Even after all this time, Facebook continues to be the most popular social media platform. In fact, the Sprout Social Index found that it’s the top platform for both consumers and marketers. It’s the platform that 71% of consumers and 65% of marketers plan to use the most in 2023.

With that said, let’s find out some vital Facebook stats that can inform your marketing strategy.

Table of contents

• General Facebook stats every marketer should know
• Facebook usage statistics
• Facebook user statistics
• Facebook advertising and marketing statistics
• Facebook engagement statistics
• Facebook video statistics
• Facebook device statistics
• Facebook feature stats (Reels, Stories, Messenger)
• Facebook audience and demographic statistics
• Facebook consumer behavior statistics

General Facebook stats every marketer should know

• Facebook is the third most visited website following Google and YouTube. This puts it ahead of other leading platforms like Twitter and Instagram.
• The platform boasts 2.96 billion active users on a monthly basis. This makes it the most used social media platform worldwide.
• In 2022, Facebook’s total ad revenue amounted to $113 billion. Additional fees and payments contributed to $2 billion worth of revenue.

Facebook usage statistics

Over the years, Facebook has become almost synonymous with social media. It continues to be the biggest social media platform and is widely popular on a global scale. Here are some of the key Facebook usage statistics to understand its popularity:

1. Facebook has nearly 3 billion monthly active users

By Q3 of 2022, monthly active users on the platform had grown to 2.96 billion. Although adoption has slowed down, usage is still seeing an upward trend. This puts Facebook on track to hit the 3 billion monthly user mark. So if your brand doesn’t have a presence on the platform, you’re missing out on the chance to reach billions of people.

2. Americans spend about 33 minutes on the platform daily

On average, American users spend about 33 minutes on Facebook daily. This puts it ahead of other leading platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and even TikTok. These numbers suggest that the platform is still seeing a high level of engagement from its user base.

Source

Facebook user statistics

Facebook may have billions of users, but how are these people using the platform? Let’s look at a few vital Facebook user statistics to find out:

3. 67.5% of monthly users are active daily

Out of the 2.96 billion monthly active users, 2 billion people use the platform daily. That’s 67.5% of users who spend at least some amount of time daily on the platform.

In other words, there are billions of people your brand could potentially reach every day. The key is to get ahead of the Facebook algorithm so you can get more organic visibility.

4. Only 18% of American users feel that Facebook protects their data and privacy

Even though Facebook is highly popular, trust in the platform has dropped drastically over the past couple of years. Only 18% of American social media users trust Facebook to protect their data and privacy. This puts it at the bottom of the list, making it the least trusted social media platform.

Source

5. Messaging friends and family is still the top activity on Facebook

Seventy-one percent of users say they use Facebook to message friends and family. This suggests that the platform’s “social” factor is still alive and kicking.     Other popular activities on the platform are posting/sharing photos and videos (62.9%) and keeping up to date with news and events (59.5%).

A significant number of users (55.2%) follow and research brands and products on Facebook. So although it’s mostly for social, your brand can still use the platform to build authentic connections.

6. It’s the most used platform for customer service

As the use of social media for customer service becomes increasingly popular, Facebook has become the go-to platform. The 2022 Sprout Social Index found that 60% of consumers use Facebook to get customer service. And 69% of marketers provide customer service through the platform.

This makes it the most used social media platform for providing and receiving customer service. In other words, you need to ramp up your customer service efforts on the platform.

Facebook advertising and marketing statistics

Is Facebook marketing still worth it? And are you getting the most out of your Facebook advertising strategy? Check out these Facebook ads statistics to understand advertising impact on the platform.

7. Facebook ads see an average click-through rate (CTR) of 0.90%

According to a WordStream study, Facebook ads get an average CTR of 0.90% across all industries. That said, click-throughs vary for industries, with retail, legal, apparel, beauty and fitness sectors seeing a CTR of at least 1%.

8. Advertising on Facebook costs $1.72 per click

The same study found that the average cost per click (CPC) is $1.72 across all industries. However, you can expect to pay much more in certain industries. For example, the average CPC for finance and insurance and customer service sectors is at least $3.

9. The average conversion rate is 9.21% across industries

Facebook sees a fairly high conversion rate for ads on the platform. On average, you can expect a conversion rate of about 9.21% for your Facebook ad. However, the specifics may vary depending on your industry. Fitness, education and healthcare sectors see a significantly higher conversion rate.

Source

10. Facebook generates the highest ROI

Needless to say, with such high conversion rates and low CPC, marketing on Facebook yields high returns. In fact, Facebook generates the highest return on investment among all other social media platforms.

Facebook engagement statistics

With organic visibility on Facebook on the decline, it’s only natural to see a drop in engagement levels as well. But does this put Facebook at a disadvantage over other social media platforms? Here’s a quick look at some vital stats to understand where Facebook stands in terms of engagement:

11. The median engagement rate on Facebook is 0.064%

According to a RivalIQ study, brands see a median engagement rate of 0.064% across all industries. This is about the same as the median Instagram engagement of 0.067%. In other words, Instagram isn’t inherently better for engagement than Facebook.

Source

12. Photo posts and status posts have the highest engagement

The power of visuals is still evident on Facebook, with photo posts getting the highest engagement at 0.12%. Status posts come next with an average engagement rate of 0.11%. Video posts perform fairly well with an average engagement rate of 0.08%. Link posts, on the other hand, are the worst for driving engagement. They see an average engagement rate of only 0.04%.

13. Frequent posting doesn’t result in higher engagement

Contrary to popular belief, posting frequently doesn’t necessarily result in higher engagement. As the RivalIQ study points out, influencers and sports teams see the highest level of engagement across all verticals.

However, influencers are infrequent posters, publishing fewer than 10 posts per week. Meanwhile, media companies publish almost 90 posts a week and only see an average engagement rate of 0.05%.

Rather than frequency, post timing should be your main focus. Know the best time to post on Facebook so you stand a better chance of driving engagement.

Facebook video statistics

As video marketing continues to gain popularity, it’s important to be aware of how video performs on Facebook. Here are some key Facebook video statistics to inform your strategy:

14. Live videos see higher engagement than pre-recorded videos

Compared to pre-recorded videos, live videos see a much higher engagement rate. The specific number varies depending on account size, with the gap decreasing as fan size increases. However, for accounts with at least 50,000 fans, pre-recorded videos perform slightly better than live videos.

15. People prefer to watch videos with the sound off

ChatterBlast Media found that sound-off videos tend to perform much better than sound-on videos. People are much more likely to watch a video to completion with the sound off. This stays true regardless of the advertising objective.

Source

Facebook device statistics

Are you designing your Facebook ads to look great on any device?

Check out these Facebook device statistics to understand how people are accessing the platform.

16. Most people access Facebook from any mobile phone

Almost all Facebook users (97.4%) access Facebook from any type of mobile device. Moreover, 68.7% of users exclusively use their mobile phones to access Facebook. This indicates how there’s an overwhelming preference for mobile phones to access the platform.

Brands will need to keep the mobile experience in mind when developing their content strategy and ad creative for Facebook.

17. Only 2.6% of users exclusively use computers to access Facebook

While 28.7% of users use both their phones and computers to access the platform, only 2.6% of users prefer to use only their laptops and desktops.

Facebook feature stats (Reels, Stories, Messenger)

So, what sort of content should you post? What features are growing and what’s stagnant? Let’s review some Facebook stats that break down some of the platform’s key features:

18. More than 500 million people use Stories every day

According to internal Facebook data, half a billion people use Facebook Stories each day. This speaks to the popularity of the platform’s feature, making it a useful tool for brands to engage their audience.

19. Facebook Messenger has over 1 billion users

Meanwhile, there are at least 1 billion people using Facebook Messenger. That’s a billion people you could potentially reach through ads on Messenger.

20. Reels hit 140 billion Plays per day across Facebook apps

The popularity of Reels isn’t dying out anytime soon. In fact, Reels see about 140 billion plays on a daily basis across the Facebook family of apps.

With algorithms further pushing this format, Reels could help you gain visibility and engagement. In short, brands can’t afford to put this short-form video format on the back burner.

Facebook audience and demographics statistics

Wondering if you’re reaching the right audience on Facebook? What if your target demographic isn’t even on the platform? Here are a few Facebook stats highlighting the platform’s audience and demographics:

21. Users ages 25-34 years represent Facebook’s largest audience

Despite the platform’s reputation as a seemingly “older” network, 23.7% of Facebook users in the United States are between the ages of 25 and 34. Moreover, the platform sees higher usage among people below the age of 44.

Source

22. Usage among teens has dropped sharply

That said, the platform’s popularity among teens has seen a significant drop. Only 32% of teens were using Facebook as of 2022. This is a sharp decline compared to the 71% who were using the platform between 2014 and 2015.

Source

23. Facebook has more male users than female

Facebook currently limits its reporting to male and female. And based on the data, the platform has a higher percentage of male users (56.6%) than female users (43.4%).

24. India has the largest Facebook audience size

While Facebook sees significant usage across various countries, India has the greatest number of users. Latest reports show that there are 329.65 million Facebook users in India. The United States comes next, with 179.65 million users.

Facebook consumer behavior statistics

Finally, are people even buying stuff through Facebook? Here are some stats on how consumers are behaving on the platform:

25. Facebook has the highest number of social commerce buyers

According to eMarketer, Facebook boasts the highest number of social commerce buyers. Here, social commerce buyers refer to users over the age of 14 who have made at least one purchase on the platform. By 2023, the platform will see 65.7% of U.S. social commerce buyers.

26. When shopping online, 19% of U.S. consumers start their search on Facebook

The same report found that some U.S. consumers begin their online buying journey by searching on social media. Besides YouTube, Facebook is the second most popular social media platform to start their search when shopping online. So the right Facebook tools and marketing strategy could help you drive purchases through the platform.

How do these Facebook stats inform your social media strategy?

These key Facebook statistics should give you some idea of where the platform currently stands in the social media landscape. As such, you can use these to guide your strategy and understand what to prioritize. Don’t forget to look at your Facebook analytics for brand-specific performance data to further inform your decisions.

The post 26 Facebook statistics marketers should know in 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.

A Facebook business Page is central to any Facebook marketing strategy. It’s where you can share information about your business and promote your new products. Moreover, your Page serves as a channel to provide your customers with assistance. In this guide, we show you the step-by-step process of building a Facebook business Page that attracts your audience.

Table of contents:

• What is a Facebook business Page
• How to create the perfect Facebook business Page
• Tips to maintain an engaging Facebook business Page

What is a Facebook business Page

A Facebook business Page is a public Facebook account that represents a commercial organization. You can use the Page to share information about your business such as your address, contact details and hours of operation. Additionally, it’s the perfect place to share updates about your business and promote products, services and events.

As such, a Facebook business Page allows you to create a space to connect with your audience. Additionally, by setting up a business Page, you’ll gain access to Facebook Shops and advertising tools. This allows you to list your products for sale on the platform and even create paid advertisements to grow your reach.

Meanwhile, a personal Facebook account represents the individual. It can either be private or public depending on your settings. While people can Like and follow a business Page, they can only add a personal profile as a friend. Moreover, a personal profile doesn’t come with marketing and advertising tools that are available on business Pages.

How to create the perfect Facebook business Page

Ready to create your very own Facebook business Page? Follow the steps below to get started.

Step 1: Create a new Page from the “Pages” section

From your Facebook homepage, click on “Pages” in the left-hand panel. This will open up a dashboard to manage all your Pages and profiles. Click on the “Create New Page” button under “Your Pages and profiles.”

Step 2: Enter your Page name and category

Next, enter the name of your Page. This should be similar to your official business or brand name so your audience can instantly recognize it. In other words, choose a name your customers will use when searching for your brand.

