For years social media experts have opined on the virtues of “E-N-G-A-G-I-N-G” on Facebook, but what they don’t tell you is how much interaction you can expect. Many novices are so excited about getting on Facebook and interacting they just assume fans who “like” a page will naturally want to interact. It’s the reason they are on Facebook right? Social media experts have been so hyper-focused on attracting new fans to Facebook Pages that oftentimes a discussion around what Fans usually do once they’ve liked a Page is ignored. Why? From our findings, it’s because Fans usually do NOTHING–well, at least not much in the way of Page interaction. That doesn’t mean they’re not watching: From the Facebook Insights, it’s apparent that impressions are somewhat proportional to the number of Fans a Page has.
Regarding interaction rates: It’s easy to spot check on the rate of Facebook page feedback for yourself. Let’s start with a look at the big box stores to see what kind of response rates they’re getting:
On the above screenshot from Walmart’s Facebook Page, 2,221 people have liked the post and 254 have commented. Out of the 6,913,708 total fans that means the engagement percentage for Likes is 0.032. For comments, it’s a measly .0037+-. To put this into context, at least 69,137 Fans would need to engage to equal a 1% engagement rate.
In contrast, the above screenshot of a post from Tupelo Honey ( a popular local eatery in Asheville NC) shows 10 likes and 21 comments. Out of 4361 total fans, the engagement percentage for Likes is 0.2293 and for comments it’s .481. To put this into context, at least 43 Fans would need to engage to equal a 1% engagement rate.
In both cases the engagement rate for both Likes and comments are less than 1%. The post samples we shared via screenshot contained what we would consider engaging posts too! So at the high end, social media managers shouldn’t expect to see more than a 1% engagement rate. Of course two sample posts are no where near representative of what’s out there. And there are anomalies and exceptions. For example, in the first post we see more Likes than comments, which is more the norm. But in the second post we see more comments, which, if you look back at the Tupelo Facebook Page or other Pages, isn’t the norm. In the dozens of other Page stats. we’ve seen similarly low engagement rates.
What have you seen? Even if it’s relatively the same thing, please take a minute to share your opinion with our readers.
