How to Grow Organic Engagement on Facebook [Case Study]
The Need
ShopAtHome, an online shopping solution that connects online shoppers with deals and cash back offers, wanted to improve their organic social media strategy. They wanted to focus on organically increasing brand awareness and audience engagement on Facebook, with the occasional boosted post.
The Strategy
Our strategy was simple
- Review Their Previous Facebook Content Strategy
- Understand the Target Audience and Industry
- Implement Best Practices and Our Research Findings
Review Their Previous Facebook Content Strategy: Focusing on Areas of Improvement
Posting Style
The majority of ShopAtHome’s Facebook content featured brand centric posts like special sales, promotions, and deals. Other content like blog posts were not optimized for the platform and were not promoted to ensure audience reach.
Engagement
While ShopAtHome has a large audience with over 5 million fans, posts were receiving an average of 10 reactions.
Reach
Posts were only organically reaching 0.6% of their followers.
Understanding the Target Audience and Industry
Creating Content for the Target Demo
We took a deep dive into brand focus group findings, competitor audiences, and Facebook follower insights to better understand who the core demographic is on Facebook for ShopAtHome. What type of content and messaging resonates with them the most?
Targeted Ad Audiences
When post content is promoted, we target a tailored audience that is more likely to engage with the promoted post, versus a generic audience.
Example: A Refrigerator Buying Guide post targets homeowners while excluding home renters, as a homeowner is more interested in this type of content. Since ShopAtHome’s audience benefits from online coupons and cash back, we also want to ensure that we always reach people who have a behavior of buying online. Paying to reach people who aren’t interested in the content or the brand won’t increase post engagement!
Implement Best Practices and Our Research Findings
Post Frequency & Timing
Part of our strategy has been to decrease the frequency of posts. When brands post frequently with little engagement, Facebook’s algorithm will less frequently show posts from that brand. By posting more engaging contest less frequently, we’ve seen an increase in ShopAtHome’s organic reach.
Engaging Content
Since Facebook is used primarily for entertainment, learning, and connecting with friends/families, we started developing content that both entertained and encouraged sharing. Users sharing posts with other users increases brand awareness and expands the post’s reach to new audiences.
Brand Relevant Content
Our organic strategy incorporates brand relevant content that is highly relatable to the audience, ties back to ShopAtHome’s brand story, but doesn’t come across as too salesy.
The Results
Increased Engagement
- 150% increase YoY in organic Facebook impressions.
- 9 out of 10 top organic (not boosted) posts with the most engagement between Jan 2015 – Feb 2017 came from posts Volume Nine created between Oct 2016 – Feb 2017. This equates to 15,525 reactions.
Increased Post Reach
- In the last 2 years, not one of SAH’s posts received the same organic reach as each of these 3 posts created by Volume Nine.
- 822,508 users reached between the top 3 posts alone.
Top Three Posts
Post Example
We are still learning about the ShopAtHome audience, what they engage with, and how they interact with the brand. We’re constantly evolving their content so we can continue to drive high reach and engagement levels with this targeted audience.
If you have questions about developing and implementing an effective social media content strategy, reach out to us. We love talking social!
