and wrong. After all, why spend precious time and effort on promoting content and assets that aren’t leading to more likes, followers, engagements, and conversions? I’ve put together an easy-to-follow Facebook audit guide in conjunction with our free Rival IQ social media audit course. Combining these resources will help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your social media and put you on the path to viral success!

So, let’s jump into it.

1. How to Export your Facebook metrics

The foundation of every Facebook audit is built on data. Let’s take a look at your metrics and see where your page currently stands, where it has come from, and what you can change in the future.

Pulling from Facebook Insights

A great place to start is the “Insights” section on the backend of your Facebook page.

Using Facebook Insights you can gather all kinds of information, from post reach to engagement rates. Utilize this information to make inferences regarding what has and hasn’t worked for your brand within a designated period.

If you’re looking for additional insights into your Facebook data, especially in comparison with other competitors, you might want to consider using a social media analysis tool like Rival IQ.

Pulling from Rival IQ

If you’ve made it this far, you’re looking for additional insights into your current social media strategy, and the good news is that Rival IQ has lots to offer. Our social media course dives into the intricacies of pulling your metrics from our very own platform and making sense of this data.

Lauren Teague, our social media instructor, pulled in metrics on our platform in lesson 2 from all sorts of major tech companies, including Microsoft as an example.

Just from the overview, you can see Microsoft’s audience numbers, how many posts they’ve put up, their total engagement, their most engaging social channel, and the top post from each channel.

However, just for fun, let’s take a look at one of my favorite companies (Taco Bell) and pull some of Lauren’s knowledge to see what we might look for if we were running their Facebook strategy. First off, once you’ve added your company and your competitors to Rival IQ, you’ll want to set your page as the “focus company” which you’ll find under the “Companies” tab of the “Landscape” button on the menu. Once in the Companies area, you’ll find a button to add companies to your analytics and another to select your focus company.

Just for fun, I put up Taco Bell against Wendy’s, Chipotle, Qdoba, and McDonald’s to see who was winning in the social race. It turns out that Taco Bell comes in second in overall activity on Facebook, with Wendy’s as the overall leader. This isn’t surprising considering Wendy’s sterling and snarky social media reputation. Comparing your performance against your competitors is helpful for establishing benchmarks, gathering post ideas, and measuring your performance improvements over time.

Here in Rival IQ, you can pull all kinds of data on your brand as well as your competitors. Since I am not the administrator of the Taco Bell Facebook page, I can’t pull any of their private data, but this will pull the standard insights you’d find such as likes, shares, engagement rates, page views, etc.

2. Find out which social strategies succeed and fail

The best thing about using Facebook Insights or a platform like Rival IQ is the newfound visibility into what is working for your brand and what you ought to leave behind. If certain posts aren’t performing up to standards, a Facebook audit like this will help you narrow down the details of those posts that aren’t resonating with your audience.

For instance, if it turns out that short videos are performing well on your page, but you’re seeing a pattern of low reach/engagement on text-only posts, you have a pretty good idea of what needs to change.

Your metrics will allow you to find out the best days and times to post content so you aren’t wasting your best material at the least opportune time.

Find the best times to post

As you can see from the data below, the days are pretty consistent, but it looks like Thursdays are the best for reaching followers. Also, it looks like the peak posting times are between 11:00 AM and 5:00 PM, after which engagement tends to drop.

Most of these metrics were pulled from a Facebook page I am managing (no, it isn’t Taco Bell) and we were able to draw some interesting information from our metrics.

I found out that question posts were outperforming blog posts by a slight margin. This tells me that I might get better traffic with less work using these posts over putting more time into blogs.

These are just a few examples of the kinds of inferences you can make when auditing your Facebook page. It’s all about seeing what works and adjusting what isn’t.

Rival IQ also provides you with the inferences from the post data, as well as additional information you’ll need to construct a successful strategy going forward.

Rival IQ tells you your post engagement rates, which types of posts perform best on your page, how many posts you publish per day, and the average activity generated by this content. You can also compare your performance (blue line) to your competitors’ posting schedule (grey line) to see if there’s a better time to reach taco fans.

