Whether you're a small or large business, B2C or B2B, Facebook is likely to play a significant role in your social media marketing strategy in 2017. The platform now has more than 1.79 billion users, with close to 1.2 billion of them logging in daily. Compare that to the next biggest social network of the moment, Instagram - they're seeing 600 million monthly active users, with 300 million per day.
It's impossible to ignore Facebook's presence and influence, an element that's come under more intense scrutiny of late amid discussion of the platform's role in spreading fake and misleading content. And while Zuckerberg's Social Network continues to evolve and play a bigger part in more aspects of our daily interactions, marketers, in turn, are constantly trying to work out how to best use it, how to maximize their reach and performance to get the most out of that huge scale.
So what's working on Facebook right now? What types of content and posting strategies are performing best? BuzzSumo recently analyzed more than 800 million Facebook posts from 2016 to determine the key elements that are driving more shares, Likes and comments. They also teamed with Facebook marketing expert Mari Smith to run a presentation on their findings - you can read the full details and Smith's recommendations based on the data here. In addition, BuzzSumo have co-ordinated their results into a new infographic, which is a must-read for Facebook marketers.
And while you shouldn't necessarily take general findings as gospel - it's far more important to establish what works best within your community and with your unique audience - data-based insights like this are a great starting point and can help open your eyes to new elements and considerations you may not have otherwise factored in.