There’s a little-known method for increasing the number of reactions, comments and clicks you receive on Facebook. This method is simple and quick to implement, and doesn’t require you to produce or source any new content. And above all, it’s free.
The secret lies in simply reposting a certain number of your own posts on Facebook.
In this article, we’ll explain how our research demonstrates the benefit of reposting on Facebook. We’ll also provide tips on how to repost on Facebook to increase traffic and engagement.
Keep reading to discover:
- Why publishers should repost on Facebook
- Exclusive data on the traffic-driving power of Facebook reposts
- Expert tips on how to repost effectively on Facebook
Want to jump straight ahead to our findings?
Download our complete research now on the power of Facebook reposts:
Why repost on Facebook?
At Echobox, we work with an extensive set of publishers for whom Facebook is a key content distribution channel. We often share best practices for posting and reposting on Facebook based on insights from our unique research. One topic that publishers continually raise is reposting content to Facebook. We hear questions like, “Should we repost on Facebook?” and “How well do Facebook reposts work compared to new posts?”
Despite the interest in reposting on Facebook, no scientific, wide-scale and publisher-specific study previously existed on the topic of Facebook reposts.
We therefore set out to study how effective Facebook reposts are compared to new posts, and to establish data-driven recommendations on how to repost on Facebook for the greatest impact.
How we analyzed Facebook reposts
To begin, our data science team studied Facebook posts (including reposts) of more than 600 leading publishers from around the world including Newsweek, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Le Monde, Conde Nast and the South China Morning Post.
To understand the power of Facebook reposts, we analyzed a total of 1.85 million Facebook posts, of which nearly 300,000 were “reposts,” defined in this study as a single Facebook post shared more than once by a publisher. This study only measured Facebook posts that were reposted by the authoring publisher – in other words, when publishers reposted their own posts. Any reposts made by Facebook followers were not taken into account.
To assess the performance of Facebook reposts, we compared the number of clicks on new Facebook posts and on Facebook reposts. Over 2.8 billion clicks were measured for this study. When applicable we used median averages to avoid skewing from outliers.
The secret power of Facebook reposts
What were the findings?
We discovered that reposting on Facebook is a powerful, no-cost, low-effort way to drive additional Facebook clicks:
On average, a Facebook repost achieves 67% of the clicks it received as an original post.
For example, a post that receives 1,000 clicks when first posted would receive 670 new clicks when reposted. For publishers, this suggests you can easily boost the volume of clicks your Facebook post receives by 67% on average just by reposting it!
For 13% of publishers, Facebook reposts will even outperform their original posts, generating more total clicks than the original posts.Yet despite the immense potential of Facebook reposts to drive more traffic, publishers are only reposting a small portion of their content and leaving major traffic opportunities on the table:
Publishers repost just 8% of their total posts on average.
The bottom line?
If you’re not already reposting your content on Facebook, you should. There’s a huge potential for publishers to gain more reach, traffic and engagement by simply reposting on Facebook.
Learn the 4 steps to developing a Facebook reposting strategy that works for you – download our free guide now:
How to repost on Facebook at the best time
How long do most publishers wait before reposting?
Three-quarters of publishers repost a Facebook post within 10 days on average, with 41% of publishers reposting within 24 hours of the original post. Nonetheless, there is a notable long tail of publishers who repost on Facebook several weeks after the original post:
What is the right time to repost something on Facebook? How long should you wait after your original post before reposting?
The best time to repost on Facebook depends on certain factors including the timeliness and relevance of your content.
If your post contains breaking news that becomes stale in just a matter of hours, you’ll want to repost while it’s still fresh for your Facebook audience. Reposting your breaking stories a bit later can help gain exposure to audiences who might have missed the original post.
TIP: Echobox uses artificial intelligence to optimize the timing of publishers’ posts, calculating the best possible minute for posting to maximize your traffic. Echobox can also automatically detect breaking news content to be shared immediately, and then repost these stories at the optimal time shortly after.
How often should you repost on Facebook?
You should try to repost regularly throughout the day on Facebook to provide your followers with sufficient content and capture all possible traffic opportunities. However, the ideal frequency of Facebook reposting will vary for each publisher and each Facebook Page at different points in time. Therefore, this question has no one-size-fits-all answer. Yet all publishers must be conscious of the spacing of their posts, ensuring they post and repost at the right intervals to avoid Facebook penalization.
