The Effect of Post Type, Category and Posting Day on User Interaction Level on Facebook

Social networks are becoming an additional marketing channel that could be integrated with the traditional ones as a part of the marketing mix. However, traditional advertising techniques are not applicable for the social media platforms, resulting in companies experimenting with many different approaches, thus shaping a successful social media strategies based on their own experiences. To gain a more general understanding, our study analyzes the effects of moderator post characteristics, such as post type, category and posting day, on the user interaction in terms of number of comments and likes, as well as interaction duration. We present the results obtained from 14 Face book brand pages. Our results show that there is a significant effect of the post type and category on number of likes and comments as well as on interaction duration. Based on these results, we could show clear evidence of moderator posts increasing fan activity. We discuss the implications of our findings for social media marketing.