FacebookStudy 2018An in-depth report by Table of contentsIntroductionPost types usedLength of text in postsWeekday vs. weekendsUse of reactionsIntroductionThis study analyzes the performance of Facebook prolesbetween January 1 and December 31, 2018. This analysisobserves the performance of 94,000 proles and more than105 million posts.The Facebook study provides detailed insights into the use of the platform. Inparticular, it focuses on the analysis of six different topics:Fan distribution on FacebookTo make all ndings applicable to your specic Facebook page, we have set updifferent groups based on a range of prole sizes based on the number ofFacebook fans. To provide you with more insights into our data set, the followingchart shows the distribution of Facebook pages by size which we analyzed.Facebook offers users different ways to craft posts. The choice comes down tolinks, photos, videos, or status updates. Every post type gets distributed differentlyby the algorithm and is perceived differently by users.Post types used image, video, status & linksThe length of Facebook postsPosting on weekdays versus weekendsReaction usage and development over timeMore than 50% of all Facebook posts are linksOur study, analyzing 105 million posts over the whole of 2018, found that 54% ofall posts are link posts. This is by far the biggest share, followed by photos with29%.Small proles post more picturesOf course, all prole clusters work a bit differently and also make use of post typesslightly differently. As mentioned, most posts are link posts but lets see in a bitmore detail how the analyzed clusters work. What is interesting to see is a signicant drop in the use of images from the rstthree prole buckets compared to the bigger three clusters.Also, the largest analyzed proles (the Leonardo DiCaprios and AirBnBs of theworld) use videos most frequently in their posts to tell stories. In this page group,videos make up to 22% of the posts. In contrast, the three smallest clusters (1 fan -100k fans) posted videos just 11% of the time.Now, lets head over to the interaction part of the study to answer the questionwhich post type tends to lead to the highest engagement.Videos beat links in the battle for interactionsLets have a closer look at post types and which one of them tends to receive thehighest interactions on Facebook (Note: Interactions are dened as the sum oflikes + comments + shares).Keep in mind what we found out earlier: link posts make up 54% of all 105 millionanalyzed posts.By looking at the four formats, it can be seen that videos outperform all other posttypes by far! Images are in second place, receiving 35% fewer interactions. Linkposts, the most frequently used post type, trail far behind!The next part of our study looks at the length of Facebook posts. For this, wegrouped the post length in differently sized buckets.Posts with 50 - 150 characters represent the highest share in our data set andmake up 40%. Posts with a length of 150 - 300 characters have the second biggestshare. That means the biggest number of posts have about as much text as atweet on Twitter!Facebook post length less is more!Consequently, that means very short, very long or posts without captions at all,make the smallest share with just 34% combined.As always, results heavily dependent on individual proles. Therefore, we decidedto segment our ndings in groups. Through this, you can compare your own pagewith the average of the specic prole group and identify similarities or differenceswith your own posting behavior.Where do you nd yourself? Can you relate to the averages? Do you have anythingto share? Lets discuss these, but rst, continue reading. There are moreinteresting insights to come.As we all know, timing on social media matters - a lot! Thats why we thought itwas worthwhile to compare weekday and weekend posts.Lets take one step back rst and lets try to understand the setup.If distributed evenly, 14.23% of posts would be posted every single day (100% / 7days = 14.23%). This number multiplied by two equals 28.46%. This is vepercentage points more than the 23% we discovered earlier.This indicates a slightly higher posting trend during weekdays.More important than looking solely at the distribution of posts is to look at theirperformance, by which we mean the interactions they achieve.13% higher interactions on weekend posts23% of posts are published on weekendsOur study of 105 million Facebook posts during 2018 found that people, onaverage, tend to interact more on weekends than they do during the working week.In contrast, more posts are being published during weekdays.When the new Reactions, such as Sad and Wow, were launched in 2016, usagepicked up slowly after the rst peak. People did not seem to be eager to use themon a regular basis. Since then, theyve continued to grow steadily in popularity.Now, more than two years later, these more varied ways to share sentiments havepicked up and Likes “just” make up 81% of all Reactions.Users eager to use 'new Reactions'To provide data for a deeper understanding on how interactions evolved during theyear, we also look at how Reaction use developed in 2018. We noticed a slow, butconstant increase for the 'new Reactions', suggesting the Like is losing itspopularity over time compared to the increase of use in 'Love' and 'Haha'Reactions.