As we can see here, Taco Bell performs best between 5 AM and 8 AM PST (which is around mid-morning on the East Coast). Additionally, their busiest posting day with the best engagement rates is Thursday. Using Rival IQ you can use this data to acknowledge your strengths while visualizing the gaps in your Facebook social strategy.

Find the best post types for your brand

The beauty of social metrics is the insights you gain regarding everything that works best for your brand, including post types. Are videos, images, or text posts your best bet? These are the kinds of questions you can answer using Facebook Insights and Rival IQ.

For example, as you can see in the image below, some of the most engaging posts from Taco Bell as of late were image-based, versus the lower engagement text-based posts.

Using the metrics in your Facebook audit you can use insights like these to build a content strategy that performs best on your page and eschew efforts that are more than likely wasted.

Conduct hashtag research

Believe it or not, hashtags are still a thing on Facebook, yet their usefulness is dubious when compared to Instagram and Twitter. While Facebook Insights doesn’t provide any meaningful insights into your use of hashtags, Rival IQ compiles a list of your best-performing hashtags under the “Social Posts” tab, as such:

This is just an example of how your insights can provide you with useful information, even if that information is unexpected. One might think that hashtags would boost engagement rates, but in this case, it seems that the opposite is true.

Whatever the case, your analytics will help guide your hashtag strategy going forward once your Facebook audit is complete.

3. Evaluating your performance: Comparing metrics with competitors

Your brand isn’t the only one vying for the attention of millions of users. That’s why it’s crucial to not only evaluate your brand but to stack it up against your competitors to see what they’re doing right and emulate their success into your own Facebook strategy. But how do we do that?

Comparing with Facebook

When it comes to measuring yourself against your competitors, Facebook Insights leaves you with a whole lot of nothing. Well, almost nothing.

This is it. This is all that Facebook Insights will give you in terms of comparative data of your competitors. The rest of the digging is up to you and even then the findings aren’t particularly helpful. You can manually inspect other competitors’ pages to see the post frequency as well as the likes, comments, and shares for each post.

For everything else, you’ll need a third-party tool to gather all of this information to make inferences about your performance versus the competition.

Comparing with Rival IQ

Lauren Teague, along with her co-host, Seth, pull these metrics in Rival IQ in lesson 3 by plugging in the relevant companies as we discussed before. Using the public data tools in the Rival IQ menu they can find the top post metrics for Microsoft and their competitors, so that’s exactly what we’re gonna do for Taco Bell and their upscale competitor, Chipotle.

If we select “Facebook” under “Competitive Public Data” we can see that Chipotle holds the top four spots for post engagement over Taco Bell in the time period we selected.

Rival IQ also provides you with generalized insights into your performance versus the competition. As you can see below, Rival IQ provides tips to increase engagement rates in the overview section under the Competitive Data Analysis.

In both instances of posts per week and the number of fans, Taco Bell is in the lead, but if I were managing their Facebook account I would take their advice to post at least once per day, rather than a little over once per week. Lauren and her co-host measured the success of Microsoft’s Facebook account and found similar results. Microsoft, while ahead of its competitors in terms of followers and posting frequency has room for improvement in terms of that frequency.

Rival IQ will help you compare all kinds of metrics against your competitors, including followers, post frequency, engagement rates, activity, tags used by competitors, most successful post types, and URLs used by other brands. Not only will you see what works for your brand, but what works well for others as well.

4. Quick post-Facebook audit wins

Now that you’ve done all of the heavy lifting for your Facebook audit, it’s time to make the outlying fixes to your page that’ll help optimize your page.

Scan your brand page for easy fixes

These are easy changes your brand can make in just a matter of minutes while you wrap up your Facebook audit. Let’s finish off on an easy note.

