One thing in particular that Jeremy talks about is the number of Facebook posts the team issues per day. This begs the question: how often should teams be posting content through their newsfeed?
How often are Teams Posting
McPeek states that, “we have to be careful how many updates we put out. We do not want to bombard our fans and fill their entire facebook stream with Phoenix Suns updates, but we try to do 4 to 6 select and important key messages throughout the day.”
This 4-6 range seems to be common among many professional sports teams. However, when it comes to effectively engaging fans, what is the ideal number?
How often should Teams Post
In looking for an answer to this question, there are two very interesting studies, one conducted by Dan Zarrella of danzarrella.com and the other by Jan Rezab for Socialbakers.
The research from Dan Zarrella looks to find the ideal number of Facebook updates pages should issue per day. He looks at the 26,000 most popular Facebook pages and measures the relationship between number of likes and number of posts per day.
Interestingly, the research concludes that “as pages posted more than once a day they tended to have fewer likes.”
I do not think these findings should be viewed as universally applicable, especially when looking at the sports industry. For example, many fans are motivated to 'Like' teams simply to have the team logo appear on their page, so these fans are not as interested in the team content they receieve in their newsfeed. Thus, these fans probably have a higher tolerance for Facebook newfeed ‘overload.’ That being said, the takeaway is clear: fans prefer a limited number of postings from the pages they 'Like.'
The second set of research comes from Socialbakers and also looks into the ideal number of Facebook posts. This analysis categorizes pages as 'brands' and 'media' (with the understanding that media pages are expected to post more), and again looked at the average number of posts of the largest companies. Interestingly, the results were very similar to those of Dan Zarrella’s research. The Socialbakers research found that the top brands post an average of once per day and the top media sources post an average 7.08 times per day.
Again, I do not think these findings should not be used as strict guidelines, but more as a way of better understanding fans' preferences. The breakdown between 'brand' and 'media' is interesting because many teams can act as both throughout the course of a year. For example, if a team is playing an important playoff game or if there is big news regarding a key player, fans would look to the team's Facebook page as a news source, and 7 posts in one day would not be out of the ordinary. At the other end of the spectrum, teams become much more of a 'brand' during the offseason. Thus, fans would not want or expect more than one post per day when the team is not in season. Teams should work to find a happy medium, realizing that fans look to these pages at different points in the year for different types of information.
Take away message
The Facebook ‘Like’ is a valuable relationship. Teams work hard to attract and engage fans, so teams should also work hard to hold onto these fans. Teams should recognize that fans do not want their newsfeed overrun by a single page. Obviously, relevant team news, scores, and promotions should be published, but this should not be overdone. Teams should learn to respect this relationship and understand what their fans want. A limited number of posts go a long way in maintaining positive fan relationships.
Sources:
http://www.ragan.com/Main/Video/1535.aspx
http://danzarrella.com/new-data-post-to-your-facebook-page-every-other-day-for-the-most-likes.html#
http://www.socialbakers.com/blog/147-how-often-should-you-post-on-your-facebook-pages/