You’re probably aware that the content you post on your business or brand’s Facebook page is a critical part of your Facebook marketing strategy. But if you’re curious as to the type of content that drives the most engagement, wonder no more. New research released by Facebook this week shows that brand-related content results in the most engagement—both organically and through promotions like Facebook ads and sponsored stories.

The internal study examined four weeks’ worth of page posts from 23 brands across six industries. Facebook researchers divided the posts into three categories: posts about products or services, brand-related posts and posts unrelated to the brand.

After amassing and studying the data, results revealed that brand-related posts are the most effective types of content when it comes to driving engagement. And that engagement can be any sort of interaction with the post or page—a like, a share, a comment, a click, a view, an RSVP, etc.

If you thought those insights were valuable, just wait. As part of the study, Facebook also offered some content posting guidelines that brands should follow based on their Facebook marketing goals.

For example, if your page’s goal is to generate shares, Facebook’s recommendation is that you post about topics related to your brand and supplement that content with photos, photo albums and video.

If you want to generate likes, Facebook recommends posting about your brand while including a call-to-action such as “Like this post if you’re excited to see our new summer menu.”

And if one of your primary goals is to generate comments, include a call-to-action, such as a question, at the end of your brand-related content.

Although this research is undoubtedly helpful, you’ll also want to take these insights and recommendations a step further by carefully studying your Facebook page’s analytics and understanding not only what type of content your audience wants, but also what they’ll respond to. Encouraging the sharing of information, as well as conversation and dialogue, are two of the primary goals of Facebook marketing, regardless of your business or industry. And by tailoring your content to fit your Facebook audience, much as you would as part of a larger content marketing strategy, you’ll likely create a more engaged population that helps keep your Facebook page thriving.

Does this latest research from Facebook change the way you’ll approach your Facebook marketing strategy?

Image by Ksayer1 via Creative Commons