Checklist of simple fixes:

• Create a Custom URL: Facebook allows your brand to create a custom URL for your page. Rather than relying on a randomly generated string of numbers and letters, it’s always easier for your audience to find your page with a memorable, brand-specific URL like: https://www.facebook.com/YourBrandNameHere.
• Add Business Information: Does your Facebook page include useful business information, such as your address, phone number, email, links to your website, and other relevant means of contact? If not, this is a simple fix that’ll up the professionalism of your brand page.
• Create a Call to Action: Facebook gives your brand the ability to create a CTA button right on your page, whatever it might be. CTA button options include: Learn More, Shop on Website, Contact Us, Start Order, Follow, Book Now, and many others.
• Choose a Page Category: Choosing the right page category will help your audience understand the intent of your brand and what they can expect to find on your page.
• Complete Your About Section: Fill in the “about” section on your Facebook page. Drop-in some unique details about your brand and what makes it special.
• Pin an Important Post: Do you have some important information to share? Make sure it isn’t lost to the feed of posts you put up on your page. Pin it to the top of your page to make sure users can find it.
• Make Sure Your Profile is Verified: This establishes your business as the genuine article in a sea of pretenders. Ensure that your page is the official face of your brand by verifying with Facebook. Once you’ve verified your page, you can apply for the coveted blue checkmark.

Just because these fixes are easy, doesn’t mean they aren’t important. These are the little changes your page can make to take your brand to the next level. Sometimes it’s the little things you miss that sink the success of your social media strategy.

Evaluate your brand visuals

Now, auditing the visuals of your Facebook (your profile picture, your banner photo, and the images you share on your page) is a more involved process than just deciding that they look pretty. It’s important that all of the visual aspects of your Facebook page are the correct size and are consistent with your brand. Additionally, there are some Facebook best practices to adhere to when developing new material for your page, so let’s get into it.

These are the optimal sizes for images on Facebook:

• Profile Picture: 170 x 170 px
• Cover Photo: 851 x 315 px
• Portrait Photo: 630 x 1200 px
• Landscape Photo: 1200 x 630 px
• Story Photo: 1080 x 1920 px

It’s so important to adhere to these optimal sizes for a few reasons. First, these sizes ensure your photos won’t distort or lose quality in any way when posting them on Facebook. Second, these sizes will also prevent Facebook from cutting off parts of your images.

Additionally, we recommend using PNG file types when uploading images to your Facebook profile. JPG files tend to distort or pixelate due to the lost information every time they are saved, while PNG files are better suited for the platform as a lossless compression file, leading to higher-quality images. When auditing your images, make sure you’re adhering to all of these standards and fixing those that don’t.

Outside of these standards, evaluate your visual branding. Does it convey the purpose of your page and brand? Are all of the fonts, colors, and designs in line with your brand guidelines? Are there any outdated images, messages, or products on display?

Perhaps this is a good opportunity to consider a redesign. Maybe a new logo or change in color scheme might freshen up your brand. Auditing your visuals on Facebook or any social channel for that matter gives you the chance to reassess your strategy and make any improvements or updates to your styling.

Putting your Facebook audit to work for you

Once you’ve completed your Facebook audit for your brand it’s time to put your findings to work. Lauren Teague’s Social Audit Course will give you additional tips and insights on how to get the most out of these findings, especially in lesson four. Trust me, you won’t want to miss out!

Additionally, if you have any thoughts on our suggestions, feel free to find us on Twitter to share your feedback. We’d love to hear from you!

The post How to Conduct a Facebook Audit appeared first on Rival IQ.

I’ve done some digging and found the numbers that’ll make the case for these trends. Some of these trends are new, while others are a continuation of past trends with slight updates.

So let’s jump into it!

Best Social Channels to Maximize Ad ROI

How do you measure which social channel is best for ad buys? I believe the end result is the most important when determining which channel is best suited for your money, so in the end, I have to go with conversion rates as the premier benchmark. If we’re looking solely at conversion rates, according to Priceonomics and Heap, Facebook is your best bet for getting the results you want.

As you can see in this chart, search engines dominate conversion rates, but once you get into the social channels, you find that Facebook tops the list with a 4.7% conversion rate followed by Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Snapchat, and YouTube.

However, while Facebook does have the best conversion rate for advertisements, this doesn’t mean it’s the best for your business. As you can see above, Statista broke down each social channel in 2020 by its share of B2B/B2C respondents and while Facebook is still in the lead in terms of overall respondents, the splits tell a much deeper story.

