The Effect of Post Type, Category and Posting Day on User Interaction Level on Facebook

Abstract

Social networks are becoming an additional marketing channel that could be integrated with the traditional ones as a part of the marketing mix. However, traditional advertising techniques are not applicable for the social media platforms, resulting in companies experimenting with many different approaches, thus shaping a successful social media strategies based on their own experiences. To gain a more general understanding, our study analyzes the effects of moderator post characteristics, such as post type, category and posting day, on the user interaction in terms of number of comments and likes, as well as interaction duration. We present the results obtained from 14 Face book brand pages. Our results show that there is a significant effect of the post type and category on number of likes and comments as well as on interaction duration. Based on these results, we could show clear evidence of moderator posts increasing fan activity. We discuss the implications of our findings for social media marketing.

Full text

The Effect of Post Type, Category and Posting Day
on User Interaction Level on Facebook
Irena Pletikosa Cvijikj, Erica Dubach Spiegler, Florian Michahelles
Information Management
ETH Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland
{ipletikosa, edubach, fmichahelles}@ethz.ch
Abstract— Social networks are becoming an additional marketing
channel that could be integrated with the traditional ones as a
part of the marketing mix. However, traditional advertising
techniques are not applicable for the social media platforms,
resulting in companies experimenting with many different
approaches, thus shaping a successful social media strategies
based on their own experiences. To gain a more general
understanding, our study analyses the effects of moderator post
characteristics, such as post type, category and posting day, on
the user interaction in terms of number of comments and likes, as
well as interaction duration. We present the results obtained
from 14 Facebook brand pages. Our results show that there is a
significant effect of the post type and category on number of likes
and comments as well as on interaction duration. Based on these
results, we could show clear evidence of moderator posts
increasing fan activity. We discuss the implications of our
findings for social media marketing.
Keywords-social media marketing; social networks; Facebook
I. INTRODUCTION
Marketing has recently undergone significant changes in
the way information is delivered to the customers [1]. Social
networks as a part of Web 2.0 technology provide the
technological platform for individuals to connect, produce and
share content online. As such, they offer the potential for (1)
advertising - by facilitating viral marketing, (2) product
development - by involving consumers in the design process
and (3) market intelligence - by observing and analyzing the
user generated data [2].
Social media marketing is the intentional influencing of
consumer-to-consumer communications through professional
marketing techniques. The advantage of social media as an
additional marketing channel is that it can be used to
communicate globally and to enrich communication toward
consumers at the personal level [1]. Companies, across all
industries, are starting to understand the possibilities of social
media marketing. Many brand pages have already been created
in social network sites like Facebook. However, how these
pages are being used, what their potentials are and how
consumers interact remains largely unknown [2].
The goal of our paper is to evaluate the effect of the three
main characteristics of moderator posts on the user interaction
level on a sponsored Facebook brand page: (1) post type, (2)
post category and (3) weekday of the posting. We focus on the
moderator posts since they represent the “company’s voice”
and are clearly distinguished from posts shared by page fans
through the name of the “poster” which corresponds to the
page/company name. We measure the user interaction level
through (1) the number of comments on individual post, (2)
number of likes and (3) interaction duration. The questions we
try to answer are:
x RQ1: Do different types of moderator posts cause
different levels of user interaction?
x RQ2: Do different categories of moderator posts cause
different levels of user interaction?
x RQ3: Do different posting weekdays cause different
levels of user interaction?
In our previous work we have investigated the effect of the
moderator posts on a single brand page [14]. Through this
paper we want to provide the possibility for generalization of
the previously obtained results by answering the same
questions over a larger dataset.
II. RELATED WORK
A social network (SN) is an online service that allows an
individual to create a public profile, connect to other users and
access and explore personal and other users’ lists of
connections [4]. At the moment, Facebook is the largest SN
with more than 500 million active users [5] and the second
most visited web page [6].
SNs have a mediating effect between individuals and
society in the virtual world [15]. They represent a natural
technological platform for marketing since they provide access
to a large number of users, grouped in communities, based on a
structured set of social relationships among admirers of a
brand, i.e. a brand community [8]. According to Harris and Rae
[9], SNs may play a key role in the future of marketing; they
may increase customers’ engagement and help to transform the
traditional focus on control with a collaborative approach more
suitable for the modern business environment. However,
traditional advertising techniques are not applicable for the
social network platforms, resulting in companies
experimenting with many different approaches, thus shaping a
2011 IEEE International Conference on Privacy, Security, Risk, and Trust, and IEEE International Conference on Social Computing
978-0-7695-4578-3/11 $26.00 © 2011 IEEE
DOI
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successful social media strategy based on their own
experiences [10].
