Ah, Friday afternoons... Time for thinking about happy hours, weekend plans and Facebook posts. Wait. Facebook posts? I’m trying to get out of here, not add something to my to-do list.

Hear me out.

According to a Time article on the newest Adobe Social Intelligence Report, Facebook posts on Friday gain the most impressions compared to posts done on other days of the week. One theory for this jump in impressions is that people, instead of starting a new project on Friday afternoon, would rather check in with their friends and family on Facebook to jumpstart their weekend plans. 

And here is where an opportunity comes in for park and recreation professionals. As Facebookers start to relax into the weekend and think about the plans they want to make, park and recreation agencies have a primetime audience to share their weekend events with on Friday afternoons. So while it’s good to remind your community about events in advance, it’s also good to reinforce your message to them on Friday afternoons right when their brains are thinking about weekend plans. 

Another interesting part of this report is that videos are seeing higher engagement on Fridays—about 25 percent of all video plays for Facebook pages happen on Friday. The report suggests this is due in large part thanks to the auto-play feature Facebook started at the end of 2013, although posts with images and photos still have the highest engagement overall. So when you do your Friday afternoon post on your weekend events, consider posting a video or image to really catch your community’s attention. The video or photo doesn’t have to be elaborate—smartphone videos and photos work great and can upload easily. Here are some ideas:

• Head out to the location of the event and do a quick 30-second interview with someone who is making it happen. You can ask practical questions like, “What’s going to happen?” and fun ones like, “Which town celebrity do you challenge to a ____ tomorrow?” Make it fun and make it quick—nothing over 60 seconds.  
  
  
• Do a “silent” video. Just capture the ambient noise and do a tour of the event space. Provide any commentary in a short description “Here is where we’ll be doing ____ tomorrow!” 
  
  
• Snap a #selfie with someone from the community who will be attending the event. Silly faces encouraged. 
  
  
• Give a sneak peak of something from the event. This could be a photo or a video. Make it seem like your Facebook fans are really getting the inside scoop. Show the trophies/ribbons/t-shirts still in the box or take a picture from behind a wall looking into the event space. Just a little something to catch your community’s attention and get them thinking that your event could be their weekend plan.

 

 Here’s a sneak peak of where we’ll be hosting our event, “Watch NRPA Staff Eat Lunch,” tomorrow! Be sure to join us! 

 

What successes have you had with Friday Facebook posts? Any lessons learned from promoting events on social? We’d love to hear what you’ve done. Share your ideas or questions with us on our Facebook or Twitter pages!

 

Roxanne Sutton is NRPA’s Senior Marketing and Communications Specialist and honorary social media maven.