Youth Opportunities

Facebook Post Analysis

(Associates)

31.1.2012 22.8.2013

Introduction
Analysis is an empirical part of understanding interaction patterns of publics with Youth Opportunities Facebook pages. Breaking down the content and media types of the published posts and cross referencing them the level of engagement will give a clear indication of who, what, where, when and how to post further information in order to have a greater reach, impact and engagement.

Method
The research process began with cataloguing every post made between the periods of 31 January 2012 and nd 22 August 2013. Information including the date of posting, type of engagement exercised, the media included in the post, the category and subcategory of content, the strategy implemented and comments were collection and reconciled to provide data for analysis. Time of Post The days in which post were made. This is important in finding the relationships between the post dates and the days in which users are most responsive to content. The results will give an indication on which days are best to post what information in order to generate a larger reach and higher levels of engagement. Engagement Engagement was divided into likes, comments and shares. This enables further break down of the type of engagement and a clearer perception of the level of interaction and personal association with the brand. The scores given for each type of engagement are as follows. Like Comment Share 1 point 2 points 3 points
st

Likes receive the lowest amount of points due to the little commitment and level of interaction that result from this type of engagement. Comments receive 2 points as it is a form of conversational engagement that requires more thought and effort indicating a higher level of interest in the brand with the potential for further engagement through response. Shares are allocated the highest amount of points due to the personal identification with the brand association as it increases the reach of the initial post. Media Post Types Media post types indicate the combination of media used to communicate the message and entice engagement. The media types included in this Facebook analysis were Text Only Image only Image & Text Video Only Video & Text Hyperlink Facebook Event

This is an important category as it indicates the types of media best interacted with and provides a cross reference with the content category types. The results will indicate the best media to use when publishing a message of a particular nature and what should maximise engagement levels. Post Categories & Subcategories Post categories and subcategories determine the types of messages being posted. The post categories and subcategories Include

Brand Awareness 1. Promotions Heritage Located News Operations Personality Pop Culture Other

CSR Awareness Fundraisers Other

Customer Service Apologies Openings Outages PSA Other

Engagement Assistance Community Likes Photos Polls Questions Appreciation Directional Other

Product Awareness Community Ours Other

Promotional Deal Chance Rebate Other

Seasonal Event Holiday Season Other

For further explanation of each category and subcategory please refer to the Code Manual attached. Each post can contain elements of more than one content category but can only be defined as having one subcategory type. By categorising each post by their content categories its is easily identifiable which kind of content is regularly pushed as opposed to content that is neglected and what content viewers are most likely to engage and respond with. Strategy The strategy of the post is the tactic used to reach the reader and evoke a response. Informational Informational posts deliver the key messages in a purely factual manner and used predominately when important times, dates and instructional information needs to be clear and concise. Transformational Messages that utilise transformational strategy appeal to certain emotions from the recipient of the messages to try and encourage a behaviour or action as a response. These types of post tend to be more descriptive and use emotionally charged language and depictions. Analysis of the strategy will indicate the level of engagement and which type of strategy viewers are more likely to engage with and respond to and what type of messages have the most impact.

Results
Overall Over the time period beginning on 13.1.2012 and ending on 22.8.2013 there were a total 190 posts published, 568 likes made, 74 comments posted and 55 posts shared. The total engagement score for the complete 569 days is 881, giving an average engagement level of 1.55 per day.

Category Seasonal, Engagement and Product Awareness posts were the most commonly posted messages. However the engagement levels for the categories did not mirror this pattern. In terms of engagement levels the highest scoring categories, in order, were Seasonal, Brand Awareness and Customer Service. However the average engagement levels reflected high scores for Customer Service, Brand Awareness and Seasonal. The category that received the lowest levels of posts was Promotional with Engagement posts producing the lowest average level of engagement.

Time The research determines that most posts were made on a Thursday followed by Friday and Tuesday with the least amount of posts being made on a Saturday. However the engagement levels follow a different pattern with engagement peaking on a Tuesday followed by Monday which experiences almost half the engagement levels of the following day.

Media Types Posts containing messages relating to Brand Awareness experienced higher levels of engagement when only text was used to promote the organisation followed closely by a combination of text and image which was utilised most frequently. CSR, Customer Service, Product Awareness, Promotional and Seasonal related posts all experienced the highest average engagement levels when communicated through a combination of image and text. Overall text and image combinations received the highest levels of engagement followed by text only and then hyperlinks. There were no posts containing only videos and therefore the engagement levels cannot be considered.

Strategy Transformational posts were heavily outnumbered by informational posts yet returned higher engagement than informational posts.

Brand Awareness, Customer Service and Seasonal category types, although posting more messages using an informational strategy actually received much higher average engagement levels through transformational messages. Seasonal posts used the most informational and transformational strategic posts with Brand Awareness being the second highest in informational posts and Engagement in transformational posts.