After this, you’ll need to include a business category. Type in a keyword or two in the given field and Facebook will offer a few relevant suggestions. You can select up to three options to categorize your Page. This is essential to help people understand what your business is all about.

Step 3: Add your Page bio

While the bio is an optional section, including a short description of your business can be helpful. This is where you can provide more information about what your brand does and what it stands for. Your bio can only be about 100 characters so be sure to keep it clear and succinct.

The bio will show up prominently below your Page name, so it needs to be catchy and relevant. Consider using your brand slogan here instead of coming up with a new bio. Once you’re done, click on “Create Page.”

Step 4: Include your business details

Now that you’ve created the Page, it’s time to make it more complete by including additional details about your business. To finish your setup, you’ll need to include the following information about your business:

• Website
• Phone number
• Email address
• Physical address
• Hours of operation

After you’ve filled out the details, click on “Next” to get to the next step of your Page setup. Optionally, you can skip this step for now and add those details later.

Step 5: Put together your profile imagery

One of the most crucial steps is customizing your Page with high-quality imagery. Your Page’s visuals are what will help you make an impression on your audience. So it’s important that you carefully choose images that truly represent your brand and are instantly recognizable.

The first thing you’ll need is a profile picture. As highlighted in our social media image size guide, this should be at least 180 x 180 pixels. Remember that this picture will come out as a circle, so avoid including any important details in the corners.

Ideally, businesses should be using their brand logo as a profile picture. This helps the audience to instantly associate the Page with the brand they already know. Alternatively, local businesses may consider including a picture of the storefront or the owners. Some may even use a picture of their best offering instead.

As for your Facebook cover photo, the recommended size is 820 x 312 pixels. Any photo smaller than this will appear stretched and distorted. Consider using existing templates from photo editing tools like Canva to ensure that your cover photo is perfectly sized.

You can also choose to include an action button to show up at the top of your Page. This will help direct Page visitors toward the action that you want them to take. Perhaps you want them to book an appointment, view your shop, call your business, send a message or even get tickets. Choose the most relevant option, click on “Next” and hit “Save.”

Other optional steps include connecting WhatsApp to your Page and inviting your friends to Like the Page. You can choose to skip these steps for now and hit “Done.” But keep in mind that you’ll still need to complete those steps later on to improve your Page health.

Improving your Page health is essential to create a business Page that people would want to engage with. At the top of your Page, Facebook will provide you with suggestions on what actions you can take to make improvements. Your Page health will improve as you complete these actions.

Now your Page is all set up so you can start creating posts or even run ads to promote it.

Tips to maintain an engaging Facebook business Page

Setting up your Facebook business Page is the easy part. What’s challenging is getting your Page off the ground and sustaining that growth to build an engaging business Page. Here are some social media management tips to help you out.

Keep your business info updated

Remember that people use your Facebook Page to learn about your business. They may use it to find out where you’re located or when you’re open. Make sure to include the most updated info about your business so your Page becomes a reliable source of information. If you’re changing your operating hours for the holidays, for example, make sure to add that detail.

Set specific goals

Working towards something specific can give you a sense of direction with your Facebook marketing. Start by thinking about the purpose of your Facebook page and who your target audience is. Are you looking to support a community of current customers? What about attracting new ones?

Decide on specific goals that are achievable and can contribute to your Page growth. These goals will ultimately inform every aspect of your Facebook strategy. This includes the resources you put behind your Facebook business Page to your overall content strategies.

Create a Facebook content strategy

Given what we know about the Facebook algorithm, brands must be cautious of being over-promotional. Knowing when and how often to post on Facebook is critical.

Based on our research on how often to post on social media, most brands post at least a few times per week.

Moreover, it’s not enough to just keep creating content that you want to create. Think of what your audience wants to see from you so you can come up with a content strategy that delivers results.

Here’s what consumers want to see from brands on social, according to the latest Sprout Social Index.

Engage with your customers

It’s important to realize that your Facebook page is not something that you can “set and forget.”

You may get customers commenting on your posts and asking you questions via Messenger. Failing to respond to customers promptly could result in lost sales or followers.

So you have to be present on social media and be ready and willing to engage. This doesn’t mean you have to answer every single question posted to your timeline or in your inbox immediately. It does mean you need to keep a close eye on notifications and conversations.

This would involve investing in social media management tools that can help you stay on top of those messages. For example, Sprout offers a Smart Inbox where you can keep track of all your incoming messages, comments and social media mentions in one place. From here, you can quickly see and respond to your Facebook messages and comments.

Use analytics to chart your path forward

Your Facebook Page Insights can tell you a lot about how your current Facebook strategy is working. It can show you how people are engaging with your posts and how your Page is growing. Use these insights to inform your decisions and make improvements to your existing strategy. For example, you may want to share more videos because your analytics tell you that people are engaging a lot with your video posts.

Once you start running ads from your Page, you’ll be able to see how your promoted posts are performing. Experiment with different variations of your ad copy, placement and creative to see what has the biggest impact. This will allow you to build a Facebook advertising strategy that keeps evolving.

Start growing your Facebook Page

The tips highlighted above can help you get the ball rolling and build an engaging Facebook business Page. Make sure you use them alongside a solid marketing strategy to grow your audience. Check out our guide on how to use Facebook business manager for more tips and tricks to help you out.

The post How to build a Facebook business Page that attracts customers appeared first on Sprout Social.

Staying relevant and capturing your audience’s attention is a constant challenge for marketers. And now that brands rely on video content more than ever, it’s critical to use the correct social media video specs and advertising video sizes.

However, we couldn’t find all the correct social video sizes in one place. So we decided to create a complete guide of every single social media video spec and advertising video dimension.

Before we start, here are some additional resources to help you keep the information in once place:

• Easily reference our social media video specs in our always up-to-date Google Doc.
• Looking for image sizes? Check out our social media image sizes guide for help.
• Want to get better results with video? Download our social media video content workbook.

Social Media Video Specs & Ad Sizes Per Network

We’ve gathered a plethora of information on each social network’s specific video sizes and specs. Simply click the links below to jump to your desired network:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• TikTok
• Snapchat
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest

Collaborative Publishing Made Easy with Sprout

Visually appealing content can often be found at the heart of successful social posts.

Whether it’s a video, image or text, Sprout’s Asset Library serves as the central hub, making accessibility, organization and collaboration easier than ever.

Experience how easy asset management can be when you get started with a free trial today.

Facebook Video Specs

Facebook video is consumed at higher rates each year, so it’s no wonder why so many marketers search for the correct Facebook video specs.

The challenge for marketers is that there are simply so many types of videos you can share on Facebook and the platform updates its design frequently. Each video format has different dimensions and specs, which can make it confusing to know whether or not you’re uploading the correct format for organic or paid posts. Follow the specs below to optimize your posts.

Shared Post Video (Landscape & Portrait)

Easily the most common type of video on Facebook comes from shared posts. This type of video lives in your Facebook feed, and can be shared by brands or your friends. While it’s not as easy to get organic reach on Facebook, it’s still a viable way to share video. You can choose between two video orientations: Landscape and Portrait. Here’s a look at the video specs for both.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended video dimensions 1280 x 720 for Landscape and Portrait.
• Minimum width is 1200 pixels (length depends on aspect ratio) for Landscape and Portrait.
• Landscape aspect ratio is 16:9.
• Portrait aspect ratio is 9:16 (if video includes link, aspect ratio is 16:9).
• Mobile renders both video types to aspect ratio 2:3.
• Max file size is 4GB (3 GB maximum in Sprout).
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length max is 240 minutes (45 minutes if uploading in Sprout).
• Video max frames 30fps.

360 Video

Facebook’s 360 Video allows users to get a complete 360-degree view by scrolling with a cursor on web, by touch or turning the device on mobile.

Video Guidelines

• The resolution and aspect ratio depends on the type of content:
  • Monoscopic: 5120 x 2560 maximum, aspect ratio 2:1
  • Stereoscopic: 5120 x 5120 maximum, aspect ratio 1:1
• Recommended max file size is 10GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length maximum is 30 minutes.
• Recommended framerate is 30 fps.

Facebook Reels

The convenience of cross-posting your Instagram Reels to Facebook expands the viewership and reach of your videos. This format appears organically in feeds, but often gets “priority” on Facebook feeds.

• Recommended video formats are MP4 and MOV
• Allowed Frame Rate: 23 FPS minimum
• Allowed Duration: 4 seconds – 60 seconds
• Allowed File Size: No file size limit
• Resolution: 540 x 960 (540p) minimum (1080×1920 or greater recommended)
• Allowed Aspect Ratio: 9:16

Facebook Video Ad Specs

In-Feed Video Ads

These ads are the sponsored equivalent of in-feed posts and follow similar guidelines.

Video guidelines

• Recommended to upload the highest resolution video possible.
• Recommended resolution: 1080×1080.
• Recommended aspect ratio is between 9:16 to 16:9 (Horizontal: 16:9, Square: 1:1, Vertical: 4:5 or 2:3 and Full Portrait: 9:16).
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV (see full list here).
• Max video file size is 4GB.
• Video length max is 240 minutes.

Character limits

• Primary text: 125 characters.
• Link description: 30 characters.
• Headline: 40 characters.

There are more than 5 million advertisers now on Facebook and having the right specs for your ads can be tricky. Each type of Facebook video ad is different, so let’s go ahead and break down the specs for each type of video you can produce.

Carousel Video Ads

Facebook Carousel Video ads allow brands to showcase multiple videos (or images) and a link within a user’s Facebook feed. It has grown in popularity because its unique scrolling feature allows users to see more content before clicking a link. In fact, Digiday estimated Carousel Ads to be 10 times more effective than standard social media ads.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended video resolution 1080 x 1080.
• Aspect ratio is 1:1.
• Max video file size is 4 GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video duration range is 1 second to 240 minutes.
• Video max frames 30fps.

Collection Video Ads (Mobile)

The Facebook Collection ads showcases multiple images and a main video above it. This is perfect for displaying multiple products (or various colors of a single product) and a video as well. The ad type has been popular so far with retailers and clothing companies.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended video resolution 1080×1080.
• Square aspect ratio is 1:1.
• Max video file size is 4GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length max is 120 minutes.
• Video max frames 30 fps.

Character Limits

• Primary text: 125 characters.
• Headline max: 40 characters.
• Landing page URL required.

Instant Experience Video Ads

Facebook Instant Experience ads open up a full-screen experience after the first click, which can be further customized with a variety of interactive features. This can include multiple video experiences, including features to auto-play on loop.

Video Guidelines

• Minimum resolution: 720p
• Portrait aspect ratio of 9:16 with pillarboxing for all others uploaded.
• Max video file size is 4GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Maximum length of all video content must be 2 minutes combined.
• Video max frames 30fps.

Slideshow Video Ad

Facebook’s Slideshow videos were built for advertisers wanting to reach audiences with slower internet connections. Instead of a regular video, slideshows are just that–a slideshow of images or video in an ad display.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended video resolution 1200 x 720.
• Aspect ratios available are landscape (16:9), vertical (4:5) and square (1:1)
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Slideshow duration max is 15 seconds.

Facebook Stories (Ads & Organic Posts)

Facebook has also added the Stories feature, disappearing short photo or video updates that are only available for 24 hours. In addition to user-generated organic posts, Stories ads that run in between sets of user stories are also available.  While most users will be sharing immediate & organic updates from their phone’s camera without worrying too much about their video specs, the guidelines for this format are similar for paid & organic posts.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended resolution 1080×1080
• Aspect ratios: 1.91 to 9:16, with colored gradient bars rendered above and below videos under 9:16. The text field will also be placed under below videos smaller than this aspect ratio.
• Max video file size is 4GB
• Duration is 1 second to 2 minutes
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.

