24 Ways to Test. Your Instagram, Twitter, & Facebook Content

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Robyn Newton
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1 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Twitter, & Facebook Content

INTRODUCTION Testing isn t just an essential part of what we do as social marketers, it s an essential part of what we do as humans. Testing leads to failure, and failure leads to understanding.

2 INTRODUCTION Testing isn t just an essential part of what we do as social marketers, it s an essential part of what we do as humans. Testing leads to failure, and failure leads to understanding. - Burt Rutan Failure is success if we learn from it. - Malcolm Forbes I have not failed. I ve just found 10,000 ways that won t work. - Thomas A. Edison The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. - Henry Ford As social marketers, testing is critical for our success and the success of our programs. If we don t test, we don t know what s working, what isn t working, and what could work better. In this guide, we ll walk through some of our favorite tests on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. From testing the ideal time to post, to testing different video tactics on Facebook, we ll share some tests that we run at Simply Measured, and how you can run these same types of tests on your own. Let s get started! 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 2

3 INSTAGRAM TESTS We constantly recommend testing your social content, but which attributes should you be testing against each other on Instagram? In this section, we ll compare several types of Instagram tests you can run on your own channel. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 3

4 1. LINK IN BIO VS. NO LINK IN BIO Are you struggling to find a way to convert to get your Instagram followers to your website? Whether you sell sweaters or B2B software, this is likely a relevant concern for your brand. Here s one way to test how well Instagram is working as a website traffic driver for your brand. For one week, post a different picture or video each day which directs followers to your Instagram bio, where you include the same Bitly link to a specific landing page for the entire week. The following week, make the link in your Instagram bio a generic link to your brand s main page. Note the difference in traffic to the landing page from the first week to the second week, and use this as a starting baseline for growing your traffic from Instagram to your site. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 4

5 2. TAGS VS. NEW FOLLOWERS Instagram is a great place to encourage user-generated content, whether by contests, compelling content, or a mix of both. A lot of brands ask followers to double tap (Like) and tag their friends for a chance to win a prize. This is a great way to gain brand awareness and, subsequently, followers but only if it is tested well to make sure it s effective. Here s what you should do to see if the the people being tagged in your comments actually become new followers: First, make a list of all Instagram users tagged in your comments. Next, wait two weeks (you don t only want to see how many new followers you ve gained you want to see how many you ve retained) and then take a look at your follower growth over that time period, from the start of your contest on. More specifically, dig into the data and come up with a list of all the Instagram handles of your new followers. Compare this list with the list of folks tagged in the Comments sections of your contest posts. Come up with a ratio of people tagged: new followers. This will help you set a baseline for future benchmarking. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 5

The next week, post a picture or video that doesn t include or even reference your product at all once daily at exactly the same time of day.

6 3. PRODUCT VS. NO PRODUCT Every brand active on Instagram should think about a test comparing posts which feature products and posts which don t. This is a test you can run over the course of two weeks. One week, post a picture or video of your product once daily. The next week, post a picture or video that doesn t include or even reference your product at all once daily at exactly the same time of day. Then, run a report to find out which week generated the most engagement, follower growth, engagement as a percent of audience, and/or other metrics you re interested in. Pay particular attention to the highest performing posts in both the product and non-product categories. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 6

7 4. ONE PRODUCT VS. ANOTHER Another useful way to test product posts is by comparing one product against another product. This is a test you can run over the course of weeks, months, or any other length of time which fits appropriately into a campaign cycle. During one time period, focus solely on one product. The next time period, post picture and videos that include the other product. Complete this for as many products as you wish to include in the test. In your final chosen time period, post a medley of product pictures from each of the previous time periods. Lastly, run a report to find out which week generated the most engagement, follower growth, engagement as a percent of audience, and/or other metrics you re interested in. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 7

But are you missing a sweet spot for engagement on Instagram by not posting at the right times?

This test can be run over the course of one week, but it will require a lot of content.

