A collaboration between Facebook and Buddy Media produced results from a study on the Facebook timeline that focused on 200 large brand Facebook clients as it related to the comments on their Facebook pages as well as the likes that those comments attracted. This was studied over a two-week period and some interesting patterns became evident. Of those patterns, simple but strategic posts helped to increase awareness of the brands.

Facebook Timeline for Brand Pages findings:

• Increased engagement rates of 27% were from post that contained 80 or less characters as opposed to longer posts.
• Of all the posts that were analyzed, only 19% were less than 80 characters.
• Brands saw an increase of engagements of 20% when posts were made after business hours.
• Only 40% of observed posts were done after business hours.
• The highest rate of engagement for Facebook posts were on Thursdays and Fridays as any other day of the week.
• A drop of 3.5% below average was observed on posts done Monday through Wednesday. An even higher drop of 18% was observed on posts made on Saturday.
• Events and winnings were more engaged than contests and promotions.
• When a post ended in a question, the engagement rates were 15% higher than those posts that didn’t end with a question.
• Posts that included where, when as well as would and should had higher engagement levels than questions of why.

Another interesting aspect of the study found that posts which included full URLs enjoyed engagement rates that were three times higher than posts that contained shortened or tiny URL’s. Some have suggested that this is in part due to the clues that full-length URLs give as opposed to shortened URLs that aren’t very effective as brand indicators.

It’s also important to note that the level of engagement weren’t across the board. Engagement levels tended to vary by industry. The fashion industry was excellent on Thursdays whereas business did well on Wednesdays and Thursdays and finances did well on Tuesdays as well as Wednesdays. For food and beverage industries, Saturdays were the best days.

If you really want to get more ‘Likes’ then sometimes it’s best to be direct and look for fans to like content. You can also post specific questions and simply ask for an answer. The truth is that fans tend to follow instructions better than allowing them to figure it out for themselves.

You have to consider it worth more space for longer URL or shortening up posts to fall within the 80 characters or less. You may find merit in this study and you may find to be inconsistent for your industry area depending on who you are.