As social media engagement on Facebook rises, response rates from brands are slipping. Brands are struggling to get their messages in front of users thanks to a decline in organic reach of Page posts, but are they responding to their customers when they actually need something? The stats suggest that they’re not doing it enough. Perhaps this should be a bigger area of focus for brands.

Do you adequately respond to people on Facebook? Do you have trouble reaching other brands? Let us know in the comments.

Earlier this year, eMarketer compiled some data from Sprout Social, reporting that social media response rates and times were dipping as user engagement “exploded”. User engagement, it found, was growing nine times faster than Facebook and Twitter combined. Things were even worse on Facebook than on Twitter.

“How are brands keeping up? Results indicated they were not: Average brand response rates for both Twitter and Facebook dipped below 20% year over year, and response times increased from 10.9 hours to 11.3 hours,” the report said. “On Facebook, response times came in at 15 hours, on average, while Twitter was at 7.9 hours.”

“The banking/finance industry was a shining star among sectors, answering 28% of users—the No. 1 response rate—typically in 10.0 hours,” it said. “Utilities had an even shorter response time (9.7 hours) and a response rate of 27%.”

Here’s a look at the stats:

Now, SocialBakers has a report out (via InsideFacebook) for June stats for the U.S., which shows that response rates from brands are still sinking. Overall, it has the average response rate at 38% after a 48% showing in May.

A couple years ago, the firm introduced its “Socially Devoted” industry standard, measuring brands that create open lines of communication with fans, respond to fans’ questions at least 65% of the time, and do so in a timely fashion. They talked about it at Le Web a bit:

You can get a look at the brand rankings here, and see who’s doing it right. Check out their Pages, and get an idea of what they’re doing.

Socialbakers shares these reports in a nice PNG infographic-like format, so here’s the whole thing for you to sink your teeth into:

The takeaway here is simple. Pay attention to your fans. Chances are you’re already having hard enough time reaching them in the first place. At least treat the ones who have sought you out with the respect they deserve.

Is your response rate up to snuff? Do you have the time and resources to make it so? Let us know in the comments.

Image via SocialBakers