8 5. THIS DAY VS. THAT DAY You probably get the most Instagram engagement on the dates and times when you post hte most content. But are you missing a sweet spot for engagement on Instagram by not posting at the right times? The only way to find out is to test. This test can be run over the course of one week, but it will require a lot of content. Post a photo or video once an hour, every hour, from 9AM-9PM, every day, for a week. By finding the repeating spikes in engagement over time, you ll be able to understand when your followers are most likely to engage with you and when they re not paying attention. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 8

9 6. THIS TAKEOVER VS. THAT TAKEOVER This test is especially useful for brands who are trying to leverage influencers on Instagram. If your brand does takeovers, where an influencer takes over your account for a day or week, then you should be testing your takeovers against one another. This will show you which kinds of influencers are most relevant to your Instagram audience. Here s what we recommend: Conduct a period-over-period analysis of the two weeks that two different influencers took over your Instagram account. Look for strengths and weaknesses in both takeovers, and keep this in mind for future campaigns. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 9

FACEBOOK TESTS Facebook is the largest social network in the world. By far. With over 1.44 billion users worldwide, nearly one million of whom log in each day, Facebook has an unprecedented audience.

But as great as this Facebook opportunity is, it doesn t come without it s challenges and competition.

10 FACEBOOK TESTS Facebook is the largest social network in the world. By far. With over 1.44 billion users worldwide, nearly one million of whom log in each day, Facebook has an unprecedented audience. For brands, this means a huge opportunity to get in front of pretty much any audience they want to target. But as great as this Facebook opportunity is, it doesn t come without it s challenges and competition. 96% of the top companies in the world are active on Facebook, with a staggering 94% posting content on a monthly basis. The number of brands you have to compete with on Facebook is almost as staggering as the opportunity. So what kind of tests can you run if you don t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on advertising? 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 10

11 7. TEST THE NEW CARD FEATURE In 2015, Facebook announced a brand new feature geared towards making the notification process easier. The notification feature within the Facebook app will feature cards that alert you to the same comments, mentions, and Likes that you re used to, but also reminders and updates based on pages you ve liked. This is big news for companies with a physical business. Restaurants, theaters and shops can now optimize for locationbased notifications. To make sure you re set up for success, be sure to fine tune your About info to include exact location and business type. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 11

According to a talk by Apryl Pilolli from Cox Media Group at our=lift(social,2015) conference, of the 4 billion videos served

12 8. AUDIO VS. NO AUDIO If you re on your laptop with the sound turned on, you may notice much quicker that many videos have no audio. According to a talk by Apryl Pilolli from Cox Media Group at our=lift(social,2015) conference, of the 4 billion videos served each day, 75% of views are on mobile. I don t know about you, but I generally watch videos when I m in boring meetings, which means no sound. Assume the same is true for your entire audience. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 12

13 9. TRY AN EVENT Why should you host a FB event? Maybe your brand doesn t even have a physical storefront, so you re not sure how an event would benefit your brand. The answer is much more simple than you d think: Events give you the ability to send push notifications. Even if you re not hosting a party, you can easily plan a time-constrained promotion, give away, or webinar with a special offer for anyone who signs up for your event. Once they opt in, you re able to remind them of your event. Just don t spam them with 8,000 messages once they sign up because well, you should know better. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 13

14 10. TRY CTAS Facebook offers Pages the ability to add a custom CTA. If you re having trouble generating business from Facebook, this could be worth a shot. Whether you re trying to get users to sign up for your newsletter or shop on your website, this is an added opportunity to engage your fans. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 14

15 11. OFFER VS. NO OFFER Facebook gives you the ability to make offers to your fans, and it often goes unnoticed. Whether you offer 25% off or an exclusive product they can t find anywhere else, this will give you prime real estate in their feed, because offers come coupled with any picture you choose, and a CTA button to get that offer. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 15

16 12. TEST REMARKETING CAMPAIGNS We all know that social marketing is increasingly a pay-to-play space. Facebook is no exception, but the remarketing ads on Facebook are among the most sophisticated out there. Ever take a look at a pair of shoes, and then those shoes show up in your Facebook feed 20 times that day? That s remarketing. Talk to your Facebook ad rep, because if you have the budget, these ads can provide a ton of value. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 16

13. THIS AMOUNT OF MONEY VS. THAT AMOUNT OF MONEY Facebook Insights make it very clear how your video views relate to the amount of paid spend you put behind that video But what about people reached?