Character Limits

• Primary text: 125 characters
• Headline: 40 characters

For more information on the video specs for Facebook, visit the Facebook Help Center.

Instagram Video Specs

Instagram launched video capabilities in 2013 and quickly saw enough success to start advertising on the platform in 2015. Since then, video only continues to grow as an engaging social format. So needless to say, Instagram videos are absolutely worth the investment.

In-Feed Video (Landscape, Square & Vertical)

Since 2015, Instagram crafted its videos formats to allow three different styles: landscape, square and vertical. The predominantly-mobile social network is perfect to share videos of any size organically to reach your audience.

Video Guidelines

• Minimum resolution for all formats is 1080 x 1080
• Recommended horizontal pixel resolution is 1920
• Multiple aspect ratios are supported: Landscape aspect ratio is 16:9, square aspect ratio is 1:1, vertical aspect ratio is 4:5.
• Max file size for all formats is 4GB (*100MB maximum for Sprout Direct Publishing and 512MB maximum for Sprout Mobile App Flow Publishing).
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length is 3 to 60 seconds.
• Recommended frame rate is 23 to 60 FPS.
• Recommended data rate/bitrate for posting through Sprout: 5 Mbps (megabits per second)

Character Limits

• Primary text recommendation: 125 characters.
• Maximum number of hashtags: 30

Instagram Reels

Introduced in 2020, Instagram Reels are another option for your video strategy on Instagram. These short-form, easily digestible videos are becoming the preferred type of content in Instagram feeds.

Fortunately for social content creators looking to easily generate a lot of content for Instagram, most of the video specs for Instagram Reels are fairly similar to other formats on the platform, with the main differences being the short length and the ease of editing in-app to add effects and sound.

As Instagram has started to add separate tabs for different content types, thumbnails will be cropped differently on each view. If the viewer is on the first tab that has all content types, the thumbnail will be cropped to the traditional square post size of 1:1–center your subjects and plan to avoid undesirable vertical cropping.

• Allowed file extensions: .MP4 or .MOV
• Allowed Frame Rate: 23-60 FPS
• Allowed Duration: 3 seconds – 15 minutes
• Allowed File Size: 4 GB max (1 GB or less in Sprout)
• Allowed horizontal pixels: 1920p
• Allowed maximum bitrate: 5Mbps
• Allowed aspect ratio: 0.01:1-10:1 (9:16 recommended)

Instagram Video Ad Specs

Instagram’s advertising revenue has significantly increased over the last year. In fact, Instagram predicts to earn $4 billion in mobile ad revenue in 2017 alone. The push for Instagram advertising is real and marketers have to be ready to take advantage with engaging videos.

In-Feed Video Ad (Landscape, Square & Vertical)

Much like the in-feed organic Instagram video options, the network provides similar options for advertising. These video ads appear nearly identical to organic posts to blend in with users’ feeds. In fact, the Instagram video specs are the same for organic and paid content.

Video Guidelines

• Same as In-Feed Video.

Video Character Guidelines (Mobile)

• Same as In-Feed Video.

Carousel Video Ad

Much like Facebook’s Carousel Ads, Instagram offers a similar feature. Carousel ads allow users to see more of a product or feature than a single image or video. With Instagram, your carousel video ads can have 2-10 cards with a full-width call to action below the ad.

Video Guidelines

• Minimum resolution is 600 x 600.
• Max resolution is 1080 x 1080.
• Aspect ratio is 1:1.
• Max file size is 4GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Max video length is 60 seconds.
• Instagram allows 2-10 videos/cards per ad.

Instagram Stories (Ads & Organic Posts)

It didn’t take long for Instagram Stories to feature ads within users’ story feeds. Brands can seamlessly integrate their video content between other Instagram users. Much like Snapchat, it’s smart to make these videos more raw and in-the-moment to avoid drastically standing out as an ad, especially since users can immediately swipe to leave.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended resolution is 1080 x 1080.
• Aspect ratio is 9:16.
• Max file size is 4GB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length max is 2 minutes for ads and 15 seconds for organic. If you upload a longer video on organic, it will be clipped into multiple Stories slides.

If you’re looking for further information including images, check out our complete guide to all the Instagram ad sizes!

For more information on the video specs for Instagram, visit the Facebook Help Center.

TikTok Video Specs

TikTok has quickly gained attention in the social space, and some social marketers might be feeling caught off guard by the rush to understand what works and what doesn’t on the platform. Fortunately, TikTok’s focus on easy to create and share videos means it’s not hard to start producing video content for the platform, and there are plenty of trends to inspire TikTok content creation. Read on for the specs.

TikTok Organic Videos

TikTok videos are all about the ease of creation, editing and sharing, so it makes sense that specs are more or less oriented around typical mobile phone dimensions. One key trait to keep in mind if you’re trying to repurpose video content across platforms is that videos uploaded from another file source, rather than recorded on the app, can be longer than 60 seconds.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended resolution: 1080×1920
• Aspect ratio: 9:16 recommended to fill a standard mobile phone screen (1:1 with letterboxing)
• Length: 15 seconds recorded in-app, 60 seconds in-app (4 sections of 15 seconds), or over 60 seconds when uploaded from another source
• Maximum file size: 287.6MB
• Video formats: MP4 or MOV recommended

TikTok Feed Ads

TikTok ads are a rapidly evolving opportunity for brands. The in-feed option for paid TikTok content is fairly similar to the formatting for existing organic content. To fine-tune paid content for the best performance, be sure to consult TikTok’s business center for the latest tips.

Video Guidelines

• Resolutions must be at least: 540×960, 640×64 or 960×540
• Aspect ratio options: 9:16, 1:1 or 16:9
• Length: 5–60 seconds, but 9–15 seconds is recommended
• Maximum file size: 500MB
• Bitrate minimum: 516 kbps
• Ad description character limits: 1-1000 Latin characters or 1-50 Asian characters
• Video formats: .MP4, .MOV, .MPEG .3GP, .AVI

Twitter Video Specs

Twitter is a popular space to share and interact with different social media videos. For marketers, it’s all about keeping a user’s attention with enthralling and click-worthy video content. In the sports and entertainment industry, Twitter is often the go-to for sharing video content, so it’s critical to learn the correct Twitter video specs.

Twitter Landscape & Portrait Videos

Twitter provides two formats of in-feed video content to share with your followers: landscape and portrait. These specific formats are only available for uploading video directly to Twitter, rather than sharing YouTube or Vimeo links. Luckily, Twitter makes it easy to share organic content, but the dimensions do change as the video bitrate alters.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended resolutions are 1280×720 (landscape), 720×1280 (portrait), 720×720 (square).
• Aspect ratios recommended at 16:9 (landscape or portrait), 1:1 (square). 1:1 is recommended as the best route for rendering across devices with the best output.
• Max file size is 512MB.
• Recommended video formats are .MP4 for web and .MOV for mobile.
• Video length max is 140 seconds.
• Recommended frame rates are 30 or 60 fps.

Character Limits

• Maximum count: 280 characters.

Twitter Videos Ad Specs

Looking to promote your video through paid ads on Twitter? Luckily, you can use the same exact formats from Twitter organic videos. Stick to the same specs for both organic and paid video to ensure maximum visibility.

For more information on the video specs for Twitter, visit the Twitter Help Center.

Snapchat Video Specs

Snapchat is still an active network for younger generations to share video content. Whether it’s through FOMO-inducing disapppfilters, Snapchat is a hotbed for video sharing. And for your brand, it’s important to know the correct video dimensions for Snapchat.

Single video ad

This video format is the most common across the channel and is the main way users communicate back and forth through the app. However, your business can post videos to its story so others can see what your business is up to. Just follow these specs:

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimension is 1080 x 1920.
• Aspect ratio is 9:16.
• Max file size is 32MB.
• Accept video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length is between 3 and 10 seconds.

Long-Form Video Ad

Snapchat currently offers one main video format for ads, which is known as the long-form video. While there are partner opportunities to put video within Snapchat’s discovery option, most dimensions are the same, but require your business to reach out to the social network for more details on advertising. However, the Snapchat Long-Form Video Ad is what users see in between viewing users’ Stories.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimension is 1080 x 1920.
• Aspect ratio is 9:16 or 16:9.
• Max file size is 1GB.
• Accept video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length is 3 to 180 seconds.

For more information on the video specs for Snapchat, visit the Snapchat Ads Help Center.

YouTube Video Specs

Known as the second-largest search engine behind Google, YouTube is an essential network for video content. For marketers, YouTube is a great space to promote, educate and share video content around your brand.

As YouTube continues to grow as a destination for video content, it hosts everything from short form promotional videos to full-length movies and TV. This means users are streaming content on all sorts of devices, which could have different levels of zoom or overscan.

While there’s no hard and fast rules from the platform on how to approach the video editing concept of ‘title safe’ areas where text like titles and subtitles aren’t cut off, you do want to avoid placing these types of visual elements right at the edges of your video area. Read on for more specifics on each format available on YouTube.

Video Player (Standard YouTube Video)

While YouTube allows users to upload various types of media formats and use plenty of different dimensions, organically, there’s truly only one format for the video player. Organic videos should all follow 16:9 ratio, but can be uploaded 4:3. However, the smaller ratio will automatically pillarbox the sides to still make it fit in the player. YouTube has seven recommended dimensions and ratios for standard YouTube videos:

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimensions: 426 x 240 (240p), 640 x 360 (360p), 854 x 480 (480p), 1280 x 720 (720p), 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 2560 x 1440 (1440p) and 3840 x 2160 (2160p).
• Aspect ratio is 16:9 (auto adds pillarboxing if 4:3).
• Max file size is 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
• Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
• Video length max is 12 hours.

YouTube Video Ad Specs

Standard YouTube videos are pretty straightforward, but there are a few video ad formats to learn if you want to advertise on the network. According to data from Google, Brands advertising on YouTube often receive a 20% increase in traffic.

Skippable, Non-Skippable, Mid-roll & Bumper Video Ads

We’ve put these four YouTube video ads specs together because in the end, they all play through the standard YouTube video player. That means all of these ad types follow the same dimensions as the non-ad videos, but only differ in video length. Let’s look at each ad type:

• Skippable Video Ad: This YouTube ad type is played before, during or after the content and becomes skippable after 5 seconds. This ad format is the only one allowing advertisers to monetize views from any viewing device.
• Non-Skippable Video Ad: This YouTube ad type is played before the content and users must watch the full 15 seconds (can also be added during or after video). However, views from TVs or game consoles don’t count toward a monetizable view.
• Mid-roll Video Ad: This YouTube ad type is played mid-view (like TV commercials) and is only available for content longer than 8 minutes. Ads are added either manually or automatically and again, views from TV or game consoles don’t count toward a monetizable view. Mid-rolls can be skippable, but users must watch 30 seconds or entire ad (whichever is shorter).
• Bumper Video Ads: This YouTube ad type is played before the content.It’s a small 6-second video ad that cannot be skipped, which is usually optimized for mobile views.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimensions: 426 x 240 (240p), 640 x 360 (360p), 854 x 480 (480p),1280 x 720 (720p), 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 2560 x 1440 (1440p) and 3840 x 2160 (2160p).
• Minimum dimension is 426 x 240.
• Max dimension is 3840 x 2160.
• Aspect ratio is 16:9 (auto adds pillarboxing if 4:3).
• Max file size is 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
• Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
• Skippable video length max is 6 minutes (skippable after 5 seconds).
• Non-skippable video length max is 15 or 20 seconds (30 seconds in some regions).
• Mid-roll video length minimum is 30 seconds.
• Bumper video length max is 6 seconds.