Previous studies in the field have tried to identify the most
influential target group [11] or explain the user relation to the
social media [12]. Others have addressed the challenges of
social marketing such as aggressive advertisements, lack of e-
commerce abilities, invasion of user privacy and legal pitfalls
[13]. In addition, companies should avoid over-
commercialization of marketing on SNs and favor transparency
instead of trying to fully control their image [9]. A company’s
inappropriate approach to these challenges could lead to a
reduction in the number of fans and expose the company to the
risk of destroying its own credibility.
Based on exploratory findings and practical examples,
scholars have attempted to generate guidelines for successful
social marketing. Li [11] recommends that companies need to
build an engagement plan before diving into social marketing
in order to appropriately approach the frequent users who are
most likely to virally spread their enthusiasm for a new product
or service. He suggests (1) focusing on having a conversation,
(2) developing a close relationship with the brand through
“friending” with the social marketing pages, and (3) finding out
what interactions, content, and features will keep users coming
back. Still, in the domain of Facebook as a platform for social
media marketing there are still many open questions on how
different companies could fit in with and adhere to the
unwritten rules of engagement with the SN communities [2].
Our study analyses the effects caused by the posts shared
by the page moderator on a sponsored Facebook brand page in
terms of user interactions, such as number of comments and
likes, and interaction duration, in order to identify the
implications for social media marketing.
III. THE METHOD
A. Data Collection and Dataset Characteristics
Collection of the data for this study was performed using
the Facebook Graph API1 providing access to the Facebook
social graph via a uniform representation of the Facebook
social graph. For purpose of this study we have used the Feed
connection of the Page object. A Feed connection represents a
list of all Post objects containing the following information
relevant for our study: (1) the message, (2) the post type, (3)
number of likes, (4) number of comments, (5) creation time
and (6) time of last interaction.
The gathered data consists of posts from 14 sponsored
brand pages. Table I illustrates the high-level characteristics of
the selected pages. The data collection was performed on a
daily basis over the course of four months, from February,
2011 to June, 2011. This has resulted in 1494 posts. The
criteria applied to selecting the set of brand pages consisted of
(1) sponsored brand pages, and (2) consumer goods pages.
Pages were selected using the Fan Page List2 web page which
ranks the Facebook pages.
1 http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/api/
2 http://fanpagelist.com/category/products/
TABLE I. CHARACTERISTICS OF SELECTED FACEBOOK PAGES
Brand
Fans Posts
Number a Growth b
(%) Number b Average
(per day)
Coca-Cola 28966208 31% 50 0.42
Disney 24702363 49% 71 0.59
Dr Pepper 9409769 22% 265 2.21
Kmart 425625 32% 210 1.75
M-Budget 25344 2% 6 0.05
Monster Energy 10921349 32% 258 2.15
Nutella 10351315 38% 15 0.13
Oreo 20405952 23% 59 0.49
Pringles 14245112 60% 20 0.17
RedBull 19637223 31% 96 0.80
Starbucks 22608089 16% 74 0.62
Target 4597023 13% 67 0.56
Walgreens 1070345 26% 111 0.93
WalMart 6212914 107% 192 1.60
TOTAL: 1494 12.45
a. Obtained on June 1st, 2011
b. For the selected period from February 1st to June 1st 2011
B. Post Categories Assignment
For this study we have used the same categories as
described in [14]. Category assignment was done manually by
a single reviewer, in order to remove the bias of different
interpretation of the post content. To confirm the validity of the
assigned categories and avoid the subjectivity bias, the results
were discussed with two additional reviewers.
C. Used Variables
Table II explains all of the used independent (IV) and
dependent variables (DV) and all of their possible values. The
independent variables used for this study are: (1) the post type,
(2) the post category, and (3) the weekday of posting.
Facebook differentiates between the following post types: (1)
status, i.e. text only, (2) photo, containing uploaded photo, (3)
link, representing a link to external URL, and (4) video,
containing uploaded video. The number of likes (NL) and
comments (NC) refer to the total number, regardless of who the
commenter/liker was. Since these values are not absolute
measures, but are related to the number of page fans (NF) at the
moment of posting (TC), we have used the likes ratio (LR) and
comments ratio (CR) as a more accurate measure of
interaction. Thus, the calculation of the depended variables was
performed using the following formulas:
LR = FL NN , 
CR = FC NN , and
,D = TLI - TC.