17 13. THIS AMOUNT OF MONEY VS. THAT AMOUNT OF MONEY Facebook Insights make it very clear how your video views relate to the amount of paid spend you put behind that video But what about people reached? How is this number related to your ad spend? Test the same video one week with your maximum ad spend, and the next week with no ad spend. In the third week, split the difference. This will give you a solid foundation for understanding the ideal relationship between your ad spend and the number of people your videos reach. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 17

18 14. THIS PERSON VS. THAT PERSON S VOICE Test whether content featuring an actor or employee on-screen performs better than does a voiceover on top of animated content or slides: This will tell you how to best craft video content suitable for your audience moving forward. A great way to boost reach (especially among people who aren t aware of or engaged with your brand yet) is to get Facebook followers to organically share your videos because they think they re important, informative, or funny enough to recommend which means tweaking your video content to suit your Facebook audience s tastes is absolutely crucial to your Facebook video strategy. Something to note here: our voiceover videos have done better than videos with people in them, but our social media manager theorizes that this is a combination of the voiceover having more appeal and news content doing better for our brand than case studies, because they are more timely and relevant. This means we re going to have to test again, broadcasting newsy content but with a human face, to determine if her theory is true. This is a great lesson: sometimes you ll have to test several times to make sure you re drawing the right conclusion from the data. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 18

15. TAGGING PEOPLE VS. NOT TAGGING PEOPLE Run a test to discover whether your reach improves by tagging people in the caption on your video post or not.

19 15. TAGGING PEOPLE VS. NOT TAGGING PEOPLE Run a test to discover whether your reach improves by tagging people in the caption on your video post or not. For instance, this Nike Football post tags Oregon s football team. What kind of difference did this tag make in this video s reach? Find this out by posting the same video twice on the same day, once with the tag and once without it. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 19

difficult to understand whether your content is being consumed actively or not.

20 16. VIDEO VIEWS VS. VIEWS TO 95% Facebook Insights allows you to see exactly where people stopped viewing your video. Since Facebook autoplays videos in user feeds (albeit without sound) and counts any view over three seconds as a view, it can initially be difficult to understand whether your content is being consumed actively or not. By comparing your overall video views to how many views got through at least 95% of your video, you can come up with a golden ratio you can test all future video content against. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 20

exactly the same except for no mention of exclusive content.

21 17. EXCLUSIVE CONTENT VS. NON-EXCLUSIVE Test a video which you promote as exclusive content, and then post the same video with the caption exactly the same except for no mention of exclusive content. This kind of test can help you understand whether giving Facebook fans an experience they can t have elsewhere is an effective social strategy or not worth missing out on engagement on other social networks. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 21

22 18. THIS TIME VS. THAT TIME Experiment with the time of day at which you post videos. It might be best to release videos at a different time of day than you post photos or normal statuses. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 22

various lengths over the course of your campaign, from videos as short as 16

23 19. THIS LENGTH VS. THAT LENGTH Find out what the ideal video length is for your brand by testing various lengths over the course of your campaign, from videos as short as 16 seconds to videos as long as minutes, like interviews or a day in the life segments. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 23

suspense and giving the answer at the end, through an ongoing, immersive experience,

24 20. THIS SUSPENSE VS. THAT CLARITY What works best for audience retention rate for your brand: building suspense and giving the answer at the end, through an ongoing, immersive experience, or telling em what you re going to tell em at the very beginning, as in a how-to video? 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 24

25 21. SERIOUS VS. NOT-SO-SERIOUS Will your audience hang on for longer if you re publishing lighthearted video content on Facebook or more serious stuff? There s only one way to find out: post two videos, one of each disposition, during one week. The video with the greatest audience retention will show you which way you should shift your Facebook strategy. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 25

26 TWITTER TESTS The best way to understand your Twitter audience and build better content around your brand is to test appropriately. This will help you move forward, and make decisions that turn dayto-day head-scratching scenarios When should I post this? Should I be posting right now? When does this post cease to be relevant? into total no-brainers. Read on to learn about our three favorite tests. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 26

22. THIS MANY TWEETS VS. THAT MANY TWEETS Why: Your cadence can have a big impact on your campaign performance. Too few Tweets can make you seem uncommitted and too many can feel like spam.

