Tracking, tracking and more tracking... most of what my team and I do for retail jewelers is tracked, and everything posted to the jwag.biz website is tracked. Results come very slowly because visitor traffic to website owned by independent retail jewelry stores is very low compared to big brands or chain stores. It sometimes takes months before clear user patterns emerge from the data.Slow data collecting is the reason why search engine optimization and online marketing can't simply be measured overnight so you can formulate a new action plan tomorrow.
Over the last 6 months I've been measuring all posts to social networks very carefully. I've been specifically looking for the when's and why's people engage with those social posts and when they clicks links back to the website.
Today I'd like to share some findings. The numbers below don't seem like much, but it represents 6 months of data collecting and about 4 hours of number crunching.
Facebook Findings:
I've run through a few tests on how and when to post updates to Facebook and my results always seem repeatable. So I'm pretty confident that this would work for you... You need to mix up the types of post you share to your Facebook Page. Share photos to your albums and share links to other websites that don't belong to you and allow the preview. However, when you post an important link back to your website you should only share the link and kill the preview that Facebook creates.
Facebook "status" messages are those without images and without previews. Time and time again I'm finding the plane status updates to be seen by the most number of people.
I've also been tracking when it's most likely that users will jump from Facebook back to your website. Repeatable results show that the optimum posting time is between 3pm and 4pm, with post as late as 4:50pm still being successful. The next optimal time to post is very early in the morning.
Google+ Findings:
These numbers are sure to change as more people start using Google+, but for right now the tracking results show that people will click from your posts back to your website when you post anytime from early morning through noon.
Twitter Findings:
Measured results show that the highest number of URL clicks occur between 11am and Noon local time. Otherwise the distribution of URL clicks is about even during the rest of the day starting early in the morning through 4pm.
As you can see there's a broad range of times for posting with specific peak times. One key point that you need to remember is that your audience will become bored of you real fast if you only post information about your business. You need to share other topics that may also pique their interest. Share all topics throughout the day, but save your most important money making announcements for those peak times.