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TABLE II. DEPENDENT AND INDEPENDENT VARIABLES
Name Description Values Type Source
PT Post type status, photo, video, link IV Graph API
DOW Posting day Monday, …, Sunday IV Graph API
PC Post category See Chapter III.B IV ok.- page
LR Likes ratio Numerical DV Graph API
CR Comments
ratio Numerical DV Graph API
ID Interaction
duration Numerical DV Graph API
D. Data Analysis
In order to answer our research questions, we have
analyzed the effects of each of our independent variables on
each of the dependent variables based on statistical testing. We
used the Kruskal–Wallis non-parametric test for one-way
analysis of variance since the normality tests on both datasets
resulted in negative outcome (CI = 95%, p < 0.0001).
Furthermore, for the post-hoc analysis we have applied the
Mann-Whitney test. Finally, the effect size was calculated
using the pair-wise comparison based on the Pearson’s
correlation coefficient.
IV. RESULTS
A. Post Type
In the observed dataset all post types were present: status
(399, 27%), photo (359, 24%), link (520, 35%) and video (216,
14%). Statistical analysis has shown that there is a significant
effect of post type on all three dependent variables, the likes
ratio (H(3) = 389.66, p < 0.0001), the comments ratio (H(3) =
480.64, p < 0.0001) and the interaction duration (H(3) =
117.21, p < 0.0001). The results from the post-hoc analysis
presented in Table III have identified the sources of the
differences as well as the size of the effect.
B. Post Category
The most common post categories in the observed dataset
are Information (IN=674, 45%) and Designed Question
(DQ=399, 27%). These are followed by Statements (ST=176,
12%), Advertisements (AD=168, 11%) and Competitions
(CO=71, 5%). The least used post categories are
Questionnaires with only two occurrences (QU=2, 0%) and
Announcements with four occurrences (AN=4, 0%).
TABLE III. RESULTS OF THE POST TYPE POST-HOC ANALYSISA
LR CR ID
Z r Z r Z r
Status Photo -5.08 0.18*** -6.53 0.24*** -5.23 0.19***
Status Link -13.77 0.45*** -17.82 0.59*** -5.65 0.18***
Status Video -8.89 0.36*** -15.43 0.62*** - -
Photo Link -17.02 0.57*** -13.11 0.44*** -10.34 0.35***
Photo Video -11.77 0.49*** -12.61 0.53*** -4.64 0.19***
Link Video -2.99 0.11* -3.42 0.13* -5.10 0.18***
a. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.005, *** p < 0.0001
Similar to the post type, the statistical analysis has revealed
that significant effect of post category exists over all three
variables, the likes ratio (H(6) = 218.59, p < 0.0001), the
comments ratio (H(6) = 355.90, p > 0.0001) and the interaction
duration (H(6) = 25.13, p < 0.0001). The post-hoc analysis
presented in Table IV reveals the sources of the significant
differences between different post categories.
C. Posting Day
Our dataset shows relatively uniform distribution of
moderator posts over different days of the week. Fridays (260,
17%) and Wednesdays (256, 17%) are the top two days for
posting. These are followed by Thursdays (232, 15%),
Mondays (228, 15%) and Tuesdays (211, 14%). Saturdays
(146, 10%) and Sundays (161, 10%) show lowest level of
activity from the moderator side.
In this case the statistical analysis showed no significant
effect of the over the likes ratio (H(6) = 5.39, p = 0.495) and
the comments ratio (H(6) = 9.54, p = 0.146). An effect was
found to exist only over the interaction duration (H(6) = 17.06,
p = 0.009). The post-hoc analysis has shown that the difference
exists only between posts shared on Tuesday and Friday (Z = -
2.14, p = 0.033, r = 0.09), and Sunday and, Monday (Z = 3.04,
p = 0.002, r = 0.15), Wednesday (Z = -2.73, p = 0.006, r =
0.13), Thursday (Z = -2.17, p = 0.03, r = 0.10), Friday (Z = -
3.82, p < 0.0001 , r = 0.18) and Saturday (Z = -2.65, p = 0.008,
r = 0.15). The effect size for all pairs is very small.
V. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
In this paper we present the results of the evaluation of the
effect of the post characteristics: type, category and posting day
on the user interaction level in terms of number of comments,
likes and interaction duration. The analysis was performed over
data collected from 14 different Facebook brand pages over the
period of four months. The goal of this study was to confirm
the previous findings from a case study over a single Facebook
brand page [14] in order to provide the possibility for
generalization of the previously obtained results.
