Small business owners that understand the value of social media marketing expend a lot of effort to gain Facebook LIKEs but that is only half of the equation. Once you have Facebook fans it is important to interact and engage those users.
Your posts will eventually drop out of the News Feeds of your fans when they do not interact with your posts.
In a recent Hubspot webinar Chris Luo of Facebook outlined a few ways to engage your business page fans with quality content.
1. Post Regularly
At a minimum you should be posting to Facebook twice a week. (Note: At Calvert Design Group we recommend our clients post to their Facebook pages with a little more frequency, 4-5 times per week.) If needed, create a calendar and plan your posts. You can also take advantage of the scheduling feature of Facebook. You also want to be careful not to over-post. Too many irrelevant posts can cause your fans to Unlike your page.
2. Be Succinct
Short posts of 2-3 lines (100-200 characters) will receive 60% more LIKEs. Enough said.
3. Post at the Right Time
Facebook engagement is at its peak between 9-10PM, but this will vary by business. Example – morning posts work best for restaurants since it is a post that will help people plan their day.
4. Respond to Comments and Messages
This is your opportunity to connect with your Facebook fans in an authentic voice. Monitor your Facebook messages, not just wall posts. Also remove spam from your wall posts as they occur.
5. Ask Questions
What better way to encourage engagement than to ask a question your fans WANT to answer. Make it easy for them to respond with fill-in-the-blank style questions – they receive a much higher response rate.
6. Post Photos & Videos
The statistics show that posts with a photo receive 120% higher engagement rates than those without – for posts with video the increase is 100%.
7. Exclusive Content
Provide access to content on your website or special deals only your Facebook fans can access.
8. Use Page Post Ads
A general rule of thumb from Facebook tells us that only 16% of your pages Facebook fans will see one of your posts. This number rises and falls based upon engagement. If you have an important post you might consider using Page Post Ads in your Ad Manager.
9. Use Promoted Posts
To maximize the impact of an important marketing message you might consider the option to Promote your Posts. When available you will see a Promote post button when you post. You can set the budget options and will be able to measure the reach.
10. Monitor Page Insights
Watch your insights and see what posts were the most engaging for your particular fan base and repeat what works.
Questions?
Have you ever tried any of these tactics? What has your response looked like? We would love to hear from you! If you would like to sit down with me and review your social media marketing efforts don’t hesitate to contact me directly.
