Increasing your Facebook engagement can seem daunting if you’re new to Facebook marketing. Heck, it can seem daunting to even the most seasoned of marketers, simply because the algorithms are always changing. No, that’s not to frustrate you, we promise. It’s done in an attempt to improve user experience and make good marketing even more effective.
However, it does keep you on your toes in figuring out how best to keep people engaged and interested in your social content.
The short answer is that engagements are the actions people take on your social content. Note that this is true regardless of platform.
Things like comments, clicks, likes, shares, and views all contribute to how engaging your content is to those who consume it.
Facebook likes to rank your content on how engaging it is because it shows them how well you’re serving your audience and communicating with them. They use algorithms to help keep the ‘spammy-mcspammers’ at bay, so that the cream can rise to the top.
The reality is that your audience will engage with content they care about or that resonates in some way. If they don’t, well… you draw your own conclusions on that!
Obviously, this list of tips isn’t exhaustive. You should also keep in mind that what works for one doesn’t always work for another. You have to discover what works for your audience through good, old-fashioned trial and error.
Before developing any marketing strategy, its imperative to know your audience. What they find interesting, what garners the most engagement, and what is typically poorly received.
‘Facebook Insights’ can go a long way in providing useful information, but you can also assess some of your most well-liked and best-performing posts yourself.
Try to find commonalities in them to help pinpoint specific things your audience enjoys the most.
Every time you have to choose between the quality or the quantity of your Facebook posts, prioritize quality. A lot of users notice an increase in engagement—by as much as three times!—when they post less.
However, the main reason behind this is that it allows users to create quality content. Curating and/or creating quality content takes time and effort.
If you are a small business owner or a social media manager, it can be difficult to find multiple quality posts in one day, which results in a lot of low quality content. Always opt for quality over quantity to keep your audience hooked.
According to most studies, Facebook audience looks for content that’s either informative, entertaining and enjoyable, or inspiring in some way, without making them feel bad about themselves.
So when you’re designing and creating your own stuff for Facebook, or even just curating kick-butt content, it’s wise to keep these parameters in mind.
One of the easiest ways to attract an audience to your posts is to enhance them with images. Use aesthetically pleasing and high-quality images that are cropped and adjusted for Facebook image sizes.
Make sure the image you choose is relevant to the post and content you’re posting. Facebook suggests for marketing purposes to attach a customer photo and/or a product photo, preferably a close-up.
However, keep in mind that not every post should be selling something (because that’s just tacky!)
One of the best ways to maintain engagement on your page is to post consistently, at targeted times. Times should be chosen depending on when you see the highest engagement from your followers.
You can get this information from the ‘People’ option on your page. You can also schedule content on Facebook to be posted, so you don’t forget. Facebook suggests posting at least two times every week to maintain engagement.
Depending on your local demographics, the times of the highest engagement on Facebook may differ. Finding the perfect time to post depends on numerous factors, including your target audience, where you are located, and what time that audience uses Facebook the most.
You can get your hands on this data through your own Facebook ‘Page Insights’ in the ‘Post’ tab. This will help you pinpoint a time frame to gain the maximum engagement possible with your followers.
Facebook Stories are another excellent way to boost engagement and attracting a new audience to your content and page. Facebook Stories give you the chance to post as many times as you want, even if the quality isn’t that high.
Stories can be used as a personal outlet to share any content, from any source, that’s somehow relatable to your target audience. Moreover, sharing recent posts in your Facebook story can also allow it to reach more people, even if it doesn’t appear on their feed due to the Facebook algorithm.
Facebook Live has gained quite a bit of popularity in the past year. Facebook has also changed their algorithm in such a way that it even ranks Live videos higher than other videos. Facebook reports that people spend almost triple the amount of their time watching live videos, compared to when those same videos are no longer live.
Additionally, people comment more on Live videos, compared to pre-recorded videos. Going live more often also causes your regular content to receive more exposure, which then increases the audience that’s exposed to your page.
Current Facebook trends show that videos are the most favored post type, in terms of engagement and audience reach. According to one study, videos garner double the engagement level when compared to other post formats. To get the most out of your video content, post them directly on Facebook, instead of posting video links from YouTube, or other video sharing platforms.
Additionally, for some reason, posting square videos receives on average higher views, more engagement, and a higher rate of watching to completion. Another study showed that most videos are watched by audiences without sound! That means it’s a great idea to add captions to help people understand your video content whether or not they listen to it.
One simple way to make sure your followers engage on your posts is to reply to their comments, tags, or mentions in the comment section or on related content.
This not only makes your audience feel included and heard, it increases the likelihood they will personally engage with future content. Remember to personalize your replies with the commenter’s name.
Everyone loves to give their two cents in discussions. Asking questions in your posts or Facebook stories is an excellent way to engage people and get opinions on various topics.
A good way to do this is to share a relevant piece of news or information, depending on your page and target audience, and ask your followers what they think about it. Facebook polls are another similar way of asking people their opinions about things, and engaging the audience in a fun and easy way.
If there is advertising room in your budget, why not use it to buy Facebook ads? You can start by figuring out the top posts on your page that have the most engagement, and then use Facebook ads to boost them so more people see it.
If you use the proper targeting, these posts will garner even more engagement and attention, and hopefully increase your follower count and engagement statistics. The nice part is that these ads aren’t very costly either. By spending a small cost on boosted posts, you can get up to four times more exposure than organic posts.
Sharing high-performing, high-quality content from other pages and sites results in a higher audience reach. People who like or follow those pages or sites, but don’t follow you, are exposed to your posts.
This in turn increases your post exposure, and may also increase the number of followers you have.
This then results in a higher engagement rate on your other posts, too. It’s like the circle of life, with high engagement feeding additional engagement.
Once you know a piece of content has performed well with your target audience, you can recycle it at a later date. This will increase the value you get out of that particular piece of content.
You could even repost old content after updating and making changes to it, if the information isn’t evergreen. It can then generate as much reach as the original post, at the very least. You’ve essentially created double the engagement from one piece of content.
Some ways of changing the original post might be to add a new image, include a poll or question in it, or even add a video to the post. You could even change up or add to the written content. However, it’s prudent to wait a few weeks before reposting to make sure your followers don’t see the same or very similar post too often.
Finally, if your page represents a brand, you could incorporate your employees into your strategy and encourage them to post tagged content. Sharing brand-related content on their personal pages will help your brand reach a separate demographic audience, and potentially increase the engagement on your post. That means even more exposure for your Facebook page!
There are really no hard and fast rules when riding the social media engagement beast. No single audience is like the other, and it will be up to you to do your due diligence, know your audience, and serve them up content they fall in love with. When they love your content, they will engage with it. It’s really that simple.
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