On Monday we heard about data from SocialBakers finding that photos, which used to be the most engaging type of Facebook post and perform the best, are now the kind of post that is seeing the least amount of organic reach. Since we wrote about it earlier, SocialBakers has made its data more easily accessible.
Take a look at how the organic reach compares from format to format:
“Because photos were the long-dominant post type, they are both the most common type of post and the most frequently promoted,” SocialBakers says in a blog post. “That alone would be enough to make them less effective than they were at their peak, but coupled with the introduction of videos in Q3 2014, the decline in photo reach has been sudden.That all adds up to a lot of competition for decreasing space.”
“The real growth point today is in videos,” it adds. “While they are relatively more promoted than photos – 27% of all videos are promoted, compared to 17% of photos – there are so many more photos than videos that the new format is still far more effective at reaching audiences.”
The firm also says that just looking at organic reach for brands’ Fans, not including non-Fans who also get post impressions, videos are still “much more effective than photos” with a 148% increase in reach.
Data from SocialBakers from last April looked at three different sizes of Facebook Pages (1-99,999 fans, 100,000-999,999 fans, and 1,000,000+ fans), and found that photos saw the best engagement compared to links, statuses, and videos across all three. How things have changed.
Last summer, Facebook announced a change to its News Feed algorithm, which would punish posts that were photos that linked to webpages in the caption. This had become a popular way for sites to try and drive traffic since photos, at the time, had a better chance of showing up in users’ News Feeds.
Image via SocialBakers