Display Ad

YouTube display ads are shown in users’ search queries and sometimes appear in the right video column when watching a video. These ads are static, which means they don’t automatically play. However, once the video is clicked, the type of content displayed can simply follow the standard video player guidelines mentioned above.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimensions for the static image is 300 x 250 for the larger side view or 300 x 60 for the smaller side view.
• Actual recommended video dimensions are: 426 x 240 (240p), 640 x 360 (360p), 854 x 480 (480p),1280 x 720 (720p), 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 2560 x 1440 (1440p) and 3840 x 2160 (2160p).
• Aspect ratio is 16:9 (auto adds pillarboxing if 4:3)
• Max file size is 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
• Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, .MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.

For more information on the video specs for YouTube, visit the Google Help Center.

YouTube Shorts

Introduced late 2020, YouTube Shorts have recently made its debut as another short-form video feature. These videos are a new way to watch, create and discover short-form content. Shorts can be captured and edited from a smartphone or uploaded through the standard upload workflow from desktop or mobile. Because people are watching more short-form videos globally, using Shorts is a new way to reach wider audiences to entertain, education or make them feel good.

Video Guidelines

• Recommended dimensions: 240×426 (240p), 360×640 (360p), 480×854 (480p), 720×1280 (720p), 1080×1920 (1080p), 1440×2560 (1440p), and 2160×3840 (2160p),
• Aspect ratio is 9:16.
• Video length is 60 seconds max.
• Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
• Music from the YouTube music library is limited to 15 seconds.
• Title character limit: 100 characters max.

For more information on the video specs for YouTube, visit the Google Help Center.

LinkedIn Video Specs

Even though LinkedIn is still in the early stages of video content adoption, the network is still a go-to source for sharing. In fact, nearly 75% of business executives say they watch online videos every week. With that number only likely to grow, it’s safe to say LinkedIn will continue to put video content at its forefront.

Shared Video

The only video format you can upload is through a shared video. While there are options to share YouTube links in shared posts and in LinkedIn Pulse articles, there’s still just one way to upload your own video.

Video Guidelines

• Aspect ratio is 1:2.4 to 2.4:1.
• Max file size is 5GB.
• Accepted video formats are .ASF, .AVI, .FLV, .MOV, .MPEG-1, .MPEG-4, .MP4, .MKV, and .WebM.
• Video length minimum is 3 seconds, max is 10 minutes.
• Video max frames 60fps.

For more information on the video specs for LinkedIn, visit the LinkedIn Help Center.

Video Ads

As of 2018, LinkedIn now offers video ads. The requirements are a little bit different than shared video, so be sure to consider them when developing ads for your paid campaign.

Video Guidelines

• Required dimensions are:
  • Landscape video: Minimum: 640 x 360, maximum: 1920 x 1080.
  • Square video: Minimum: 360 x 360, maximum: 1920 x 1920.
  • Vertical video: Minimum: 360 x 640, maximum: 1080 x 1920.
• Aspect ratios are:
  • Landscape: 16:9
  • Square: 1:1
  • Vertical: 9:16
• Maximum file size is 200 MB
• The accepted video format is .MP4
• Video length max is 30 minutes, although LinkedIn’s guidelines state most ads perform best at around 15 seconds
• Frame rate must be less than 30fps.

For more information on the video specs for LinkedIn ads, visit LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Help.

Pinterest Promoted Video Specs

Pinterest allows video upload for business accounts only, so they have specs designed for brands to get the most out of the highly visual and inspirational lifestyle content frequently shared on the platform.

Shared Video

In addition to ads, business accounts can upload organic video content. There are two formats: standard and max width video.

Video Guidelines

• Standard video recommended aspect ratio: 1:1 (square) or 2:3, 4:5 or 9:16 (vertical)
• Max width video required aspect ratio: 1:1 (square) or 16.9 (widescreen)
• Max file size is 2GB.
• Acceptable video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video duration is 4 seconds to 15 minutes (for ads, the platform notes that 6-15 seconds are optimal).

Character Limits

• Title: Up to 100 characters.
• Description: Up to 500 characters.

Promoted Pinterest Video

There are two formats for Pinterest Promoted Video: standard and max width. Both versions have the same specs as the options for organic uploads. These video ads appear in users’ boards, but advertisers can select the style in the ads manager.

Video Guidelines

• Same as shared video

The post Always Up-to-Date Guide to Social Media Video Specs appeared first on Sprout Social.

You’re not alone. With the algorithm constantly going through updates, brands have a lot of anxiety about how these changes impact their organic reach.

And marketers on Facebook have a right to be concerned, considering Facebook remains the most popular social media platform for consumers and brands. According to the 2022 Sprout Social Index, 71% of consumers and 65% of marketers plan on using Facebook the most over the next 12 months.

Fortunately, beating the Facebook algorithm could be as simple as understanding how it works. That’s exactly what we aim to address in this guide. Let’s find out how the Facebook algorithm works and how you can use it to boost your Facebook marketing strategy.

• What is the Facebook algorithm
• How the Facebook algorithm works
• Facebook algorithm update timeline
• Tips for beating the Facebook algorithm

What is the Facebook algorithm

The Facebook algorithm is a set of rules that decides what posts people see in their Feeds. Essentially, it decides which content is most relevant to show to each user based on several factors. Each user’s Feed will look very different since it’s personalized just for them.

The Facebook algorithm has gone through many updates and improvements over the years. One of the most recent updates focused on assessing the credibility of news articles. The goal of this update was to curb misinformation by promoting reliable and high-quality news sources.

How the Facebook algorithm works

While the earliest algorithm prioritized posts that got the most Likes, the algorithm we see today is a lot more sophisticated. Specifically, it considers four factors to decide which posts to show to which user.

1.     Inventory

First, Facebook takes inventory of all the content that could show up on your Feed. This includes posts coming from people you’re friends with. It also includes content from the Pages you follow and the groups you’ve joined.

2.     Signals

The algorithm then assesses the relevance of each piece of content based on thousands of signals. This includes signals such as who posted it and how often you interact with them. It also looks at when they published the post and what time it is for you.

Facebook also considers signals such as the type of content and how you’ve interacted with similar posts. In other words, it tries to assess relevance by understanding the nature of the content and your behavior.

3.     Predictions

Next, it uses the signals above to make predictions about what you want to see. The algorithm will analyze past behavior to try and understand how likely you are to engage with a piece of content.

Let’s say you regularly interact with a certain friend’s post. The Facebook algorithm will take that as a sign that you like seeing content coming from that friend.

Similarly, let’s say you regularly watch and engage with videos from a Page about eco-friendly living. It will understand that you like to watch videos from that Page and you’re interested in this topic.

4.     Relevancy scoring

Finally, the algorithm will score each content depending on how relevant it is to you. The higher the score is, the more likely it is to show up in your Feed.

Facebook algorithm update timeline

Fast forward to the present day and the Facebook algorithm is still evolving. Below is a quick snapshot of some of the changes Facebook has made recently.

March 2019 – “Why am I seeing this post?” update

Facebook started giving context to why users are seeing certain organic posts and Facebook ads. Users could now see a list of reasons why they fit the target audience for a certain Facebook ad. So brands needed to fine-tune their audience targeting to reach the most relevant users.

April 2019 – The ongoing fight against misinformation

Facebook’s fight against “fake news” and misleading content is well-documented. In April 2019, Facebook elaborated on its manual efforts to fact-check content to fight misinformation. This involved the use of a metric called “Click-Gap.” This analyzes the clicks and links on the platform and compares them with other parts of the internet. Using this metric, it started to limit the reach of posts that only seem to be popular on Facebook.

This may not seem to impact brands directly but does highlight the importance of trust and transparency on the platform. Anything that comes across as needlessly controversial or spammy could quickly earn you a strike, so to speak.

May 2019 – More personalized experiences

Personalization and relevant content remain a top priority of the Facebook algorithm. In May 2019, Facebook announced the widespread use of surveys. This helped to gather feedback from users to ensure they were seeing relevant content.

The update evolved Facebook’s algorithm to become more of what we see today. It began to prioritize relevancy when deciding what posts to show to users. Combined with the surveys and the relevancy signals, this helped to better connect users with the posts, Pages and people they cared about.

May 2019 – Increased focus on video originality and quality

Around the same time, Facebook also developed updates to promote original and high-quality videos. It began to reduce the distribution of videos that used engagement baiting. Videos that employed manufactured sharing tactics also had limited reach.

March 2021 – Users get more control over their Feed

Facebook launched the “Favorites” tool to give users more control over what they see. This would allow them to add up to 30 friends and Pages to their Favorites. Posts from your Favorites will show up more prominently in your Feed.

Additionally, you can also choose the “Favorites” filter from the Feed Filter Bar. This will show you only the posts coming from people and Pages you’ve favorited.

3 tips for beating the Facebook algorithm

These ongoing changes all point to how the Facebook algorithm forces brands to adapt.

But it doesn’t have to be so daunting if you can identify the pattern behind these changes and arm yourself with the right Facebook tools. From what we can see so far, Facebook seems to be prioritizing quality and authenticity above all else. As such, brands mainly need to focus on creating quality content that drives real interactions.

Here are a few best practices to help you adapt and get ahead of the Facebook algorithm.

1.     Time your posts to perfection

Timing is one of the key signals that influence the algorithm. Moreover, it also looks at how much engagement a post receives. As such, it’s important to send out your posts at just the right time. This would mean timing your posts to go out when people are most likely to engage with them.

According to data from Sprout, the best times to post on Facebook are between Monday and Friday at 3 a.m. In particular, 10 a.m. and noon on Tuesdays are also great.

But keep in mind that these times may not necessarily be ideal for everyone. The best thing you can do is use Sprout’s Social Media Publishing suite to analyze optimal send times for your brand. You can then use the scheduling tool to automatically send out your posts at the perfect time.

2.     Focus on creating original videos

Beating the Facebook algorithm involves creating content that the algorithm loves. This would mean more high-quality and original videos.

Ideally, you should share videos that you made and recorded yourself. But this doesn’t necessarily call for big-budget commercials. Short clips from a longer YouTube video would do just fine. Similarly, short videos that you shot on your phone would also do the trick.

The main focus should be on the originality and the quality of the content itself. In other words, the video should benefit your audience in some way. It can be informative, educational or entertaining depending on what your brand does.

The Milwaukee Country Zoo regularly shares short clips of its animals. These are entertaining to the audience, often garnering hundreds of thousands of views. The following video, for instance, had 11k shares.

You can use Sprout’s Facebook Analytics tool to see which videos resonate with your audience. This tool gives you a breakdown of engagements for each post to see which ones your audience interacted with the most. You can then get a sense of what types of videos they want to see from you.

3.     Rope in employees and brand advocates

The key to overcoming the Facebook algorithm has been under your nose since the day you started marketing on the platform. Yet so many brands overlook it—your employees.

Employee advocacy has never been more relevant than it is today. Facebook is prioritizing content from friends and family over businesses. As such, it’s the perfect time to start your employee advocacy program or rev it up if you already have one.

Your Facebook Page’s reach is already somewhat limited by the number of fans/followers you have. And when you tack on these new changes to the algorithm, the number of people that see your content is going to drop even more.

Encouraging your team to share your content with their networks on Facebook instantly amplifies your reach. The challenge is getting employees to share your content. Oftentimes, just sending an email asking people to share an article from your company isn’t enough. It requires too much time and effort on their end to go to Facebook, type up a message and share it. Plus, some employees will just flat-out forget to share and never check the email again.

Sprout makes it easy for your employees to quickly find and share relevant brand content. The Employee Advocacy platform lets you keep all your shareable content in one place. Your employees can then easily share these approved posts. You can even include pre-approved message ideas to give them an example.