TABLE IV. RESULTS OF THE POST CATEGORY POST-HOC ANALYSISA
LR CR ID
Z R Z r Z R
ST DQ -8.76 0.37*** -6.17 0.26** - -
ST IN -11.96 0.41*** -10.91 0.37*** - -
ST CO -9.72 0.62*** -3.34 0.21** - -
DQ IN -4.59 0.14*** -16.62 0.50** -3.66 0.11***
DQ CO -5.65 0.26*** -5.64 0.26*** -2.56 0.12*
DQ AD -5.42 0.23*** -6.29 0.26*** - -
AN IN -1.98 0.07* - - - -
AN CO -2.76 0.32* - - - -
IN CO -3.58 0.13* - -
IN AD -8.17 0.28*** -9.40 0.32*** -3.69 0.13***
CO AD -7.37 0.48*** -2.77 0.18* -2.82 0.18*
a. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.005, *** p < 0.0001
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The results presented in the previous section have shown
that different post characteristics cause different effect on the
level of user interaction on the Facebook page. Post type had
effect on all three interaction measures, the likes ratio (p <
0.0001), the comments ratio (p < 0.0001) and the interaction
duration (p < 0.0001). Status posts caused the greatest number
of comments, while videos caused the most likes. Photos and
links had the least interaction in both cases. Interaction duration
on photos was longest, followed by status, video and link posts.
These results differ compared to the previous findings where
photos were the source of greatest interaction for all three
measures. This difference is partly due to the fact that in our
previous study video posts were not present in the dataset,
resulting in incomplete results.
In case of post category, significant effect was found to
exist on all three variables, the likes ratio (H(6) = 218.59, p <
0.0001), the comments ratio (H(6) = 355.90, p > 0.0001) and
the interaction duration (H(6) = 25.13, p < 0.0001). Posts
containing Information have caused the significantly larger
number of likes compared to other post categories. The least
number of likes occurred for posts related to Competitions.
Posts with a goal of engagement, i.e. Designed Questions have
resulted in significantly larger comments ratio, while
Statements were the last in the categories list. These results
differ from those obtained from the previous study where
Advertisements and Announcements have caused the greatest
level of interaction. This difference relates to the fact that in
our case study we have analyzed an emerging brand, with a
large number of new product launches during the observation
period, while the Facebook pages used for this study are
already established on the market for a long period of time. In
terms of interaction duration, Questioners and Advertisements
have caused the longest interaction, while Announcements had
the shortest interaction duration. This again differs from the
previous results.
Posting day was shown to have again a very small effect. In
addition, the effect was visible only for interaction duration as
opposed to the observed effect over the comments ratio
obtained from the previous study. Since this introduces a
significant difference in the results a final conclusion regarding
the influence of the posting day cannot be drawn.
The results of this study comply with the previous results
on a global level. However, the details presented in the post-
hoc analysis differ between both datasets. The manual
investigation of the posts during the category assignment has
revealed that posts belonging to same type or category
significantly differ in terms of the topic referred to within the
posts. For example, Information posts from the case study were
mostly related to sales or products, while in the larger dataset
many posts of this category were reflecting recent events, such
as sport events, movies, the British royal wedding, etc.
Based on these results and observations we could show
clear evidence of different moderator post characteristics
causing different level of fan activity. However, a final
conclusion can’t be drawn in terms of which post type or
category will cause the greatest level of interaction. This
should encourage moderators of Facebook pages to prepare
clear posting strategies with set goals for the measurements
presented in this paper in order to trigger the activity of users
which in turn constitutes marketing success and increased
purchasing behavior. Furthermore, since different communities
may respond differently to same post characteristics, we
propose iterative measuring and monitoring of the activities
with a goal of shaping the posting strategy towards the specific
interests of the targeted community, i.e. the Facebook brand
page fans. This activity should be implemented as a part of the
social media marketing strategy.
VI. FUTURE WORK
The manual inspection of the posts during the category
assignment and the statistical analysis of the post differences in
page characteristics showed different posting strategies by the
moderators. These refer to the average number of posts per
day, different frequencies of post types and categories and
different topics referred to within the same post category. We
assume that these factors have influence over the user
interaction and will be taken in consideration in the future steps
of our analysis. Finally, we would like to compare our results
to those from different categories of Facebook pages.
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