To strike the right balance between regular reposting that maximizes traffic while avoiding penalization, try our free Facebook Grader tool for publishers. Get an instant analysis of how well your Facebook posts and reposts are spaced, and be alerted to potential Facebook penalties and traffic loss:
How to repost on Facebook without burying your new content
A key factor in reposting on Facebook effectively is publishing the right ratio of new posts and reposts. Share too many new posts and not enough reposts, and you risk missing out on repost-driven traffic. Share too many reposts and not enough new posts, and you could drown out your fresh content while losing your followers’ attention.
Each Facebook Page has its own ideal ratio of new content and reposts, and it’s crucial you find yours. How can you determine your ideal ratio of reposts on Facebook?
Use our 3-point framework
To help you calculate the right proportion of Facebook reposts you should be using, we’ve developed a 3-point framework that uses your performance data to determine your ideal ratio of new content and reposts. See page 8 of our ultimate guide to reposting on Facebook:
How to find the best content for reposting on Facebook
Once you’ve determined the right ratio of new posts and reposts for your Facebook Page, it’s time to focus on identifying the best content to repost to generate as much traffic and engagement as possible. Use your top-performing posts as a guide!
Start by identifying which of your new posts have generated the most traffic. Prioritize these high-performing posts in your reposting strategy, but keep in mind that several factors, such as the timing or the post elements, can also influence a repost’s performance. Experiment to see how much traffic you can generate by reposting at different times, or by testing different text or images in your reposts.
Is there a repost app for Facebook that simplifies reposting?
As our study reveals, reposting on Facebook holds immense potential for publishers in terms of traffic gains. But to fully tap into this potential, you must ensure your Facebook reposts perform as well as possible. Their performance will depend on several different factors cited above, such as the content, timing and frequency of the reposts.
You might be wondering: is there a repost app for Facebook that can help publishers manage and optimize these different factors?
A solution indeed exists for publishers who want to make the most of both new posts and reposts on Facebook (and on other social networks). Echobox takes the guesswork out of your Facebook reposts by simplifying or even automating Facebook reposting for publishers.
TIP: With Echobox, you can easily find your best-performing Facebook posts, then repost them with one click. Or, let Echobox do it for you – Echobox can automate the entire posting and reposting process, automatically curating your highest-potential content and ensuring it’s posted and reposted at the best possible times, while taking into account any custom configurations you’ve set.
Leading publishers including The Guardian are using Echobox to automate Facebook reposting, letting Echobox automatically select which articles to repost, as well as the optimal day and time to repost them – all while remaining “hands free” for busy newsrooms. This AI-powered approach results in greater engagement with Facebook reposts and additional traffic gains for publishers.
How to repost on Facebook without losing likes and comments
When considering whether to repost on Facebook, you may be concerned about losing the likes and comments that were associated with your original post. When you repost on Facebook, the original post’s reactions, comments and shares will not transfer over to the repost.
However, we suggest publishers not worry about losing likes and comments on their reposts, as we often see that a repost will achieve an exponentially higher volume of reactions, comments and shares compared to the original post.
Take the below example from Newsweek, whose original post generated a healthy initial response of 108 reactions, 46 comments and 7 shares. By reposting the exact same content only 3 hours later, Newsweek impressively achieved 923% of the reactions, 985% of the comments and 757% of the shares that the original post generated:
Given that on average, a Facebook repost will generate 67% of the clicks it did as an original post, the benefit of these referral traffic gains will, for many publishers, outweigh the “resetting” of likes and comments on a repost.
Repost from Facebook to Instagram in seconds
We’ve established that reposting on Facebook can help you draw more value from your existing Facebook posts.
But what about getting more mileage out of your Facebook posts even on other social networks?
By reposting your content on other platforms – for example, reposting from Facebook to Instagram – you can extract even more value from your content.
While Facebook and Instagram are fundamentally different platforms, your most effective posts on Facebook can also resonate strongly with your Instagram audience. In fact, leading publishers are using Facebook and Instagram in tandem and cross-posting the same content on both platforms.
So the next time you’re reposting something on Facebook, why not also repost from Facebook to Instagram? This is a simple way to further multiply your reposted content’s impact.
TIP: With Echobox, it’s easy to repost from Facebook to Instagram in just seconds. Echobox shows you your highest performing Facebook posts, which you can then repost to Instagram (as well as Twitter and/or LinkedIn) with the click of a button. Your reposted content from Facebook will now appear as an Instagram Story. Remember to check your image dimensions for Instagram – you can use Echobox’s integrated photo editor to quickly make changes.
We hope these findings and examples have convinced you of why you should immediately start leveraging Facebook reposts.
Ready to introduce reposting into your Facebook strategy? Download our ultimate guide now to learn all about how to repost on Facebook, and start driving more traffic today:
Want to see how Echobox could work for you? Request a demo today!
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