You can use the Simply Measured Account Report or Google Analytics to get this data, export it into Excel, and compare the weeks side by side.

27 22. THIS MANY TWEETS VS. THAT MANY TWEETS Why: Your cadence can have a big impact on your campaign performance. Too few Tweets can make you seem uncommitted and too many can feel like spam. So, how many Tweets is just right? Try this: Tweet for one week in 15-minute increments and another week in 30-minute increments. After running this test, examine all the data from each week. You can use the Simply Measured Account Report or Google Analytics to get this data, export it into Excel, and compare the weeks side by side. Make sure your sample set excludes variables like business hours, holidays, and other times your brand does not tweet. For example, if you only tweet in 15 or 30-minute intervals between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. PST, but you re reporting on a full 24 hours, you may find that your data is skewed after the end of the business day. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 27

28 23. THIS TIME VS. THAT TIME Tweeting in 15-minute intervals, everyday, between the hours of 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. would produce 64 Tweets per day. Producing such a large number of Tweets can require a lot of effort and may or may not work for driving traffic to your website. That s why it s important to prioritize times and days to Tweet rather than trying to cover each hour of the day evenly. The key metric to test for site traffic is click-through data from Twitter to your brand website. Try this: Identify how many Tweets were sent each hour. This can be done manually or by using a Simply Measured Twitter account report, but the end result you re aiming for is a bucket of Tweets for each hour of the day. When gathering your data, make sure your sample size is significant enough that it can capture the full scope of your efforts on Twitter. From there, bucket your website traffic from Twitter based on those hourly segments, and come out the other side completely insightful. How can YOU do this analysis? Check out our Building A Better Twitter Calendar guide here for a full step-by-step breakdown. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 28

29 2. THE RATE OF DECAY Why: The words engagement rate of decay may sound frightening, but it s really fertile testing ground. How many times can a piece of content be sent to the same audience without fatiguing them (and, even worse, making them click the Unfollow button)? Try this: Patrick Ruffini, the founder of Engage, a digital agency in Washington, DC, conducted an experiment where he tweeted the same call to action 10 weekdays in a row, at the exact same time. How did this affect engagement? Did engagement die down after the first Tweet, or did engagement increase as exposure increased? Here s the Tweet that Ruffini shared, every weekday for 10 days at 3:36 PM: What did he find? He charted signups to the lead gen card here: Ruffini found that submissions dropped off significantly after the first Tweet, but didn t die out completely. The first Tweet generated a 72% conversion, meaning the number of people who saw the Tweet and took action. The average across all 10 Tweets was 58%. As Ruffini put it, Even if you limited the repetition to five Tweets, 65% of the exposure would have come from Tweets 2-5. Ruffini s experiment provides a good example for the types of tests a brand marketer or community manager could use to test Tweet repetition. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 29

which tactics are most successful with your specific audience.

30 HOW DO YOU TEST? If you aren t testing your social media programs, you re missing a huge opportunity to grow. Whether it s one of these tests or something completely different, make sure you re doing what you can to learn which tactics are most successful with your specific audience. Testing regularly and challenging assumptions is the key to developing better, more effective content. 24 Ways to Test Your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Content 30

ABOUT SIMPLY MEASURED Simply Measured is a fast-growing team of data geeks dedicated to making the world of analytics and reporting a better, more beautiful place. Find out more at simplymeasured.

Our software streamlines the process from data to deliverables and eliminates the countless hours spent on everyday reporting tasks.

31 ABOUT SIMPLY MEASURED Simply Measured is a fast-growing team of data geeks dedicated to making the world of analytics and reporting a better, more beautiful place. Find out more at simplymeasured.com Our goal is to put the tools to understand business data in the hands of business users. We think reporting should be simple, attractive, and accessible for everyone not just data scientists. Our software streamlines the process from data to deliverables and eliminates the countless hours spent on everyday reporting tasks. We do this by putting cloud data sources at your fingertips, providing a marketplace of best practice reports, and allowing you to generate beautiful solutions on the web, in Excel, and in PowerPoint with a couple of clicks. Want to try Simply Measured? Request a Free Trial Today Copyright Simply Measured, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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