Best for Business-to-Business (B2B) Ads: LinkedIn

Priceonomics didn’t factor LinkedIn into their conversion rate measurements and this is most likely an oversight (and a serious one at that) because LinkedIn is the premier business social platform. According to WebFX, LinkedIn has a conversion rate of 6.1% in the United States, which destroys Facebook’s paltry 4.7% in comparison.

The great thing about LinkedIn is the quality of leads and conversions gained from this channel. This platform is perfect for B2B advertisements because it caters to professionals networks, industry influencers, and company decision-makers.

That being said, this audience makes LinkedIn terrible for most other types of ad buys. LinkedIn is not a social channel for advertising consumer products as shown by the stark difference in B2B and B2C respondents in the Statista breakdown.

Best for Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Ads: Facebook

While Facebook is still a decent platform for generating conversions in the B2B space thanks to its massive market share, it’ll never reach the level of quality conversions that LinkedIn provides. B2C is where Facebook really shines due to its more casual and social audience. Most users join Facebook because they want to connect with other people based on friendly and familial ties or similar interests. It’s all about consuming and recording your life and the lives of others.

This makes it a great platform for marketing consumer products and with its in-depth targeting tools, Facebook is a fantastic advertising platform for businesses that truly understand their audience. However, the real question is how long this granular targeting will last. Facebook heavily relies on tracking user data to help advertisers retarget audiences and with the introduction of the privacy rules in iOS 14, as well as other recent trends, this might change.

Honorable Mention: Instagram

While Facebook outdoes Instagram in overall B2C respondents, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a worthwhile tool to spend your advertising budget on. In some cases, I would argue Instagram is a better bet for certain types of brands. Instagram is a social platform built around sharing your life in images, including events, travels, and even everyday life. Lifestyle brands are particularly powerful on Instagram and with the third-highest social platform conversion rate, you can’t afford to ignore these audiences.

Video Ads [still] Dominate

With privacy rules on everyone’s minds because of Apple’s recent application tracking changes as well as an overall movement for better digital protection, the world of online advertising is shifting rapidly in response. Thanks to these shifts, compelling content is more important than ever, and resting on your laurels is not an option (as if it ever was).

Video has surged in popularity over the past few years, in fact, nearly 60% of marketers say that video ads drive more clicks than image ads. Video ads also allow your brand to convey more information than image ads do far more efficiently.

Now, you might be thinking that video is a difficult medium to break into. After all, some content creators invest tons of time and money into video editing software, expensive cameras, scripting, and even hiring actors. The good news is that platforms like Facebook have simplified some of the processes for you. Features like Facebook Live allow you to post new videos straight from a mobile phone. You don’t need studio quality to resonate with your audience. In fact, simple, authentic content is all the rage right now, and using these unscripted video features is the perfect way to show the down-to-Earth side of your brand. Embrace the human elements of marketing.

I wouldn’t even know that Volkswagen created a new electric vehicle if it weren’t for video advertising

This is one of my favorite social media advertising trends. It forces brands to think of new ways to capture the attention of their audiences with interactive content. If you’re looking to jump into a medium for the first time, here’s a shortlist of best practices to follow.

Video Ad Best Practices

• Keep it short and sweet: It’s no secret that social media caters to short attention spans. The optimal length for a video ad is around 20 to 30 seconds. Any longer than that you risk losing the interest of your audience.
• Add video captions: If you’re anything like me, you typically keep your phone on silent. This means that video content is automatically silenced when scrolling through your social feed. Make sure your message is still apparent using captions to catch the attention of those like me who keep their phone on silent and for those who are hard of hearing or deaf. You don’t want to exclude anyone in your audience.
• Make sure you’re optimizing video sizes to the correct platform: Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and every other social platform requires different video optimal aspect ratios. Be sure to use the correct sizing when uploading advertisements to these channels.

When investing in video advertising, one thing to keep in mind is the limited shelf life of this content. According to The Drum and Quickframe, the first five days are the most crucial in the lifecycle of a video ad. Viewership and other metrics fall off after those first five days and decline by 5% each day after.

