MIT Sloan Management Review

How to Create Brand Engagement on Facebook

December 18, 2012 | Arvind Malhotra, Claudia Kubowicz Malhotra and Alan See

Brands have embraced Facebook Inc. as a key marketing channel to drive engagement and brand awareness. The question is whether some brand content creates more brand engagement on Facebook than others. A recent study coded more than 1,000 wall posts from 98 global brands, aiming for a better understanding of how different wall-post attributes impact the number of “likes,” comments and “shares” a post receives. This article offers up the results of that study, for brand managers to act on.

As it happens, the same types of posts that were “liked” were often also shared — with a few interesting exceptions. Whereas length decreases the likelihood of being “liked,” length did not influence whether a post was shared. Additionally, there were no negative effects on “shares” for posts announcing contests, advocating social causes or asking questions. There were two types of posts that drove “shares” more than “likes.” First, while posts with video content were not “liked” more, they were shared significantly more than non-video posts. Second, whereas posts announcing deals did not receive high “like” totals, these posts were shared much more often. It seems as if consumers chose to share attractive deal information rather than indicating appreciation.

Regardless of whether a Facebook fan “likes,” comments, shares or does some combination thereof, engagement through Facebook is becoming a critical element of any organization’s marketing strategy. An opportunity exists to leverage wall posts more effectively to generate greater propagation and richer conversation — and to convert more consumers into brand advocates. In the highly networked social world we live in today, such brand advocates are priceless.