That means you have to work harder smarter to maximize the impact of your Facebook marketing strategy.
These tips help you make the most of paid and organic strategies.
1. Schedule Updates
Check your page insights and track all engagement levels. Schedule your updates around activity spikes on your Facebook page.
Another trick that will help boost engagement is to schedule your updates just before or after the hour to take advantage of users who are checking their social feeds prior to and after appointments or meetings. For example, instead of posting something at 9:00 a.m., post at 8:45 a.m. instead. This will ensure you have a better chance of reaching those people who start work at 9:00 a.m., have a meeting to go to, etc.
Try to post two to three times every week.
2. Paying & Promoting
Leave Like-drives for your fan building or community building initiatives.
Put dollars behind each of your posts to boost engagement. Only pay to promote your own, original content. Opt for news feed and mobile ad placements. Typically, right side ads receive less engagement.
Once your paid campaigns are scheduled, add one or two organic posts to your timeline. They can include original content as well as curated content but you should only pay to promote original content.
If your budget is limited, opt for one paid posting each week and post organically two to three times throughout the rest of the week. But unless you're sharing viral content, your organic posts probably won't see much activity from your community.
For ideas to make your content more community-friendly and other Facebook marketing tips, check out our blog: 10 Tips to Make Your Content More Social!
3. Variety
We recommend the following variations:
- Pose a question
- Share a quote
- Offer a statistic
- Provide tips or how-tos
- Include a CTA in your post copy
- Ask visitors to take a specific action:
- Vote
- Caption an image
- Fill-in-the-blank
- Like a post
By sharing questions or asking for a specific action to be taken such as voting, liking etc. you communicate on a personal level and are asking for a response.
Content like statistics, tips and how-to's allow you to be the expert.
4. Photos And Videos
Incorporating images into posts have proven to increase performance on Facebook. Some of these can include:
- People
- Animals
- Food shots and recipes
- Infographics
Videos get pushed to the top of Facebook's feed, which is great for impressions. So, you'll want to try to include video posts in your content calendar.
Photos of your holiday party or fun parody videos involving employees can go a long way with your followers. Check out SEP's Harlem Shake video for a great example.
5. Curated Content
When curating content, use a link preview when possible. According to Facebook, their algorithm rewards link previews, so using a link preview may boost your organic reach.
Try to keep your posts between 40-80 characters (not including the link preview). People are more likely to be attracted to something that's easy on the eyes, word wise. However, this doesn't mean you should sacrifice context or personality for length. A really well-crafted post (even if it's of considerable length) has the potential to trump all the rules.
As seen in SEP's post above, the post is short and sweet which leaves the audience with a reason to click the link and explore the post. As you can see, the post also incorporated a link preview which as mentioned above, can help to boost organic reach.
6. Engage Your Audience
"Like" other Facebook pages of interest to your brand or business and try to read this Opesta Review to start using Opesta to engage with your audience. For example, the NHL may choose to "like" feeder leagues like the OHL and the AHL, product companies like Bauer and Under Armour, and team or player official Facebook pages like the Toronto Maple Leafs or Sidney Crosby.
By "liking" related brands or people, your audience not only learns more about you, but may stay on your page longer, visit related pages, etc.
Respond to ALL comments, positive & negative, in a timely manner. Just like your business' customer service team, you want to take action regarding all types of comments on social media as well. Ignoring negative posts only brings attention you don't want.
7. Your Facebook Profile
For completion sake its fitting to mention it's important to complete your Facebook. You wouldn't let your website go live if it was missing key components; treat your Facebook profile the same way.
Update all URLs, use an engaging profile picture and cover photo, and include a full description of your business in the "About" section. When people visit your Facebook page, don't make them search around for information, have it ready for them!
As shown here, SEP's profile picture is the cog from their logo. It's a simple photo, but it's effective and recognizable. SEP has then created their cover photo using the same cog to make autumn-coloured leaves on a tree.
SEP's "About" section is fully completed without throwing too much information at the user. It explains what the company does, the mission statement and offers a CTA. The "Basic info" section is informative and includes some of the main products and services offered. There's no need to list every single thing you can offer. Simply listing a few of your main services, or perhaps the most popular ones is effective enough.
Conclusion
Although content promotion is essential, it's not as simple as it used to be. As social media networks like Facebook become more popular and gain more users, you can no longer guarantee that content you share will be seen by your audience, particularly as organic reach declines. It is because of this that you need to have a strong strategy for promoting content across all social media platforms. Organic posting needs to be balanced out with paid posting in order to drive engagement.
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* Leader image with photo by Master OSM 2011