LinkedIn or Facebook? Which Works Better for Organic Posts?

I recently posted a three-part series on my journey in retrenchment. I learnt valuable lessons which I am sharing in three parts. This is the second part of my lessons. The first lesson is in the link below.

In my 2nd lesson from telling my retrenchment story, I found out things about LinkedIn and Facebook media which intrigued me.

First off, I am a trainer and coach in digital marketing and personal branding, so metrics matter to me. Not hard core metrics, just basic numbers to see how well-received my post experiments are. I had uploaded my stories on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. But I dropped off the 3rd as my connections level there is not strong.w

Here are my own findings of the organic posts:

BEST TIME TO UPLOAD

LinkedIn          -          8:30am (GMT +8hrs)

Facebook        -          9:30pm

I had experimented FB to be posted in the morning for the 2nd video. There was a drop in engagement by about 6%.

BEST RESPONSE

LinkedIn (based on 1750 connections)

Tues - 1st Video (120% > viewers, 140 reactions, 67 comments)

Wed - 2nd Video (200% > viewers, 218 reactions, 69 comments, 8 reshares)

Thurs – 3rd Video (158% > viewers, 190 reactions, 49 comments)

Facebook (based on 730 connections)

Tues – 1st Video (53 comments)

Wed – 2nd Video (34 comments)

Thurs – 3rd Video (34 comments)

It’s not an apple-to-apple comparison, and figures for comments should be halved as I responded to almost everyone who commented in LI and FB. So the count includes me too.

Conclusion:

Overall, just based on comments, there are higher engagements from LinkedIn. But the key point is, Wednesday appears to be the best for LinkedIn, while Tuesday seemed to be better for FB. But the drop in FB comments surprised me. And interestingly, those who commented from LI were virtual friends while those on FB were personal friends.

Questions:

1)   Was there fatigue in LI by the time the 3rd video appeared?

2)   Perhaps my personal friends (mostly from FB) knew about my situation more than the virtual friends, hence there is lesser comments from them on FB?

3)   The number of reshares was far higher on the 2nd video. Could it be that in that video, I stressed on “Three Things I Did” (standard Linked In narrative) which met the audience’s expectations?

4)   Why didn’t videos circulate well in FB?

Question 4 led me to believe that FB is dropping in engagement metrics and that has big implications on brands and influencers using solely FB, moving forward.

USE OF VIDEOS

I would like to compare with the Pre-Launch post uploaded on Monday with no picture on LI but a bright pink image on FB. The results:

Linked In:        220% > viewers, 119 reactions and 43 comments

(Higher viewership & reactions than any of the videos)

Facebook:       67 comments, more than any of the videos. 

Questions:

1)   Did the length of videos, which lasted from 2 – 2.5 minutes, affect viewership when compared with the image or no image posts on FB and LI respectively?

2)   Was there fatigue level when three videos appeared consecutively?

Conclusion:

The use of videos was useful, but static images in LinkedIn worked just as well, as long as the story is compelling.

Final Comments:

While the findings are not conclusive, and the percentages for Linked In are much higher as I accepted requests progressively over the three days (I only used 1750 connections at time of calculation), it is clear that FB, which I have spent a lot of my time on previously, is or has started to decrease in engagement.

In short, even though I did not start out as an experiment, but my experience on Linked In and Facebook showed that despite my effort in telling a compelling story of life’s journey, the result for Facebook did not reach wider audiences nor receive high engagements. Linked In, on the other hand, had higher viewership, with more new connections viewing the video and engaging in comments or reactions. What I did not include was the personal messages send directly to me through the four days (about 30 messages) and the number of requests that I chose to accept (more than 350).

As Gary V said, LinkedIn is the Facebook of 2012. It is time to invest time in media that has algorithms that are pro-engagement. That also means that one should invest in other emerging media such as, Tik Tok. 

See you there soon.

Disclaimer: The comparisons are my mere findings, and did not include important statistics on duration of each viewing of the video, nor FB story view count (which lasts for only 24 hours and some may not have viewed the post). Neither did I break down the likes, love, wow, and celebration icons on both media.

LinkedIn 1st video: https://bit.ly/377VyXa

LinkedIn 2nd video: https://bit.ly/2QXTXOm

LinkedIn 3rd video: https://bit.ly/2v3B7wx

Pre-Launch Post: https://tinyurl.com/vpe25o9

Facebook 1st video: https://tinyurl.com/rbhmxo9

Facebook 2nd video: https://bit.ly/2sEA31i

Facebook 3rd video: https://bit.ly/2G7zct6

Pre-Launch Post: https://tinyurl.com/r9m74jm

1st Lesson: https://bit.ly/2Rflw5P

Sandra Tan is a trainer, coach, and media consultant. She trains in digital marketing, personal branding and brand storytelling to various sectors, particularly to the hospitality and tourism industries. She is an avid traveller and loves to see the world. Sandra is on a quest to help others find #Signifluence in life, that is significance and influence. Otherwise, she will be indulging on her other passions such as drinking teh-C, singing classicals, or watching movies.

#sandratan #signifluence #entrepreneur #sandraspeaks #girlpower #girlboss #girlbosses #socialmediastrategist #inspireothers #socialmedia