Time to beat the algorithm

The constant changes to the Facebook algorithm can put brands at a disadvantage. Having a strong Facebook marketing strategy will help you stay on top of these updates and ensure that you’re always two steps ahead.

Additionally, start using a powerful social media management platform to execute your strategy. This could help with scheduling, management and analytics. Sign up for a free 30-day trial with Sprout Social to see how it can help you beat the Facebook algorithm.

The post How the Facebook algorithm works and ways your brand can outsmart it appeared first on Sprout Social.

They want to speak to a human as soon as possible, and guess where they go to achieve this? Social media.

The number of US social media users is expected to surpass 308 million in 2023 (up over 6 million from 2022 projections). So brands—now’s the time to build a social customer care strategy (if you don’t already have one).

Not sure where to start?

In this piece, we’ll discuss leading social media customer service statistics and how to use them to build stronger relationships in 2023.

How do customers use social media for support?

Brands have several options for delivering customer support, but the one that appeals most to consumers is social media. From 2020 to 2021 alone, the volume of consumers who preferred using social messaging for customer service jumped an impressive 110%.

As customers continue to flock to social for their support needs, it will take more effort to maintain speedy social media response times. Be careful—if you fail to offer timely resolutions on social, almost half of consumers may unfollow your brand. Even worse, social media trends show that over a third will talk about the experience with their family and friends.

So how are customers using social channels to receive support from brands?

“About 70% of my customers reached out to me through social media channels, the other 30% by email,” says Zoila Streich, Co-Founder of Independent Fashion Bloggers and former fashion business owner. “Most questions are about product availability and payment methods, but a few are feedback about the products or the buying process.”

You’ll also find customers using it to report service outages:

Or to point out issues with shipments and deliveries:

It’s disheartening to get negative feedback, but being respectful and helpful to each customer’s request will help in the long run.

Combining a great product or service with excellent support sets you up for more positive remarks from customers:

Make sure to prepare for the ebbs and flows of incoming customer support requests. New product launches or promotions lead to an influx of sales, which means more opportunities for inbound questions, so have your social media presence properly staffed.

“The volume of customers using our social media customer support fluctuates between 40% to 60%, depending on promotions,” says Yuvi Alpert, Founder, Creative Director and CEO of jewelry brand Noémie. “Because we drive people to our social media profiles through other channels, such as our newsletter, many of the questions we receive come through those platforms.”

How important is social media customer service to consumers?

Social media has flipped the balance of power between brands and consumers. Only on social can people compare a brand’s support practices to its competitors in less than a few clicks. If a business providing similar products or services is offering better help, Sprout Social’s Index™ found that 30% of consumers say they’d choose the competitor.

The public nature of social media support has influenced many brands to rethink their roster of standard support channels. More than half say that private/direct messaging plays a role in their customer care strategy.

With social media customer service stats like these, there’s only one thing to do: improve your social media A-game, so you don’t fall into the trenches of negative reviews.

Being consistent with your customer support builds trust and loyalty. Some will even go out of their way to show their praises in public (hello, social proof).

Having stellar customer support is essential to both customers and brands. But manually responding to every message—especially when you have multiple social media accounts and thousands of customers—is not sustainable.

With a tool like Sprout Social, customer care teams can organize and filter incoming messages across platforms, triage responses and view critical customer information all in one place.

Start your free Sprout trial

How quickly do brands need to reply to customer service messages on social?

Being present on social media is great. But having a fast response rate sets apart the “best in class” brands from the “I’m unfollowing you because your customer service is horrible” brands.

How fast is fast enough? In many cases, it depends on the industry and the situation.

For instance, Yuvi Alpert finds a day is fast enough during promotions. “It is critical that we answer those questions within 24 hours. We found that allowing more time to elapse lowers customer interest. By offering prompt responses, we see dramatic increases in sales of featured items.”

But what do customers say the proper response time is for social media customer support?

Our latest Sprout Social Index™ data found that 76% of consumers expect a reply within 24 hours on social.

At one time, taking a day or more to respond to a customer was acceptable. But now most demand instant access and gratification. And if you’re considered a high-priced product or service, then you definitely must respond quickly. Customers who pay more for a service expect a higher level of social customer care.

When MeUndies set a goal of replying to all messages within a 60-minute window, they needed an alternative to responding natively through social platforms. They turned to Sprout’s Smart Inbox to get an all-encompassing view of their Instagram direct messages, mentions and comments in one stream.

Now, be mindful that a fast response isn’t the primary goal—it’s to resolve customers’ issues. Unfortunately, some brands are quick to reply but slow to resolve. And when that happens, unhappy customers will let you (and all their followers) know:

Delta is replying, but the issue is lingering too long. Address customer problems fast or risk losing current and potential customers.

Facebook customer service stats

Facebook is the number one platform where consumers follow brands, so it’s easy to reach out whenever needed. Around 69% of Facebook Messenger users say communicating with brands here builds confidence in the company.

If your customers are on Facebook, then you should be too.

OLIPOP, a tonic brand, uses Facebook to offer direct customer support. “I’d estimate at least 50% of our customers will message us questions or comment directly on our posts across Facebook and Instagram,” says Melanie Bedwell, eCommerce Manager for OLIPOP. “Ideally, we try to reply instantly, but if that’s not possible, then at least during the same day.”

Here are examples of their engagement with happy customers:

They also use opportunities to promote their in-store options (and their tool to locate one near you).

Twitter customer service stats

Twitter is where you’ll find most people headed to compliment or complain about a brand. About 64% of Twitter users even say they’d rather Tweet a brand than call them.

We partnered with Twitter to learn more about how consumers are connecting with brands on the social network and found that:

• 53% of Twitter users find it helpful to see how brands answer questions or solve issues publicly.
• 51% of surveyed Twitter users report their experiences communicating with brands on Twitter makes them feel more favorable toward the brand.
• 1 in 3 (34%) Twitter users purchased a product or service after a positive customer interaction on Twitter.

Why do people reach out to brands on Twitter? All sorts of reasons, but the most popular reasons to seek out customer service on the network are product defectiveness (37%), order issues (29%) and bad in-person experiences (29%).

While it’s great to have this two-way communication with customers, a customer service-filled feed can distract from other campaigns and promotions your brand is trying to highlight. This is why some brands stand up separate Twitter accounts dedicated to customer care.

“Businesses use social media for a variety of purposes, including marketing, engaging with customers, interacting with influencers and more,” says Keenan Beavis, founder of Longhouse Media. “That’s why having a distinct social media account dedicated to customer support inquiries is so important. You don’t want your advertising, likes and shares to bury client demands and questions. ”

We see companies like Belkin using this approach. The consumer electronics brand notifies users to ask questions using its dedicated Twitter customer service channel.

If you visit Belkin on Twitter, you’ll see they go over and beyond for their customers. They even offer multi-lingual support.

Improve customer experiences with social media customer service

You created your business profiles on the social channels your customers frequent. But don’t just use them to promote your products and services. It’s a channel where today’s consumers expect customer support.

Be ready to engage with both customers and prospects by creating separate handles and using Sprout’s social customer service tools to manage it all in one place. Timely alerts + quick responses = happy customers. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Ready to build relationships with your customers? Sign up for Sprout’s free trial to get started.

The post The social media customer service statistics brands need to know in 2022 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Why? Well, getting verified on Facebook is a must for public figures, brands and companies that are well-known and susceptible to being replicated or parodied.

In this post, you’ll discover some essential steps on how to get verified on Facebook, as well as a few additional details to give you a thorough understanding of how Facebook verification works.

Let’s get started.

• What is Facebook verification
• Who can get verified on Facebook
• Why should you get verified on Facebook
• Steps for getting verified on Facebook
• What if Facebook rejects your application
• Tips for getting verified on Facebook

What is Facebook verification

Facebook verification provides credibility to official pages and puts a clear distinction between the real Pages and the Pages run by fans or imposters.

Before we get into the Facebook verification process, you’ll want to know what it means to get verified on Facebook in the first place and why it’s so important.

As we briefly touched on earlier, businesses and public figures may often see people creating Pages and profiles similar to theirs—whether it’s to imitate them or to build a fan community. Even if there’s no malicious intent behind those Pages and profiles, there’s still a huge risk of other Facebook users mistaking them for the real thing.

In addition, Facebook prioritizes verified profiles and Pages in its search results. So Facebook verification ensures that your Page prominently shows up at the top of relevant searches, which could further improve your reach. See how the official verified Page for Workday gets top priority when you search for the company name on Facebook.

Who can get verified on Facebook

Although in theory, anyone can get verified on Facebook, they have to meet strict verification criteria in order to get approved. Besides following the company’s terms of service, your account should be:

• Authentic: It should represent a real person, entity or business.
• Unique: It should be the unique presence of the person, entity or business it represents. Facebook only verifies one account per business or person, with the exception of language-specific accounts. And note that it doesn’t verify accounts for general interests. For example, it won’t verify a Page dedicated to healthy food but it will verify a page representing a registered publication that’s dedicated to healthy food.
• Complete: It should be active and have all the necessary details such as an “About” section and a profile photo. In addition, it should have at least one post.
• Notable: The person, entity or business it represents should be well-known and get plenty of searches. Facebook is more likely to approve your application if multiple news sources and publications feature the account.

The above requirements are only the bare minimum and don’t necessarily guarantee that you’ll get verified. To improve your chances of getting verified, make sure that your account looks highly credible. This means regularly publishing highly informative and engaging posts instead of sticking to the minimum requirement of one post, for instance.

Note that in addition to the above, Facebook may also have other requirements to verify Pages and profiles belonging to law enforcement agencies, politicians, elected officials and city governments. Be sure to be logged into your Facebook account to see all of Facebook’s verification criteria for these types of Pages as well as the contact.

Why should you get verified on Facebook

There are a number of reasons that getting verified is a good idea—let’s cover the bases.

Boosts credibility for your brand

Getting verified shows that you’re a legitimate, credible brand. The process isn’t easy (as you’ll see shortly) and many people/brands have tried to get verified and failed, so Facebook users know if they see that blue checkmark, it’s for real.

Protects against imposter accounts

Some people create fake accounts, others create fan accounts. Getting verified helps separate your Facebook Page from the rest, assuring customers that they’re following or reaching out to the real deal and not an imposter.

Facebook prioritizes verified profiles and pages

The Facebook algorithm gives priority to verified Pages and public figure profiles. Having that blue check means you’ll be shown first in search results, helping boost eyes on your brand’s Facebook Page.

8 steps for how to get verified on Facebook

While most of the process for getting verified is simple, some parts are more complicated than others.

However, if you follow these eight steps to a tee and have everything you need, you should be able to get that blue checkmark with little additional effort.

Step 1: Open the verification request form

Start the verification process by heading to Facebook’s verification request form. This is where you’ll complete all of the following steps.

Step 2: Choose your verification type

You have the option to verify your personal profile if you are a public figure. Or, as long as you’re logged into your Facebook account, you can select from a dropdown menu which business page you’d like to verify. Each business page you manage will appear, making it easy to go through this process for each of your businesses or clients.

Step 3: Confirm authenticity

The next step is proving that your Facebook page is authentic. Remember, verification proves to your audience that it’s authentic. So it’s important that Facebook looks for credible documentation in order to approve verification.

The documentation options that you can upload a copy of include:

• Driver’s license
• Passport
• National identification card
• Tax filing
• Recent utility bill
• Articles of incorporation

You’ll click the Choose files button in order to upload your documents.

Step 4: Confirm notability

This next step is called “confirming notability,” but essentially, you’re selecting a category for your business page or profile. This is especially important when verifying profiles—Facebook wants to ensure that your profile or page is something that people are actually interested in or searching for before awarding verification.