If you’re concerned about losing your audience quickly, be sure to read our guide on why you’re losing video views.

The big takeaway from this section is that video is an extremely valuable advertisement avenue in 2021 so long as you are aware of the limitations and pitfalls.

Boosting Facebook Posts (for Brand Awareness)

Sometimes the primary goal of your campaign isn’t more clicks and conversions (although it’s always a welcomed result of a successful campaign). If your brand is looking to spread awareness rather than drive sales, then boosting your Facebook posts is a better option than spending money on an ad campaign.

Boosting posts is just a few clicks away thanks to the accessible “Boost Post” button on the reach/engagement metrics bar

This feature was created by Facebook years ago as they reduced the reach of organic content on their platform (organic reach dying out is one of the more unfortunate social media advertising trends). Now, post boosting is the easiest way to drive up views and engagement on an already popular post of yours, leading to more brand awareness. While it is an easy method for driving numbers, there are certain situations where post boosting is helpful and when traditional ads are the preferred avenue.

When post boosting is helpful:

• Promoting popular content: Boosting is a fantastic way to get more eyes on content that is performing well on your page but is beginning to stall out with organic traffic. If you think that the only thing preventing more traffic to your post is the Facebook algorithm, then post boosting makes perfect sense.
• Trying to grow your page likes: I remember the golden days of Facebook where all it took to build a sizable audience was a hit piece of content with tons of organic reach. Now it’s a constant game of organic and paid content. Boosting posts is a good way to get your content in front of lots of eyes very fast, therefore increasing the likelihood of growing page “likes.”

When ad campaigns are better:

• A/B testing new content: Post boosting is a terrible way to A/B test different types of content. There is very little control over audience exposure with post boosting. Traditional Facebook ad campaigns are far more granular and better suited for A/B testing.
• Getting the best value for your paid content: Reforge offers some insight into the effectiveness of ad campaigns versus boosted posts. It turns out that when measuring on nearly every metric, ad campaigns beat out boosted posts. Facebook ads have a lower cost-per-click, higher impression counts, and higher click-through rate than boosted posts.

Just remember, boosting posts is an effective tool in your paid content arsenal, but it’s not a substitute for a well-constructed and researched traditional advertising campaign on Facebook. Think of it as a supplemental avenue for traffic rather than a cornerstone of your social media advertising strategy.

Potential Growth in Text Heavy Facebook Ads

Facebook removed the 20% rule on text space for image ads in 2020 and will no longer penalize ads that go over this limit. This means there are no longer any restrictions against text taking up more than 20% of the image used in an advertisement.

This is huge news for advertisers since automated checkers for Facebook would analyze advertisements and warn users that their ads with high amounts of text might not be shown. This is no longer an issue.

Facebook has opened the floodgates to text-heavy advertisements, but despite the penalty being removed, the platform is still cautioning users that too much text might harm the performance of the advertisement. They warn that images with less than 20% of the real estate taken up by text tend to perform better.

I have to agree with Facebook’s assessment. This is one of the social media advertising trends I am not looking forward to and I hope marketers restrain themselves when devising new ad copy. Long bodies of text are best suited for blog posts.

Here is a great example of a Nike ad that might work in a magazine, but would perform horribly as a social media ad.

No one wants a novel for an advertisement. In fact, the optimal length for a television advertisement is 30 seconds and I think this is a good rule that ought to apply to other forms of advertising. Your ad shouldn’t take any more than 30 seconds to understand and even then that is a little too long in terms of social media.

So, even though the safeguards are gone, exercise some restraint and try not to turn the text in your advertisements into a Master’s thesis.

Dive deeper into your social media strategy

Whether you’re optimizing your social ad strategy or planning out a top-of-funnel organic campaign, you can’t operate off of yesterday’s best practices. If you’re looking for the latest tips, guides, or social media trends, be sure to check in regularly here on the RivalIQ blog.

Additionally, if you have any thoughts on our suggestions, feel free to find us on Twitter to share your feedback. We’d love to hear from you!

The post Boost Your Social Spend: 2021 Social Media Advertising Trends appeared first on Rival IQ.