Facebook

Founded in 2004, Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world and to share and express what matters to them.

Quick Links

Statistics
Setting Up A Page
Maintenance Tips
Posting
Interacting
Success Metrics
Sources

Statistics

1.28 billion monthly active users as of March 2014
1.01 billion mobile monthly active users as of March 2014
84% of 18-29 year olds in the U.S. have a Facebook account
23% of users login at least five times a day
78% of U.S. users access via mobile at least once a month
Users share 2.5 billion pieces of content each day
47% of Americans say Facebook is their #1 influencer of purchases/decisions
Users in the U.S. spend an average of 16 minutes per hour
Owns Instagram and WhatsApp

Setting Up A Page

Once you have determined that Facebook is the best platform to help you reach your goals, follow the steps below to launch your page.

Set up your Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. Pages are different than Groups and Profiles on Facebook. Pages are designed for brands to connect with customers and communities and must be attached to a profile, also known as one of the page’s administrators.
Choose your category: Company, Organization or Institution à University
Choose your name. Whenever possible, Rowan University or Rowan should be listed prior to the college, department or program to help build a consistent awareness of all units and broader search relevancy. “RU” should not be used unless the expanded versions cannot accommodate character limits.
Choose your username. This will become your page’s Facebook URL.
Fill out the About section. This should briefly describe your department, program or initiative and how it is unique to Rowan University. It should be short to ensure it is completely visible from the main page.
Add a disclaimer to your About section or Long Description section.
Select graphics. Profile photos must be at least 180x180 pixels. Use one of our customizable icons, or if you would like to create your own you must first submit it to University Web Services for approval. Your cover photo should be at least 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels high. We recommend you use this space to showcase campus beauty or something unique about your department, program or initiative. Do not use text in this area.

Maintenance Tips

Having been around for over 10 years, Facebook is ahead of the proverbial social media game. Unlike other networks that are real-time and rank all content the same, Facebook employs an algorithm unique to each user that determines what will and will not be shown in the news feed. This algorithm, called EdgeRank, has evolved over the years to incorporate many different elements, all of which encourage brands to make their posts as engaging as possible. Facebook factors in many different indicators into EdgeRank, however the following can be considered very powerful determinants:

(Source: http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/03/the-filtered-feed-problem/)

Posting

Studies show that users rarely visit a page’s timeline to view content – they would rather engage with a brand by seeing content in their news feeds. Because of this, posting should be considered your primary source of communication on Facebook, as it is a critical generator of engagement.

Follow the best practices below to get the most out of your updates. You can also visit Facebook’s list of Posting Best Practices here.

Post at least once per day and no more than two times per day.
- If you post multiple times per day, space posts at least four hours apart.
- Exceptions can be made for posting limits during heavy-traffic periods such as sporting events, homecoming and commencement.
Post outside of normal business hours using Facebook Scheduler.
- Studies show that Friday is the day of the week with the highest overall post engagement.
- 57% of customers think that a brand’s customer service response time should be the same on the weekdays and weekends.
Ask questions and create unique calls-to-action that will solicit feedback and answers from fans.
- Do not directly ask fans to like, comment or share on your post, as Facebook views this as “gaming” the news feed and is less likely to serve up your post to fans.
Keep it short and concise.
- Research shows that posts containing less than 75 characters can get up to 25% more engagement.
- Avoid text-heavy posts and use links whenever possible so fans can get additional information.
Include media or a combination of different types of media with every post.
- Photos are the most widely used content type on Facebook, and they produce the most engagement.
- According to EdgeRank, photos and videos perform best, followed by links then plain status updates.
- Optimize your graphics for your page and the news feed by using the dimensions found here.
Keep hashtags to a minimum and only use as part of an overarching campaign.
- Early research shows that hashtags on Facebook have a negative impact on engagement.

Interacting

Social media encourages two-way conversation, so it’s important to converse with your community and use your Facebook page as an extension of your customer service experience. It’s an opportunity for advocates to communicate with you and with each other.

Follow the best practices below to get the most out of your updates. You can also visit Facebook’s Post by Others for recommendations.

Monitor page at least twice per day for new posts, comments and private messages.
- New notifications can be found in the Admin Panel.
Handle all inquiries within a 24-hour time period.
- 72% of customers said that they expect a response from a brand within an hour if they have a question or complaint.
- 32% of customers said that they expect a response from a brand within 30 minutes.
Acknowledge all inquiries.
- Whether it is a “like” or an inquiry that needs a specific response, show fans that you are listening to their feedback.
- Rather than directing users to a different department, do the legwork and link to more information.
Cross-promote with other Rowan University Facebook pages.
- Gain insight into what strategies they use and what types of posts are most successful.
- If something noteworthy occurs, share it with fans by tagging the page who originally posted it, writing a personal message, and adding a link to the content.

Success Metrics

Facebook uses a very comprehensive analytics platform called Insights. You can use this to understand how people are engaging with your page over the past seven days. More specifically, you can see metrics about the performance of the page, learn which posts resonate with your audience and optimize how you publish to reach and engage with more people. The numbers found in Facebook Insights go back to July 19, 2011 and can be exported by customized dates and page- and post-level data into spreadsheets.

We recommend measuring the numbers below at least once per month to determine the success of your page. University Web Services may ask you for a comprehensive report at any time.

Page Likes

Simply, this is the total number of unique people who like your page over time. In the Insights panel, choose Likes. This breaks down your total page likes, the change in your page likes over time and from where your page likes came.

Page Engagement

The number of fans you have isn’t as important as how those people engage with your page. Arguably the most important metric, engagement reflects the number of unique people who engaged with your page. Engagement includes people who have clicked on, liked, commented on or shared your posts. In other words, it includes anything that creates a story in the news feed.

Post Engagement

Delve into the Posts tab to see the messaging and content types that reach the most people and receive the most engagement. This tab also shows optimal times to reach and engage your audience.

Reach

This is the number of unique people who have seen any content associated with your page (including any ads). Insights provides the number of people to which your post was served, the actions taken to help you reach more people, any actions that decreased the number of people you could reach and the total number of people who were served any activity from your page, including posts, posts by other people, page like ads, mentions and check-ins.

People

Navigate to the People tab to see important demographics about your fans and verify you’re reaching the right people. You can also see the demographics of the people who engage with your page most.

Site Traffic

How many fans go to your site from Facebook.

Conversions

How many fans complete a specified action on your site (i.e. applying, signing up).