Categories to choose from include:

• News/Media
• Sports
• Government & Politics
• Music
• Fashion
• Entertainment
• Digital Creator/Blogger/Influencer
• Gamer
• Business/Brand/Organization
• Other

Step 5: Add your country

The next step is to add the country where you or your business is most well-known. Even if you have a global company, you’ll want to choose the country or region where you have the largest audience. If you’re unsure, you can easily discover this by looking at your website’s Google Analytics or at your Facebook insights.

Step 6: Add your audience and also known as

This step is completely optional, however, the more information you provide, the easier it is for Facebook’s team to confirm your verification. We recommend inputting basic information about your audience demographics. However, if you have no other “AKA” names for your business, you can of course leave that section blank.

Step 7: Add 5 articles that show your page or profile is in the public interest

This step is also optional, but take our word for it: do not skip this step. This is one of the best ways to help prove your case. By including popular social media accounts, articles that talk about your business, Wikipedia profiles or anything else that proves people are interested in, following or talking about your brand, you’re making a much more compelling argument that your page should be verified.

Step 8: Submit the form

Voila! You’ve submitted your application for Facebook verification. The only thing left to do now is wait.

What happens if Facebook rejects my application

Keep in mind that meeting the basic verification criteria doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get verified. Facebook might still reject your application without specifying a reason. When this happens, you’ll have the option to reapply for verification after 30 days. But make sure you put in additional effort to improve your chances of getting verified this time around.

Here are the possible next steps in case Facebook rejects your application:

• Reach out to Facebook support and try to get more information about why your application was rejected. In case you can get this info, you’ll know exactly what you need to do to get verified the next time you apply.
• Create more high-quality content and maintain a regular posting schedule while ramping up your Facebook marketing efforts.
• If you have brand accounts on other social networks, make sure you boost your presence there as well. This will also help you improve your chances of getting verified on those platforms.

Top 4 tips for getting verified on Facebook (and staying verified)

Struggling to get verified? We’ve got four top tips to help you out. And, once you’re verified, you’ll want to continue these best practices to make sure you’re able to stay verified.

1. Keep your business information up-to-date

We mentioned that one of the factors for Facebook verification is having a complete Facebook profile. But you also need to make sure you keep up with any changes. If you get a new website, change store locations, adjust store hours, add new product lines, etc., you need to update those things on your Facebook page.

2. Post regularly on Facebook

If you haven’t posted any new content on your Facebook page in over a year, you’ve given the platform no incentive to offer you verification status. Make sure you’re staying active on Facebook and regularly posting new content to engage your followers.

3. Engage with the community

Build a community by engaging with commenters, sharing content that your audience seems to enjoy, holding live broadcasts to interact with your audience in real-time and more. If you have an engaged Facebook audience, it proves to the platform that you’re a notable brand and people want to follow you, increasing your chances of getting verified.

4. Stick to community guidelines

Just because you’ve been verified doesn’t mean you’re going to stay verified. If you’re consistently violating community guidelines, the platform reserves the right to rescind your verification. Ensuring you’re compliant (which isn’t difficult to do), turning on two-factor authentication and implementing a proper Facebook marketing strategy will all help you to remain verified.

Get verified on Facebook today

Now that you know how to get verified on Facebook, it’s time to start gathering all of the information you need so you can submit your form. From there, your biggest job is making sure you’ve got a stellar Facebook marketing strategy to increase reach and engagement, get your audience interested in your business and generate sales.

The post How to get verified on Facebook: Your step-by-step guide appeared first on Sprout Social.

If you haven’t brought video into your social media strategy, consider this your “twist my arm” moment.

But video creation requires work. You want your time and effort to go toward content that is effective for your channels and your brand. And to know what videos work, you need the right metrics.

Let’s explore video engagement metrics that help you understand organic performance across your biggest channels.

Dive deeper into video engagement performance with Sprout Social

Sprout’s Premium Analytics give you a full, 360-degree view of how your videos—paid and organic—perform on social.

Fast reporting helps you understand what content impacts your business and strategy, and how.

Request a demo to try Sprout’s Premium Analytics tools and see how they can enhance your strategy.

Before we start, know your goals

If you feel overwhelmed by the dozens of video metrics out there, there’s good news—you can be choosy.

The best way to pick the right metrics is to ask yourself: what are my channel-specific goals?

As Sprout Social’s Senior Social Media Manager Rachael Samuels puts it, “On every network, the metric that relates to the goal or purpose of the video is what you should measure. If you want people to comment or take action, views aren’t the most important but view duration might be. If your goal is awareness, if it’s an ad, if you want your video in front of thousands of people—views are more important.”

Video engagement metrics you need to improve content performance

While everyone knows metrics like views and impressions can inform performance, they might not tell the full story.

Here are some key video engagement metrics to help you dive deeper into your performance data and know where to focus your production efforts.

TikTok metrics to track

As a short-form video app, views are everything on TikTok. The second your video starts playing, it’s counted as a view—including when a video is replayed. Views from you watching your own video, however, don’t add to your total count.

Here are some TikTok metrics to track.

Total likes and total views

These are two individual metrics, but they’re important to compare. A high total views count is exciting. But if your total likes are low, you’re not getting the most out of your content.

The TikTok algorithm uses likes as a key signal when it comes to identifying popular content to organically show to more users. If your likes are low, especially on videos with a high view count, experiment and find new ways to make your content more engaging.

Post time

Most newly-uploaded videos reach peak engagement soon after being published. Publish videos when your audience is more active to rack up more engagement earlier. Look at the post time of your most successful videos to identify your best times to post on TikTok.

Watched full video

Viewers watching your video to the end holds a lot of weight with TikTok’s algorithm. Luckily, the majority of consumers find short-form video to be the most engaging content type.

To achieve a better video completion rate, create engaging, bite-sized videos with sounds and text that keep viewers watching. Tracking this metric will help you understand how well you’re hitting this goal.

Traffic sources

Knowing whether the majority of your traffic comes from your followers or new users in the For You Page tells you how much organic reach your content is getting.

A little background: there are three TikTok feeds, including the Friends Tab, Following Feed and the For You Page. The For You page is where you want your content to show up, and where you can go viral. Tracking video views received from the For You feed will tell you which videos TikTok is pushing to more people.

Average watch time

Like we mentioned, completion rate matters on TikTok. Tracking the average time people watch your content will inform when people are falling off, and what your ideal video length might be.

Keep in mind—TikTok only keeps your data for 60 days. Using a tool, like Sprout Social’s reporting and analytics, empowers you to see your lifetime TikTok data, and even compare your TikTok performance to the performance of your other accounts.

Facebook video metrics to watch

A video view on Facebook counts when a user watches a video for at least three seconds.

Average video time watched

This can help you understand your audience’s preferred video length.

Sound on vs. Sound off video views

The vast majority of video on the internet are watched without sound. Knowing whether your videos are watched with or without sound can help you prioritize captions, music, voiceover and more. Dig into how sound on vs. sound off video plays compare using Sprout Social’s Premium Analytics tools.

Full video views vs. partial

A partial view is the number of times users watch a video for at least three seconds, but no more than 30 seconds and not to the end.

A full video view is the number of times users view your post’s video for at least 30 seconds, or almost to the end for shorter videos.

Seeing these two metrics next to each other can help you visualize if your video retention improves over time.

Click-through rate

Click-through rate (CTR) is the number of times users clicked in your post as a percentage of impressions during its lifetime—especially important if your goal is to boost conversions or leads.

Cut out the manual calculation that goes into CTR. Sprout Social’s Premium Analytics feature calculates this metric in a downloadable report in seconds.

Unique video views

This is the number of unique users who viewed your video. If one person watches a video 10 times, it counts as one unique view.

Using Sprout’s Premium Analytics, compare this number against your total views to get a sense of how often your video is being replayed—an important metric considering Facebook favors content that keeps people coming back.

Click to play vs. Autoplay metrics

This can tell you how many people click to play your videos and which videos inspired interest. While videos on Facebook generally autoplay, this feature can be turned off.

Peak live viewers 

If livestreaming is a part of your video strategy, using Facebook’s Live video metrics can help you refine your approach to live audience.

Shares and comments

Facebook post engagements include reactions (Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry), shares, clicks and comments. Total engagements can give you a sense of how effective your video was overall.

People sharing your content is one of the best ways to organically reach new eyes in an algorithm-satisfying way.

95% video views

Facebook prioritizes content that sustains viewer attention. This metric highlights when viewers have watched at least 95% of your video, including those who skip ahead. Find this when you download your Post Performance Report with Sprout’s Premium Analytics.

Stand-out YouTube video metrics

YouTube has more than 2 billion active users and their newest video type—YouTube Shorts—generates more than 15 billion daily views. But beyond its popularity as a social platform, YouTube also has SEO and search applications. The platform is often touted as the most popular search engine behind Google.

Here are a few YouTube metrics to measure whether your videos are standing out.

Average view duration

YouTube prioritizes how much time is spent watching a video. It’s important to know which videos inspire people to keep watching, and how to recreate their success.

Card clicks

YouTube cards are the main type of pop-up you see during a video. There are four different kinds:

• Video: allows you to link to another YouTube video (see example below)
• Channel: allows you to link to another YouTube channel
• Link: YouTube Partners can link to an external website
• Playlist: can link to a public YouTube playlist

Card teaser impressions

This is the number of times that card teasers were displayed to viewers.

Subscribers gained/lost from video 

Looking at how many people subscribed to or unsubscribed from your channel from one video can tell you a lot about its impact.

Likes/Dislikes

While this may just seem like a vanity metric, YouTube’s algorithm weighs Likes and Dislikes when determining which videos to serve.

Key Instagram video metrics

On Instagram, a view is counted when someone has watched a video for three seconds or more.

Saves

When someone saves a video on Instagram, it means they liked it so much that they want to easily rewatch it. Instagram also uses saves as an indicator of what to show in the Explore feed.

Story metrics

Looking at Instagram Story analytics can help you understand their impact and which ones to recreate or turn into Highlights. Keep an eye on:

• Story taps back: Could indicate people are rewatching your Story, or the previous frame contained too much information
• Story taps forward: Could indicate people don’t want to stay on your Story
• Story exits: Who dropped off of or swiped out of your story
• Story replies: Who took the time to respond to your Stories, if you offer replies

Profile metrics

Looking at the following profile metrics can indicate if a recent video post led to a spike in profile actions:

• Website clicks
• Email link clicks
• Get Directions Clicks
• Phone Call Clicks

Using Sprout Social’s Premium Analytics feature, you can quickly pull these numbers to understand your audience behavior.

Essential LinkedIn video metrics 

Like Facebook, LinkedIn counts a view after three seconds, and your video view count doesn’t display publicly on your post until your video has reached 500 views.

Click-through rate

LinkedIn prefers native content that keeps users on the platform. Make sure your external links, like the job posting link below, are worth it by looking at which videos drive the most clicks to post links.

Pro tip: LinkedIn’s paid ad analytics open up opportunities for a deeper understanding of video performance. In Sprout’s Premium Analytics, you can look at view conversions to understand how your video directly impacted engagement.

Comments

Posts with a lot of longer comments, like the post below, get the platform’s attention—even more so than reactions (Like, Celebrate, Support, Love, Insightful, Curious.) They’re richer in content and can potentially increase time spent on a post, or dwell time, which LinkedIn’s algorithm favors.

Followers gained or lost 

Looking at this number after you’ve posted a video vs other types of content can reveal whether video is a powerful tool for you, or hurts you.

Helpful Twitter video metrics

A video view on Twitter is counted when someone has watched your video for at least two seconds with at least 50% of the video visible in their window.

