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AdminJan 22, 2019 8:19:07 AM8 min read

10 Facebook Engagement Strategies By Ako Stark

Business owners who use social networking sites effectively are able to promote their businesses in powerful ways. For businesses of any size, one of the best ways to do this is with a Facebook business page.

Facebook began as a way for college students and other young adults to connect online. That may have been its beginning, but today it has become a powerful marketing tool for businesses and community organizations. 

Do you want more organic visibility in your Facebook news feed? Wondering what types of posts and content are working for your competitors? For truly effective social media marketing, you need to know how to drive engagement, be compelling, and give value!

And that’s easier said than done!

In this article, I will share 10 powerful strategies to create Facebook posts that generate conversions and improve organic news feed visibility.

Why Is Facebook Engagement So Important?

A Facebook post’s is a direct result of the content making some sort of significant impact on people. The kind of impact they feel compelled to respond to. Making these moments of impact and emotional involvement consistent across a measurable target audience is at the heart of successful social media marketing.

Human nature being what it is, seeing reactions and comments on a post will trigger curiosity and, as a result, drive more attention and associated impact with the brand. However, for many businesses, this goal gets limited to merely having their posts shared, which is shortsighted. Content (and the business name attached to it) has the capacity to reach whole new audiences, and the sharing itself adds an endorsement, or social proof, to the post. This is a huge opportunity, and not to be taken lightly.

Attracting engagement is also central to the visibility of your posts in the Facebook news feed. 

To rank your business content in news feeds, you need to create posts that attract long comments and/or encourage sharing or discussion. So creating engagement is central to successful Facebook marketing.

Ako Stark
Example of great Facebook post Engagement.

So the million dollar question is, how can you ensure that your posts will attract engagement? The first step is to do a little research about what’s working for you and others.

What’s Working for You Now?

Facebook offers in-depth analytics of all of the activity on your Facebook page. If you click on the Page Insights tab you will be able to see it. 

Facebook Insights

Navigate to Posts in the left navigation and check the time that your audience is most likely to be online. Use this information to help you plan your posting schedule.

 

Facebook Posting Strategy

Scroll past the Posts tab to review whether you’re:

  • Posting consistently (to stand out with your audience and allow you to make the most of the algorithm)
  • Sharing a mix of different content types, both in terms of topic and media (even your most ardent fans will get bored if you share the same stuff all the time)

Next, analyze your recent posts to see which have received the most engagement. Focus on the number of comments and shares received, because these interactions will impact the Facebook algorithm and your Facebook marketing results the most.

You can also find out which posts reached people who aren’t yet fans of your page.

Facebook Fans

Below you can see what it loos like when you hover over the post with your computer mouse. 

Fans Vs None Fans

On the People tab of Facebook Insights, you’ll discover information about your audience and the people who are engaging with your Facebook posts. Review these details regularly to ensure that your content is optimized to attract the right people for your business.

Facebook Strategy

What’s Working for Other Businesses?

For inspiration to create new types of posts, scan pages from other businesses who are targeting similar audiences to you. These can be competitors or your mentors. See which posts are generating engagement. Use these insights to identify media types (images, video), formats (images, text-image combos, longer or shorter videos, captions or lacks of captions), as well as the length and tone of your copy. Lastly, but certainly not least importantly, is the frequency of your posting.

As an alternative, you could just use a tool like BuzzSumo. These platforms allow users to research their competition on the world’s biggest social media site, Facebook. The Large BuzzSumo plan costs $299 per month month, and is available as a free 7-day trial as well. Whichever you choose, once you’re up and running, use the Facebook Analyzer tool to search for engagement-rich postsFilter your results according to what kind of engagement they’re getting, for insights that really outline what works and what doesn’t.

#1: Collect Questions via Comments for an AMA (Ask Me Anything). 

Illicit engagement and responses from your audiences by prompting your audience to ask you questions. The best approach, here, is to designate themes and question topics. Establish a cutoff date, then explain who will be answering each question, and when this will happen.

And always have fun! Put engaging, informed people in the spotlight, and let them answer questions in a unique voice. Your staff is one of the best resources you have, and nothing drives engagement better than an authentic person speaking knowledgeably. Put suppliers on the phone. Let experts speak. The results are more likely to be fun, engaging and informative, and you can share these answers anywhere you like. Create a video to take advantage of the tone and hype around your AMA. Document the process in a blog, or just translate the session into a Facebook Live video, to really capitalized on your forward momentum.

