According to a recent Wildfire analysis of over 10,000 social media campaigns to see what types of campaigns generated the most earned media, the most entered campaigns are not the campaigns that generate the most earned media, or sharing activity. Certain campaign application types generate higher entry and participation rates (contests and sweepstakes for example), while other types are more likely to be shared via a news feed post or an invite to the app (pick-your-favorites, quizzes and trivia).
When 68% of Facebook users say that a recommendation from a Facebook friend would make them more likely to buy a specific product or visit a retailer, however, brands want all the earned media they can get, says the report.
Promotions are one of the most popular marketing methods on Facebook whether sweepstakes, contests, or coupons and more. The study reports a number of actionable results for social marketers, including the types of social marketing campaign that tend to get the highest participation rates, the different campaign types that get the highest sharing rates, and the common thread among campaign types that generates the most sharing with friends on Facebook.
In addition, other key findings from the study include:
On average, coupons, giveaways, and sweepstakes get the most entries and Facebook engagement. These campaigns are closely correlated with low barriers to entry (as in a sweepstakes), high-value perceived rewards (as with coupons), and the popularity of a “sure thing” (as with giveaways).
Most Entries And Facebook Engagement (What types of campaigns get the most entries?) | |
Campaign | Average Entries |
Coupon | 3,037 |
Giveaway | 1,888 |
Sweepstakes | 1,630 |
Favorites | 1,070 |
Quiz | 1,024 |
Trivia | 410 |
Essay contest | 398 |
Photo contest | 381 |
Video contest | 318 |
Source: Wildfire, May 2012 |
When earned media is the focus of the analysis, an entirely new set of high performing campaign types emerge, with an interesting commonality. The campaigns types that are most “shareable” are campaigns that include “pick-your-favorites,” quizzes, and trivia.
The most-shared campaign applications are designed to either:
Most “Shareable” Campaigns (Rate of sharing by campaign type) | |
Campaign | % of Respondents Selecting |
Pick your favorites | 39% |
Quizzes | 32 |
Trivia contests | 29 |
Sweepstakes | 26 |
Essay contest | 25 |
Photo contest | 25 |
Coupons | 19 |
Giveaway | 15 |
Video contest | 11 |
Source: Wildfire, May 2012 |
The most important question of all, says the report, is whether or not the shares generated by users get additional new users to engage with the branded campaign too. The analysis of earned media’s ability to draw additional users into engagement with a brand showed positive results: “pick-your-favorites,” survey, and quiz campaigns (that appear in users’ news feeds) have a high chance of being seen and clicked on by their friends.
Earned Media Click Rate (Which types of earned media news feed posts are clicked on most often?) | |
Campaign | % Engaging |
Pick your favorites | 27% |
Quizzes | 13 |
Trivia contests | 10 |
Sweepstakes | 11 |
Essay contest | 1 |
Photo contest | 3 |
Coupons | 11 |
Giveaway | 15 |
Video contest | 2 |
Source: Wildfire, May 2012 |
The study reveals that 82% of the users that click on a news feed post, shared by a friend who took a quiz, will go on to take that quiz themselves. This indicates that when a user’s attention is piqued by the news feed, the engagement potential is very high.
Earned Media Click-To-Entry Conversion Rate (When a user clicks on earned media, how often do they go on to enter the campaign themselves?) | |
Campaign | % Entering Campaign |
Pick your favorites | 27% |
Quizzes | 82 |
Trivia contests | 69 |
Sweepstakes | 66 |
Essay contest | 47 |
Photo contest | 23 |
Coupons | 74 |
Giveaway | 74 |
Video contest | 13 |
Source: Wildfire, May 2012 |
The report says that earned media can account for up to a 12% boost in engagement rates, which means viewing, clicking and participating with a campaign.
For additional information and access to the complete report, please visit Wildfire here.
Dead link at the end of this story, which someone might fix after I post this, but here's the link I discovered: http://allfacebook.com/wildfire-earned-media_b89743
Way too many holes in the overall picture Jack. When I go to a Brand page and check engagement rates per post I see 0.05% to 0.1% of total fans and usually towards the low end. So boosting 0.05% by 12% for earned media is not very good.
And an engagement does not a marriage ensure. Why buy the cow when you can like it and play with it for free?
thanks all... it is what it is... and I'll try to fix that link, Doug... Jack