Most brokers’ marketing strategies extend to a Facebook profile where promotional services and engagement with customers are pushed - but as Facebook tightens its grip over content, the days of using the tool for free are numbered, according to social media agency Mosh.
Mosh ran a survey of nearly 24,000 Kiwi business’s Facebook pages which revealed the effects of the platforms strategy to close the gap on free marketing. The survey showed how engagement rates have dropped for businesses, as Facebook introduces paid services such as advertising and promotions.
Mosh co-founder Jeremy Mark said that the days of getting widespread reach for free are “almost over for most brands.” He added that good traction could still come for “free,” but only with good content, and content generation in itself is not free.
“Creating and sharing stuff that adds value to people’s lives is more important than ever before,” he remarked.
Engagement is a key metric to measure the success of a brand’s online presence and can be measured in a few ways. Using publicly available data only, the engagement rate in the report is defined as the average number of interactions on each post, as a percentage of a page’s followers. The report showed that the average engagement rate for New Zealand businesses is just 2.63% and nearly half of all Kiwi businesses using the platform have just one — or no — people talking about them.
Comparatively, Marks says, “five or six years ago a business could expect 50% or more of its followers to engage with each post.”
Conducted in September, other highlights of the report include:
- Just over half (51.4%) of all New Zealand Facebook pages (not including global brands) have less than 500 likes.
- About a quarter (23%) have fewer than 100 likes.
- Two-thirds (65.6%) have less than 1,000 likes.
- Only eight pages have more than one million likes.
- The All Blacks are the most liked with 4.5 million and are also the most talked about.
Marks noted that the successful brands are using posts which are emotive, useful and show “behind the scenes.” Those using strong visuals — especially video — are also the top achievers, he said.
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