We all know these very intense Facebook campaigns of companies we follow on Facebook. They post several times a day that you can win big prizes or get huge discounts when you like their Facebook page. But once they got their target amount of likes, they keep silent for days, or even weeks. Research has shown that this is a very bad thing to do as a company. Once the interval between the posts is to long, most people are not reading the posts anymore.
There has been some interesting research in this field, showing that 72% of Facebook pages of companies are not posting on a regular basis. In fact, they overflow their fans with posts on one day, while then they keep silent for several days. As said, it is a fact that when you are not keeping in constant touch with your fans, you can get out of sight. This so called bipolar behaviour (posting irregularly) mostly occurs for smaller businesses, while the larger businesses tend to do a better job concerning their Facebook posts. Bipolar behaviour differs a lot among industries. The industry which is by far the most bipolar is the insurance industry, in which 86% of the companies are showing bipolar behaviour. In the following image you see the bipolar rate per industry:
So what is the reason why companies do this? I think in some industries it’s just very difficult to post interesting things on a regular basis. In the insurance industry for example, I can imagine that it is difficult to post a lot of interesting things. Another reason could be that company owners set too many social media goals based on quantity, like: We need to double our amount of Facebook likes within the next month. After an intensive period of Facebook activity, they probably reach their target, but then they keep silent. That should actually be the moment to keep interacting with your fans on a regular basis.
What do you think are the main reasons companies are so ‘bipolar’?
Sources:
http://www.marketingfacts.nl/berichten/de-7-zonden-op-social-media-en-hoe-je-ze-vermijdt/
http://allfacebook.com/buzzspice-bipolar_b117416
well, in my opinion, bipolar behavior actually does nothing for the company, it is just so useless. on the other hand, it could decrease the loyalty of its fans. maybe, the first reason why they want to do this behavior is that they want to be got attention as a small company. however, once the company keeps silence when reaches its goals, it would loose the trust of its fans. furthermore, just simply click a “like” does not mean people really like that page, maybe his or her friends ask to do.