This analysis investigates the distribution of Facebook post types and their interactions from January 2013 to January 2014, revealing that visual content like photos and videos generate the most engagement. While photos constitute 54% of posts and receive 1,358 interactions on average, videos, despite being only 3% of posts, engage even more with 2,183 interactions per post. The study also suggests that due to changes in Facebook's algorithms, sustaining interaction levels with various post types is increasingly challenging for pages.

1. An Analysis Of The Facebook
Post Type Distribution & The
Corresponding Interactions
Is visual content really
the holy grail to appear
in the news feed of fans?
March 2014

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Introductory Remarks
Due to the permanent adaptation and optimization of the
Facebook news feed and the implementation of over
thousand different weights for users, it has become a major
challenge for Facebook pages to reach their existing
audience. Meanwhile, many pages are reaching only a small
fraction of their fans, but of course, the reach of those posts
can easily be increased by boosting them as sponsored
stories. Basically, the more interactions a post receives, the
more fans will see it in their news feed. This raises the
question whether one can find out which post types are
generating the most interactions. In other words: Is visual
content really the holy grail to appear in the news feed of
fans?

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The Post Type Data Set
We created a sample data set of 72,194 Facebook pages.
These pages produced a total amount of around 49 million
posts between the 1st January 2013 and 31st January 2014.
The analyzed posts are divided into the following types:
• Photo
• Link
• Status
• Video
• Cover Photo
• Offer
• Note
• Question
• Music
• SWF
• Event
Please note:
Offer, Note, Question, Music, SWF and Event are summarized in some
charts under the label Other.

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Macro View:
Interactions & Post Types
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2014

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Share Of Different Post Types
Used By Facebook Pages
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013
Photo 54%
Link 30%
Status 11%
Video 3%
Cover Photo 1%
Other 1%

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Average Interactions
Per Post Per Type
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013
2183
1358
648 632 630
281
204 188
102
57
0.08
Video Photo Status Offer Cover
Photo
Question Note Link SWF Music Event

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Average Interactions Per Post VS.
Average Number Of Posts Per Page
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
Video Photo Status Offer Cover
Photo
Question Note Link SWF Music Event
AverageNumberOfPostsPerPage
AverageInteractionsPerPost
Average Interactions Per Post Average Number Of Posts Per Page

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The Proof: Visual Content
Generates More Engagement
In fact, this is nothing new for experienced Facebook marketers and
users. With a share of 54% photos make up more than half of the total
content volume. The same applies for the average interactions per post
type. With an average of 1,358 interactions per photo post this type ranks
on the second place. The type with the highest number of interactions are
videos. On average, a single video post created 2,183 interactions
between 1/1/2013 and 1/31/2014. However, video posts only had a
share of 3% of the total content amount.
Checking the other types, some differences show up. The good old status
update has averagely the third most interactions over the analyzed 13
months. Closely followed by the offer and the cover photo types. While
the status updates with 11% still a has bigger stake of the total posted
content, there were only about 10k offer posts and thus it keeps a share
of well below 1%. The cover photo indeed showed in our pie chart, but
also has a share of only one percent. This in turn is hardly surprising,
since most pages rarely change their cover photo. The second most
published post type are link posts. With a share of 30% they create only
around 200 interactions per post on average.
All in all it becomes clear that visual content items like photos and videos
are generating the most interactions on average. But different from photo
posts, video and cover photo posts only took a small proportion of the
total posting volume for the analyzed data period.

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Monthly View:
Interactions & Post Types
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2014

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Average Facebook Page Posts
Per Type Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Average Interactions
Per Post Per Type
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Unexpected Twist: Are Videos
The Secret Interaction Magnet?
If you look at the monthly development of average posts by
type, immediately the course of video posts attract attention.
While photos, links and status updates are showing a
growing or constant trend over the months regarding the
average number of published posts, videos fall down to
nearly zero between July and August 2013. Before that it
shows a constant number of posted videos per month.
A simple explanation can not be found easily. Apparently
different factors are playing a role. First, we searched for a
mistake in the data, but we couldn’t find any issue.
Furthermore, there was no official change by Facebook.
Reasons could be that Facebook undertook a change but did
not announce it. Moreover, it is likely that many pages, which
usually share their YouTube and other videos, now only share
an image or link to get the fans to visit their website. In fact,
our numbers show that videos are generating a lot of
interactions and due to the low posting volume, publishing
videos seems to be a real insider tip.