Engagements

Twitter’s algorithm favors engagement as one of several key signals. The more engagements, the more attention. On Twitter, engagements include:

• Retweets
• Favorites
• Replies
• Mentions
• URL clicks
• Hashtag clicks
• Media views

Tweets that are Liked or commented on by one person may show up in their followers’ feeds, connecting you to new potential fans.

Follow or Unfollow from posts

Use this metric in Sprout’s Premium Analytics to understand which of your videos drive people away, and what videos attract new audience members.

Post media clicks

Post media clicks can tell you how many times viewers clicked your video—to pause it, for example—while watching.

What’s next: Turn video engagement information into action items

You’ve published videos on your social channels.

You have a sleek report highlighting their performance.

…Now what?

Data has a million stories to tell about your brand and channels. Here are a few ways you can level up your social media analytics from data points to actionable insights.

Report impact to stakeholders

Data provides a window into your strategy. It can also back you up when you need more resources for video creation by illustrating video’s impact on your brand to senior leaders.

Similarly, if your higher ups are pushing you to publish video formats that you know are not performing well, data can help prove your point. Use Sprout’s presentation-ready reports to present clear findings to your leadership team, and use Premium Analytics to answer some of their biggest questions about how social affects your business.

Know where to allocate your ad spend

It doesn’t make sense to boost or make an ad out of a video that doesn’t resonate. Knowing which videos are your most engaging can help you determine where to distribute your budget.

Guide your content strategy

Video content is a lot of work. Especially if you have to coordinate remote video production.

You want to make sure the work and energy you invest goes into the type of content that works best.

Looking at your video engagement data can highlight successful content to recreate and content that’s underperforming.

Here are a few factors that metrics can help you determine:

• Video length: Looking at view duration and video lengths with higher engagement can help you prioritize the right type of video content.
• Theme: What types of videos garnered the most engagement? Were they about your product? Funny? Informative?
• Quality: If all of your viewers drop off of a video at the same time, what’s turning them away? What can you fix?
• Card clicks: Specifically on YouTube, are a lot of people clicking a card at a specific time? Or is your card missing your audience?
• Frequency: Use video engagement data to determine how often to post, and when to pull back.
• Time of day: With social platforms like Facebook and Twitter putting a lot of value on posting time, video engagement data can help inform when your best times to post on social might be.
• Titles and description copy: Did your top-performing videos have particularly keyword-rich descriptions? What were their titles like?
• Preview images: Is there imagery that worked particularly well for video clicks?

Identify which videos to repurpose

The more mileage you can get out of one video, the better.

Identifying your high performers can help you determine which videos are worth repurposing and posting on other channels—even beyond social.

Connect content to intent

Going viral for the right reasons is every social media manager’s dream. But at the end of the day, your social efforts have to positively impact your business’ bottom line.

Video engagement data, when paired with other metrics, can help you connect content interactions with audience intent.

Looking at a successful video and comparing it to website clicks, event registrations, profile views, email signups, etc. at the time it was posted can connect content to action. This can illustrate the real business impact your efforts make to your senior leaders.

Make an impact with video engagement metrics

Video engagement metrics and social media analytics don’t exist in a silo.

By combining some of these metrics with awareness metrics—like impressions—and more, you can start to form a full picture of how video can drive your social strategy, and your business, forward.

It’s hard to be decisive when it comes to social data, but you’re not alone. Use our social media metrics cheat sheet to find the metrics that matter most to you. Then, level up your insights and make data analysis a breeze—request a demo of Sprout’s Analytics tools today.

The post The marketer’s guide to reporting on social video engagement appeared first on Sprout Social.

Marketers need to constantly stay on top of these updates so they can make full use of the platform’s potential and keep up with the competition.

On that note, let’s take a closer look at one of the latest features–the option to hide likes on Facebook. We’ll dive into why you may want to hide likes on Facebook and walk you through how to do it.

Why you may want to hide likes on Facebook

As much as we try to deny it, it’s easy to let those engagement numbers get to you. But with the hide likes feature on Facebook, you can now keep those metrics private. Let’s look at a few more reasons why you may want to hide likes on Facebook.

1. You don’t need to create content just for likes

Many social media users are using the number of likes on their posts to validate themselves and the content they create. In their minds, the more likes they get, the better their content is. So, before creating or posting anything, they’re asking themselves, “Will people like this?” As a result, they end up not creating or publishing the kind of content they want to create.

2. Few likes may send a negative signal to your audience

It’s not just the Facebook algorithm that’s counting likes as a way to rank posts on the platform. Social media users are also using those numbers to judge the quality and popularity of the content. If they see that a post has a ton of likes, they immediately decide that it’s a hit with other users.

So, instead of looking at the actual quality and content of the post, they’re letting those numbers decide what content to like, share or interact with. In other words, there’s a chance the number of likes could affect your Facebook engagement.

3. Creates a more positive environment

Facebook designed the option to hide likes so that users will focus more on the photos and videos rather than the likes. This could make for a healthier, more positive environment in which users have the freedom to express themselves. As a result, we may be able to see creativity flourish as creators get the courage to experiment and exhibit their originality.

4. Benefits brands just getting started on Facebook

For many brands, turning off like counts on Facebook is a great way to encourage your audience to judge the content objectively. This is particularly helpful for brands that are just starting to grow their presence on the platform.

National Geographic doesn’t hide likes but here’s a peek at what this post would look like if they did:

5. Improves mental health

Unfortunately, like counts not only affect the content creation process but also people’s mental health. Experts have found that getting fewer social media likes can decrease feelings of self-worth in adolescents.

The lack of validation could lead to increased negative thoughts about themselves. This may even increase symptoms of depression and anxiety over time. So, one of the most obvious benefits of hiding likes on Facebook is the possibility of improving users’ mental health.

Why you may not want to hide likes on Facebook

On the flip side, hiding likes on Facebook may not always have positive results. For instance, influential users may be unable to demonstrate their content performance. As a result, they may have a harder time scoring brand partnerships.

For brands, not displaying your Facebook likes may come across as deceptive or questionable. In a world where transparency has become the key to winning consumer trust, this could put a damper on your relationship with the audience.

How to hide likes on Facebook: Your posts

Have you decided to try out this new feature? If so, it’s super easy to set up. Here are three simple steps to hide the like count on your Facebook posts:

Step 1: Go to your brand Facebook Page and click on the profile icon at the top right-hand corner of the screen. From the drop-down menu, select “Settings & privacy” and then choose “Settings.” You can follow the same steps for your personal profile if you want to try it out for your personal Facebook account.

Step 2: Once on your “Settings” dashboard, click on the “Privacy” button from the left-hand panel of the screen. This will open all your privacy-related settings. From here, you can change settings for your Page information, tagging actions, blocking and messaging.

Step 3: From the left-hand panel, select “Reaction preferences” at the bottom. Then toggle on the option to hide the number of reactions on your posts.

That’s it–your posts will no longer display the number of likes you’ve received. Once you’re ready to start displaying the number of likes again, you just need to follow the same steps as above and then toggle off this option.

How to hide likes on Facebook: Pages you’ve liked

When everyone can see the Pages you’ve liked, it’s easy for your information to get compromised. By default, everyone can get an idea of your interests and values based on the Pages you’ve liked.

Malicious users could manipulate the info to their advantage. This may involve running elaborate scams with targeted messaging. They may even be able to use the info to imitate your brand, which could threaten your brand reputation.

So, hiding the Pages you’ve liked is an excellent way to prevent becoming overexposed on the platform. That way, you can retain some of your privacy and significantly reduce the chances of your account getting compromised.

Additionally, brands may also want to hide the other Pages they’ve liked to streamline the information they display on their Page. When people come to your Facebook Page, it’s to find more info about your business. They may want to see your photos and videos or get involved with your community.

However, they’re not necessarily interested in finding out what films, sports teams or TV shows your brand likes. So, when you hide them from your Page, it becomes easier for people to find the info that they really need.

For example, Califia Farms chooses to display sections about their events, reviews, photos and videos. Additionally, they choose to include sections about their brand and their community. This keeps the Page minimal while displaying only the most important information.

Here’s the step-by-step process of how to hide the Pages you’ve liked on Facebook:

Step 1: Go to profile and click on the “More” button. You’ll find this in the toolbar under your cover photo. The same option is available on your brand Page if you want to hide the Pages that your brand has liked on Facebook.

Step 2: Select the “Likes” option from the drop-down menu. This will open your “Likes” dashboard, which displays all the pages you’ve liked across Facebook.

Step 3: Click on the ellipses button from the top right-hand corner of the screen. This will open a drop-down menu with two options. Click on the “Hide Section” button to instantly hide all the Pages you’ve liked. Select “Edit the Privacy of Your Likes” to manually edit the privacy for different categories.

Step 4: Now you’ll be able to see a list of all the Page categories that are available on Facebook. You can manually change the privacy of your likes for each category. Click on the globe button next to the category you want to edit and then select “Only me.”

Note that this option is only available to personal accounts. So, you won’t get the option to change the audience settings for separate categories for your brand Page. The only option is to hide all your liked pages. To do this, just follow the instructions above i.e., clicking on the “Hide Section” button.

Bonus step: You can further edit the sections you want to display on your Page to keep it clean and minimal. To do this, click on the “More” button and select “Manage Sections” from the drop-down menu. Then uncheck all the sections you want to hide from your page.

We suggest keeping only the most essential details about your business. This includes your “About” section and your photos and videos. Additionally, you should also give your audience the option to check out your groups, communities, events and Live videos.

Consider if hiding likes on Facebook is right for your brand

Hiding your like counts on Facebook allows users to focus on the content of the post. That way, they can judge the post objectively and decide how to interact with it. As a result, brands that are just starting to grow their presence on the platform could strategically leverage it.

If you decide to hide your Facebook likes from the public, you should still make use of engagement data internally. Check out our complete guide on Facebook analytics to help inform your strategy.

The post How to hide likes on Facebook: Your step-by-step guide appeared first on Sprout Social.

With a Facebook analytics tool, you’re able to look into your audience’s demographics, your posts’ performance, your ads’ performance, your engagement rate and more. However, it can be difficult to find the best Facebook analytics tool for your team. Especially since Facebook shut down its standalone analytics tool in 2021.

Throughout this article, we’re going to cover the top 10 Facebook analytics tools you can use to measure your success. Including paid tools, free tools and a couple of tools that are ideal for monitoring your Facebook ads.

1. Sprout Social

If you haven’t yet heard of us, welcome! Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management tool that helps brands create, schedule, manage and monitor their social media content.

While you can use Sprout with nearly any social media platform, we’re talking about Facebook today—and Sprout’s Facebook analytics tools are extremely useful.

Sprout Social’s Facebook analytics options allow users to get a great overview of their Facebook Business Pages. You can quickly see your total impressions, number of engagements, clicks, audience growth and more. Plus, you can access audience demographics to make sure you’re targeting the right people.

Features:

• Colorful, easy-to-read graphs that give you an instant idea of how your Facebook is doing
• Competitor reports that let you get a glimpse at how your Facebook compares to the competition
• The ability to tag content that belongs to certain campaigns so you can gauge campaign success

2. SocialPilot

SocialPilot is a social media marketing tool that provides capabilities like publishing, scheduling, content curation, collaboration, Facebook ads management, and of course, Facebook analytics. To test-drive the tool, SocialPilot offers a 14-day free trial to give brands the opportunity to test out their features before biting the bullet.

Features:

• Get insights into your best-performing Facebook content so you can create more of it
• Discover the optimal times to post based on your specific audience insights
• Gather detailed PDF reports of your Facebook analytics to share with your team or your clients

3. Keyhole

Keyhole is a social media management tool that focuses exclusively on analytics. They offer analytics for a number of platforms, including Facebook, with the goal of helping brands analyze all aspects of their online presence. From competitor analyses and campaign tracking to hashtag analytics and influencer tracking, Keyhole has a number of great options for brands looking to get a full scope of their Facebook activity.

