FreshNetworks Blog

Marmite, a friend of Park Bench

In general we don’t usually use our blog for self-promotion, but we’re proud to announce that Park Bench, the Facebook pet community we manage on behalf of  veterinary services provider Vets Now, is the UK’s third most engaging Facebook page.

According to a recent report by social media analytics company Social Bakers, Park Bench has an impressive engagement rate of 0.57% and is also the 9th most active page in the UK too.

We’re so proud that in just 6 months, with a member base of zero and an unknown brand name, we’ve taken on and beaten some of the big household names in terms of engagement on Facebook and we now have a continually growing, active  membership base of over 43,000 fans.

So what’s behind our success? Here are some top tips from our social media management team:

Learn which content works and doesn’t work

Trial and test different types of content to assess what your target audience is most likely to engage with. In the case of Park Bench, the most effective content relates to specific dog breeds as dog owners can directly relate to this themselves.

It’s also important to include a a rich content mix. Don’t just keep uploading text, pics or videos links consecutively; mix it up a bit.

Think about tone of voice

Think about the tone of voice you are using to engage with your audience. For Park Bench, we’ve found that colloquial language works best, and has been a definite driver in helping to increase engagement levels.

Use location targeting

Although Park Bench has a nation-wide appeal, we also create content that focuses on our 10 most popular areas of the country. This helps to encourage discussions around topics that are hyper-relevant.

We used Facebook insights to identify the top 10 areas where most of our fans live.

Know your demographic

For Park Bench, we know our audience is mostly made up of women aged between 35-45 years old. You need to work out the demographic of your audience and when they’re most active online.

Offer a unique proposition

Part of Park Bench’s appeal is that we offer weekly “Ask a Vet” sessions. This is a unique proposition and no other Facebook community offers this service. Park Bench community members can ask professional vets a host of questions relating to the health and well-being of their dog. This helps to encourage return visits as well as increasing engagement throughout the week, not just on the “Ask a Vet” day itself, as members can access this content from the Facebook page if and when needed.

Create community advocacy

Identify people who are the most active and spend time getting to know them and personally engaging with them. Park Bench advocates are a lovely bunch, so for us this is really easy to do and it’s a genuine pleasure communicating with them on a regular basis.