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Micro View:
Average Post & Interaction
Development by Type
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2014

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Photo – Average Posts &
Interactions Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Photo – Average Likes, Comments
& Shares Per Post Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Photo – Say Cheese!
Data & Review
Data
Analyzed data points of the post type Photo
Total Type Posts: 26,504,482
Total Likes: 29,775,739,976
Total Comments: 1,689,265,870
Total Shares: 4,656,154,904
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2014
Review
Photos are the most published posting item on Facebook as already
noted before. Next to that they also generating the second most
interactions on average. But as you can see in the first photo chart
the number of averagely published photo posts have had its peak
between July and November 2013. However, the average interactions
had, in turn, their lowest values ​in June and July. Also the average
number of interactions per post reached its highest point in January
2014, the interest of Facebook pages in photo post seems to be
somewhat fallen off.

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Link – Average Posts &
Interactions Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Link – Average Likes, Comments &
Shares Per Post Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Link – Connect Your Content
Data & Review
Data
Analyzed data points of the post type Link
Total Type Posts: 14,835,194
Total Likes: 2,383,316,220
Total Comments: 244,954,931
Total Shares: 324,035,725
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2014
Review
The link post was made a bit more interesting for Facebook pages to
use due to a recent change of the News Feed algorithm. But already
since the August 2013 the amount of averagely shared link posts per
page increased month by month. The line for the average interactions
per link post per month even shows a linear growth. Of course, the
same applies to the development of average likes, comments and
shares.

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Status – Average Posts &
Interactions Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Status – Average Likes, Comments
& Shares Per Post Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Status – What’s On Your
Mind?Data & Review
Data
Analyzed data points of the post type Status
Total Type Posts: 5,565,379
Total Likes: 3,039,922,305
Total Comments: 306,586,084
Total Shares: 262,816,643
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2014
Review
Also the line for the average interactions per status post shows us the
typical summer slum related drop down starting at the end of May
and ending in July 2013. Although in January 2014 on average the
most status post have been published, the average interactions
declined again. This could be related to the aforementioned News
Feed changes at this time.

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Video – Average Posts &
Interactions Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Video – Average Likes, Comments
& Shares Per Post Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Video – Social Moving Images
Data & Review
Data
Analyzed data points of the post type Video
Total Type Posts: 1,233,937
Total Likes: 1,096,161,496
Total Comments: 99,425,166
Total Shares: 280,276,451
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2014
Review
The monthly course of the averagely posted videos now clearly
shows the already referred post amount anticlimax. Back in August
of last year, the contributions of this type have been halved and from
September, the volume is only one-third as before. Nevertheless the
averagely generated likes, comments and shares started to increase
since July and more than quadrupled in October. Since December, the
number of interactions, however, abated again.

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Cover Photo – Average Posts
& Interactions Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Cover Photo – Average Likes, Comments
& Shares Per Post Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Cover Photo – Expose Your Page
Data & Review
Data
Analyzed data points of the post type cover photo
Total Type Posts: 457,863
Total Likes: 287,999,442
Total Comments: 12,342,128
Total Shares: 15,558,046
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2014
Review
The young type cover photo is one of the clear winners of the last
year regarding the linear growing amount of posts and interactions.
It looks like, that more and more Facebook pages changing the cover
photo more often not only after a rebranding but for campaigns,
seasonal reasons like Christmas and just to push their fan reach. It
could be that Facebook rates the change of a pages cover photo
significantly higher than a status or link post and thus a lot more fans
see such a post in their news feed and are able to interact with it.