Features:

• Automated Facebook reports that make tracking performance as easy as possible
• Hashtag tracking to provide insight into how your hashtag campaigns are performing
• Profile analytics and account tracking that lets you gauge your success versus your competitors’

4. Rival IQ

RivalIQ is another analytics-focused social media tool. Their tool allows companies to monitor several different platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and TikTok. Monitor the success of your social media campaigns from one simple dashboard. The best part is that RivalIQ offers a number of free tools for brands who want to monitor their social media analytics on a budget.

Features:

• Free head-to-head reports that show you how you compare to your biggest competitor on any given platform
• Comprehensive social media audits that help you identify your best and worst-performing content
• Machine learning that helps you understand why competitors may have received a jump in reach

5. Brand24

Brand24 is a social media monitoring tool that helps brands track their Facebook analytics. Monitor online company mentions, hashtags, trends, alerts and more through your Brand24 dashboard.

Features:

• Discussion volume chart that allows you to analyze when your brand name is being talked about more often
• Mention analytics that gives you insight into which accounts are talking about your business
• Sentiment analysis to help you gauge the overall sentiments surrounding your brand name

6. Oktopost

Oktopost is a B2B social media engagement tool with a number of useful social media management capabilities. Oktopost is unique because it specifically caters to the B2B industry.

Features:

• Customizable dashboards with a number of chart types to help visualize your results for your team
• Insights into your buyers’ journey on Facebook and other social media platforms
• Audience insights like follower growth, demographics, brand mentions and more

7. Facebook Insights

While Facebook’s standalone analytics went away, they do still have a completely free Facebook Insights section of your Facebook Business Page. This helps you get a very high-level overview of how your Facebook posts are doing as a whole. To access your Facebook Insights, head over to your business page, then scroll down in the left sidebar until you see Insights.

Features:

• At-a-glance page summary that gives you insight into how your Page has done the last week or month
• Page follower insights to ensure you’re targeting the right audience and to know when to post
• 13+ categories of insights to help you get a better idea of how your Facebook Page is doing

8. Meta Business Suite

The insights section of the new Meta Business Suite is the biggest free analytics feature offered by Facebook. They’ve created this as a way to monitor the insights on your Facebook and Instagram profiles all in the same place. You can access the full suite of Meta business tools by going to business.facebook.com. Then, click Insights in the left sidebar to access your Facebook analytics.

Features:

• The ability to gather Facebook and Instagram analytics in the same easy-to-access dashboard
• In-depth insights into your content, audience, page results and more
• Downloadable reports that you can easily share with your team or clients

9. Facebook Ads Manager

If you’re running Facebook ads and looking for a way to keep track of them, your very first option is going to be none other than Facebook Ads Manager. Here, you’re able to get in-depth insights into the performance of your ads and if you need to make any adjustments for them to be successful. Plus, it’s a completely free tool (aside from the ad spend).

Features:

• Performance charts that let you know how your ad is doing and how many people it’s reaching
• Get insights on how relevant your audience thinks your ad is so you can make necessary changes
• Take a look at insights at the campaign, ad set and ad level to see the nitty-gritty of your ad performance

10. AdEspresso

AdEspresso is a social media tool dedicated specifically to helping you improve the efficacy of your social media ads. With tools that help with Facebook, Instagram and Google ads, you can easily get great insights into how to create and promote the best possible ads for your brand.

Features:

• Get quick analyses on how your ad campaigns are performing with bird’s-eye-view reports
• Automated PDF reporting that makes it quick and easy to grab reports for your ad performance
• Tagging capabilities that allow you to monitor multiple campaigns at a time

Find the right Facebook analytics tool for your brand

It can be difficult to decide which tool is the best Facebook analytics tool for your brand. That’s why it’s always a good idea to take some time to look over each tool and its features, so you can make the most informed decision possible. If you’re still stuck, start a free trial with Sprout’s analytics tool or consider scheduling a demo to learn more.

The post 10 Facebook analytics tools to measure your marketing success appeared first on Sprout Social.

Despite not boasting the buzz of Instagram or TikTok right now, recent stats highlight how Facebook is still a staple for marketers.

Thing is, Facebook is a challenging platform to wrangle due to all of its dashboards and ad options. Keeping up with Meta’s ever-changing business features can be overwhelming.

But what if you had a place to oversee your analytics, content and monetization at the same time?

Well, Facebook Creator Studio is that tool!

New to Creator Studio? In this post, we’ll highlight how to use the platform to save time and streamline your marketing tasks.

What is Facebook Creator Studio?

Think of Facebook Creator Studio as the ultimate control center for your business page.

Nobody wants to bounce between a million different tools, right? Creator Studio consolidates your performance data, messages and content in one place. According to Meta:

“Creator Studio brings together all the tools you need to effectively post, manage, monetize and measure content across all your Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts.”

Launched backed in 2018, Facebook Creator Studio’s goal was to give business owners a better idea of how their presence is performing. After all, Facebook’s in-app analytics feed can feel a bit clunky and fragmented. On the flip side, Creator Studio provides a comprehensive overview of the following:

• Your most recent Facebook posts and their performance: engagements and interactions
• Your overall performance of your Page: followers, reach and growth
• New notifications and activity from followers: direct messages and mentions

Beyond analytics, Creator Studio has a ton of helpful publishing features. This includes:

• The ability to schedule Facebook posts (and see live previews of future content)
• Creating and publishing posts directly from the platform
• Management of all of your Facebook content assets including posts, images and videos

And of course, you can analyze the performance of all of your Facebook assets as well.

Another notable aspect of Facebook Creator Studio is access to all of the above for your Instagram presence, too. This compatibility is useful if you’re cross-posting Instagram content or running ads on both networks.

How to get started with Facebook Creator Studio

Creator Studio is a seriously underrated tool for marketers.

It’s no surprise that it gets slept on, though. That’s because Meta is constantly revamping and replacing its slew of Facebook business tools.

If you’re new to the platform, below is a quick breakdown of how to start using Creator Studio. If you need a starting point, you can download Free Facebook Cover Photos from our new tool!

Where to access Facebook Creator Studio

Good news: if you have access to a business Page then you can access Creator Studio by default.

“Okay, but where is Creator Studio on Facebook?”

Good question! Getting into the platform for the first time might feel a bit roundabout. For starters, log into your Facebook Business Page and click on your profile picture (see below).

From there, select “Meta Business Suite” and click through. You’ll be presented with a dropdown menu. Select “All tools” to proceed.

Finally, you’ll be prompted to select “Creator Studio.” Doing so will open the platform in a new window.

Understanding roles and permissions in Facebook Creator Studio

There are five levels of access within Facebook Creator Studio: Admin, Editor, Moderator, Advertiser and Analyst.

As noted earlier, access to a Facebook Page automatically grants you access to Creator Studio.

But you only have full permissions if you’re an Admin. Different roles and permissions can be assigned to collaborators to limit access to certain features. This includes messaging, content management and analytics.

Here’s a quick explanation from Meta:

“Regardless of what role you have on a Page, you can access it from Creator Studio . . . However, your Page role does determine the specific information you see and the actions you can take on that Page and any Instagram account linked to it.”

And here’s Meta’s breakdown of the roles’ permissions:

These various roles and permissions are helpful for agencies, brand partners and Pages run by multiple people. This can help you set up a smarter approval process so stakeholders can sign off on actions from collaborators.

Managing multiple Pages in Facebook Creator Studio

Speaking of multiples!

You can seamlessly bounce from different Pages in Creator Studio if you’re running a bunch at once. Again, these features are helpful for agencies and brands managing multiple communities.

To see which Pages you have access to, go to the home screen of Facebook Creator Studio. Then, click the top lefthand icon of the Page you initially logged on through. You’ll then see a dropdown of Pages.

Navigating the Facebook Creator Studio interface

Once you finally get into the platform, its interface is pretty self-explanatory.

Here’s a basic rundown of navigation options as you figure out how to use Facebook Creator Studio:

• Home – a general overview of your Facebook Page and recent activity.
• Notifications – alerts, recommended updates and recent interactions on your Page (comments/messages).
• Insights– an overview of content performances including Facebook video and Stories insights.
• Pre-published– an overview of your scheduled Facebook posts.
• Published – see the status and performance of live posts organized by most recent publish date.
• Assets – an overview of content you’ve uploaded to Facebook and Creator Studio.
• Tools – a place to test and preview Facebook posts.
• Content Library – aggregates your posts and anything your page has published or cross-posted.

Below are the secondary features of Facebook Creator Studio you can find at the bottom of the navigation bar:

• Inbox+ – shows all of your recent Facebook messages, acting as a sort of CRM.
• Monetization – allows you to boost content and transform posts into paid ads.
• Creative Tools – live stream features and access to the Facebook Sound Collection.
• Settings – here you can edit Page permissions and settings.
• Resources – takes you to external publishing and shopping tools for Facebook Pages

What are the key features of Facebook Creator Studio?

To wrap things up, here’s a general overview of how to use Facebook Creator Studio and the basics of what you can do within the platform.

Create and schedule Facebook posts

Rather than post directly from your Page, Creator Studio lets you plan out your posts in greater depth. For example, the ability to schedule posts directly makes it easier to stick to an actual content calendar versus posting at random.

Here you can also optimize your posts to increase engagement by fine-tuning your captions, images and timing. Detailed content previews ensure that your posts “look the part” and never feel rushed.

Manage relationships with fans and followers

From customer service to product questions, mastering Facebook Messenger is a must-do for brands.

Facebook Creator Studio can act as a psuedo-CRM to help keep track of your past conversations with customers, fans and followers.

That said, Studio’s messaging features aren’t quite as powerful as Sprout’s Smart Inbox. For example, Sprout manages relationships between your customers across all social platforms. Beyond that, Sprout centralizes your @mentions and crucial conversations. You’ll never miss out on an opportunity to make an impression on your audience.

Oversee interactions on your Page

Speeding up your social media response time should be a top priority for any brand.

The faster you respond to customers, the more likely you are to delight them and swiftly resolve any issues they might have.

By having all of your Facebook notifications including comments and messages in one place, you can manage concerns in a single inbox.

Boost your Facebook posts

If you’re totally new to Facebook ads, boosting a post via Creator Studio can help you get your feet wet.

In short, you can take a top-performing piece of organic content and transform it into an ad. Creator Studio walks you through the process step-by-step. The platform is generally straightforward versus more complicated ad options and targeting.

Dig into your Facebook analytics and performance

Pop quiz: what are your best Facebook posts? Which type of content earns the most engagement? Are you happy with your Page’s growth rate?

You should be able to answer all of the above with confidence. Thankfully, the analytics baked into Facebook Creator Studio can you find the answers you need. Specifically, Facebook metrics such as engagement rate, reach and interactions should be on your radar.

That said, we still have to give it to Sprout Social when it comes to Facebook analytics. Our platform allows you to get super granular when finding opportunities to grow and optimize your presence.

How can Facebook Creator Studio help you manage your presence?

Creator Studio is a solid starting point if you need a free, all-in-one native tool for growing your Facebook Page.

Because it’s more important than ever for businesses to have a comprehensive understanding of their analytics and activity.

From questions and concerns to content engagement and beyond, anything you can do to get greater insights into your Facebook audience is a plus. Creator Studio can definitely make that happen.

Need more help growing your presence? If you haven’t already, make sure to check out our guide to Facebook best practices to figure out how!

The post Facebook Creator Studio: The digital marketer’s guide appeared first on Sprout Social.