Good engagement creates more engagement, so work hard at squeezing out every last drop.

Facebook Engagement Strategy

#2: Share an Offer in the News Feed to Generate Messenger Connections

Amplify your Facebook marketing with Facebook Messenger bots. These solutions are specially designed for use in small businesses, addressing any number of specific user requests. Bots allow you to provide automated responses to comments, or ask people to comment on your post. 

This is a solid approach, provided you have value-based lead magnets, and you make it your mission to build Messenger lists. Share vouchers, and use the data from this distribution to create comprehensive lists. Whatever your approach, once your bot tool has been created, vouchers are delivered directly to the Messenger inboxes anyone commenting on your post.

This is a great way to attract comments, signaling to Facebook that the content you’re sharing is of a high level of quality:

Business Page Facebook

#3: Illustrate Sentiment With Emojis

Emojis in posts generally promote have higher rates of likes, comments, and shares than otherwise. Posts that feature these emojis help to portray your business as down-to-earth, leading to longer retention of your content.

Facebook Growth

#4: Share a Shout-Out for Content Created by Your Fans and Customers

Photos and site content created by fans helps to showcase your community, and exhibit how much your customers matter to you. Get permission from the creator if you want to share their content or put them in the spotlight, obviously, but really push for it, because this can be a giant ad for your relationship with your supporters.

Facebook Strategies

#5: Run a Comment Contest

Increase your engagement quickly and reliably by running contests and giveaways via your Facebook page. And always remember to ask for comments on each post, either to enter or to boost their entry.

Facebook Giveaways

#6: Ask for Audience Feedback

Everybody wants to feel included. It makes them feel like what they do matters. Turn this basic human trait to your advantage by asking your audience for feedback or suggestions in various small business decisions. Give them a stake in what’s going on, and you’ll work wonders at increasing engagement.

Facebook Tips
Perfect example of asking your followers for feedback.

#7: Pose Open-Ended Questions

The best approach to making new friends is to ask them questions about themselves. The same applies to business. Avoid the engagement bait by asking questions on Facebook. This is a shortcut to attracting responses, and you can make the question as lighthearted as you like, as in this post:

Facebook Strategy

#8: Talk About Community Involvement and Impact Beyond Business

Nobody likes a business that’s just about the money. Share updates about non-profits or charities that fall under your radar, and help to publicize their fundraising. Community projects help to humanize your operation, showing your readers a nicer side of you.

Facebook Engagement

#9: Invite the World to Laugh With You

Human moments are what social media is all about, and the more open you can be, the better people are likely to react to your online presence. Go for funny or even mildly frustrating. Turn these into engaging posts that attract responses from readers. You have to know your audience well enough to understand their likes, dislikes, and annoyances.

Facebook Post

Connecting with other people makes for a good life. We all want to feel understood, and part of that is identifying with someone. Create posts your audience can connect to, and your engagement will skyrocket.

#10: Live-Stream 

Ramp up your engagement the quick way with high-quality live-stream content. Live videos on average garner more than five times as many interactions as standard videos. Facebook Live videos attract over 1,000% more comments than uploaded videos.

Shorter videos generate better responses, so remember not to ramble. Make your Facebook live streams long enough to give people the chance to join and engage, but not so long they tune out. Aim for a minimum of 15 minutes, and a max of 25 to 30.

For better engagement, remember to promote your live even a few days in advance. If nobody knows you’re going live, they won’t join the stream. You’ll be creating content for nobody, and miss the opportunity to engage. Promotion is crucial to your job, so make sure you bring everybody to your page to listen to you speak. Also, remember to keep the times you go live every week consistent, so that your followers can diarize your show times.

Conclusion

As with anything good in life, make sure to check in with your Facebook page Insights regularly to make sure they’re operating effectively. Your Facebook posts will attract engagement, but some will perform better than others, and you’ll be happy to know how and where you’re going wrong. Ultimately, your audience decides what they think is worth their time, and you need an understanding of how they think. And that just takes time.

Also Read: SEO 2018 Vs. SEO 2019 | Tips and Ranking Factors

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