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Offer – Average Posts &
Interactions Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Offer – Average Likes, Comments &
Shares Per Post Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Offer – Everyone Likes Discounts
Data & Review
Data
Analyzed data points of the post type Offer
Total Type Posts: 10,741
Total Likes: 5,339,217
Total Comments: 409,915
Total Shares: 1,268,670
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2014
Review
As most people are fans of a page on Facebook to obtain information,
but on the other hand, in order to get discounts or freebies, the
introduction of Facebook offers was a logical consequence.
Meanwhile, this posting type slightly seems to be long in the tooth
and Facebook decided to remove it. This reasoned the obvious
decrease after the official announcement back in June 2013. But still
today you are still able to create an offer directly on your page. Since
November 2013 it seems to be back on the content and ad plans of
brands and in January 2014 the average posting amount reached its
highest point. The same applies to the coupled amount of average
interactions.

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Question – Average Posts &
Interactions Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Question – Average Likes, Comments &
Shares Per Post Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Question – Conduct Polls & Learn
Data & Review
Data
Analyzed data points of the post type Question
Total Type Posts: 60,490
Total Likes: 4,624,807
Total Comments: 2,946,288
Total Shares: 83,923
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2014
Review
The type question shows in the related charts the most extreme changes. The reason
for that is quite clear this time. Like mentioned in case of the type offer, Facebook
announced to phase out the post type question for pages. And this is definitely
reflected in the charts. The amount of averagely published questions posts dropped
to the zero line. Logically the same happened to the interactions. You may wonder
why there is still a small amount of posted questions and related interactions. In an
official statement Facebook said: “We’re no longer offering questions as an
advertising product, or as a tool for all pages on Facebook, but we’re exploring the
value questions bring to pages that produce public content — like news
organizations, for example. Questions will remain as a tool for a small group of these
types of pages, so that they can help us test a few improvements we’re making to the
ways people and pages interact on Facebook.”
(Source: http://allfacebook.com/questions-pages_b121584)

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Note – Average Posts &
Interactions Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Note – Average Likes, Comments &
Shares Per Post Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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Note – If You Need To Say More
Data & Review
Data
Analyzed data points of the post type Note
Total Type Posts: 22,677
Total Likes: 2,879,104
Total Comments: 667,152
Total Shares: 449,034
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2014
Review
The type note almost experienced a comeback in the last year. In fact,
the amount of averagely posted notes per month has increased
almost tenfold in October 2013 compared with the January of the last
year. As as result of the highly pushed post type volume the average
interactions dropped down a bit. Writing a note is not as simple as
sharing an image or link to share a status. As a page admin you need
to add the note app to your page, which is deeply hidden in the page
settings to enable page managers to write page notes. Nevertheless
the type note seems to be interesting for pages again. Also it could be
that page managers started to test notes for the first time or again
since a long time to find ways to reach their fans again.

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SWF – Average Posts &
Interactions Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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SWF – Average Likes, Comments &
Shares Per Post Per Month
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2013

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SWF – ShockWave Flash
Data & Review
Data
Analyzed data points of the post type Note
Total Type Posts: 36,936
Total Likes: 3,150,231
Total Comments: 187,862
Total Shares: 75,657
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2014
Review
If you ask yourself what this SWF thing is: Its the Adobe Flash
format. Compared with other types it is only rarely used by
Facebook pages. Since the high times of flash are over for a
long time. More and more people check Facebook on their
mobile devices and we all know that iDevices don’t support
flash, it might be not the best posting type nowadays.
Anyhow, flash still has a small number of enthusiast which
are posting this type on their pages.

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Music & Event
Data
Music Data:
Analyzed data points of the post type Music
Total Type Posts: 635
Total Likes: 67,218
Total Comments: 5,307
Total Shares: 3,236
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2014
Event Data:
Analyzed data points of the post type Event
Total Type Posts: 101,556
Total Likes: 33
Total Comments: 9
Total Shares: 4,176
Data Period: 1/1/2013 – 1/31/2014

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Music & Event
Review
Music
The type music is almost a mythical creature. In our database we
collected only 635 posts for this type in the given data period. Of
course, this is practically nothing compared with the other types.
Therefore, we waived a graphical representation. Quite obviously
pages don’t like to share music.
Event
Also the post type event is standard practice for pages it rarely
creates interactions as a post. Most people liking or commenting on
the event page itself and not on an event post. Instead sharing an
event post seems to be more common. This fact explains the
unbelievable low numbers for likes and comments of this type.
Therefore we also skipped a micro graphical evaluation for this type.

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