Brands are getting an average 46% more engagement with Facebook’s new Timeline profile, according to new research. But closer inspection indicates that status updates may actually be losing engagement.
The study, from Simply Measured, drew its results from just 15 Facebook brand pages.
The results showed two such beneficiaries – Livestrong and Toyota – saw their engagement rates jump 161 and 156 percent respectively.
However, a closer look at the report indicates that responses to status updates actually fell with Timeline, but engagement with videos and photos were up a composite 65%.
One of the most surprising findings was that even if a company has not posted in more than a week, content that was featured still attracted new engagement (from viewing to sharing to commenting.)
This implies that the new layout is giving these brand pages a fresher feel and a livelier look to encourage fans to interact.
The researcher’s CEO Adam Schoenfeld said the average is weighted so that the engagement per post is taken into account.
“These are just preliminary results,” he was quoted as saying.
Simply Measured looked at early adopters and compared their Pages’ engagement from Jan. 1 to Feb 29 and then from Feb. 29 until March 26.
Feb. 29 was the day Facebook allowed Timeline Brand Pages. If the brand launched its Timeline Page after Feb. 29, then Simply Measured started from that date.
A week after launching Timeline, Facebook claimed some eight million brands or one-fourth of the brands on Facebook upgraded to the new design.
Source: Simply Measured