Analysis
Seasonal messages are most frequent due to the nature of the organisation and its functions. Promoting its events and school term cycle justifies why these types of posts would be most relevant and reflect the highest engagement levels. Engagement receiving the lowest level of engagement is not necessarily indicative of how many people followed through with the invitation to engage with the organisation. Although there may not have been a like, comment or share on the post itself the instruction to visit a site, view an album of photos or click on a link may have occurred and as there were previously no method of tracking the progress of the traffic it produced it is hard to evaluate the actual engagement of this category. Customer Service posts identifies individuals in the form of a special congratulatory mention which generates a sense of pride and achievement associated with the organisation. These feelings tend to manifest into high engagement levels as the associated audience to those mentioned generally use social media channels to promote their own, friends and families achievements to their own cyber audience. Office hours suggest the nature of the time of posts as staff on a normal week are not in the office or rostered to produce social media content over the weekend. It appears that the general reason behind posting late in the week would be the apparent perception that most of the audience are most active on social media over the weekend. However results indicate that Saturday has the lowest levels of engagement and that it isnt until the weekend is coming to an end and the beginning of the new working week that people start engaging more frequently again on Facebook. This is due to the fact that people usually have activities and social outings planned over the weekend and most offices are closed, meaning that they arent sitting in an office or on the couch regularly checking their social media streams for work related purposes and information. A combination of text and images has resulted in the highest levels of engagement in most categories. Having more depth to a post enables the viewer to have a varying choice of how to engage with the post. In a very active news feed images help capture the viewers eye, creating interest and inviting them to read the associated text. As they say, images are worth a thousand words. They have the ability to capture the eye of the reader and almost instantaneously communicate who, what, where, when and how all whilst evoking certain emotions. Facebook events are similar in the extent of engagement as shares. This is because the reader commits to the brand and is willing to identify themselves with the brand, what it stands for and is willing to be associated with it in a public sphere; this is indicated in the overall engagement levels of the media type. Transformational messages tend to produce larger levels of engagement as they produce a deeper feeling than that of informational posts. Informational posts are necessary in getting across important facts that need to be communicated however transformational messages create feelings that will outlast the timeliness of factual content and helps build a longer lasting relationship with the public. Seasonal content communicated through transformational messaging is most effective as the content usually revolves around a particular event that the audience has an emotional involvement in. Excitement and interest around an opportunity, holiday or special occasion generate more interest and involvement than simple facts stated about a brand, operation or product. The bulk of product awareness has been directed towards other brands that are associated or sponsor Youth Opportunities. Being the Associates Facebook page this is very relevant in acknowledging and showing appreciation for other brands involved in the operation, providing them with the opportunity to extend their

messages to a larger audience. If there is a good relationship these brands will return the favour as they have a corporate interest in promoting their good will to their publics in order to build better relationships and community presence, benefitting both parties.

Recommendations
In order to increase engagement and make the most out of the exposure, social media posts have to be relevant, news worthy, have an element of timeliness and be appealing to those within the proximity of the content. It is important to have an understanding of how you want the audience to react to the post and there must be a purpose to the content creation. By establishing the intent of the post it can be determined the best time in which to post it to reach the specific audience and through which means of media and informational strategy. As general rule of thumb, posts have to firstly grab the audiences attention, have value adding content and finally a call to action for the viewer to respond and interact with the post. For future events and information relating to the near future Tuesday is the best day to post and release the information. As the results have indicated it should receive maximum levels of engagement. The higher level of engagement will mean that the message will be passed through to non-organic publics, giving it a larger reach and build a larger audience. This day of the week also allows any associated publics to respond offline to the post and implement and organise any private communication and deals prior to the weekend/event. Customer Service in the form of acknowledgement of achievements should continue to be used in combination with Brand Awareness content as they involve individuals or organisations from the varying publics and give exposure to their achievements and success in the operations of Youth Opportunities. It is also important to have a consistent voice, tone and face to the organisation that can be used to build the branding element online. Personality rarely frequented as a sub-category in the post content but using staff members and familiar faces associated with the organisation and internal staff operations/events will help add personality and humanise the perception of the brand. For an effective message, Seasonal posts should be integrated with Customer Service content and communicated through transformational means using images and text. This content construction can be utilised around graduation, special events and holiday seasons. Not only will the combination evoke positive emotions and higher engagement levels but it will also indirectly communicate factual information about the operations of the organisation, their role in the students development and the involvement in the community. To boost engagement levels of event media types, they should be used in conjunction with other post elements such as transformational images of a seasonal nature and compliment text. Images should inspire an emotional response and be visually interesting yet relevant to the associated message. Hyperlinks should be tracked using third party web applications for further evaluation of success as this will produce an indication on how they should be used, what traffic is directed where and how they should be used in conjunction with what strategic tactics. Not all posts should be focused on operations and key messages but appeal to the general interests of the target audience and inspire online conversation and on-going interaction with the brand. As seen on the Graduates Facebook page, comical and interesting information further enhance the relationship and interest in the organisation that goes above and beyond the operational relationship. Content that appeals to the audience but is not a direct selling or brand related post has shown to retain readers interaction and maintain overall engagement levels as the page becomes not only a source of information and community but entertainment as well.