As we’ve discussed many times on this blog, it’s important for any business to have a social media presence in today’s world. And as I wrote recently, it’s more important to increase engagement on social media than it is to simply accumulate more followers. There seems to be a lot of confusion as to the exact definition of “engagement”, but the general consensus seems to be that it means getting people to pay attention to, or interact with you.
Since social media is still a relatively new phenomenon in the world of marketing, the jury is still out as to which channels are going to prove to be the most effective for your business. So while we can’t say definitely that Facebook is the best network to use to market your company, here’s a statistic that you can’t ignore: in the second quarter of 2015, Facebook boasted an average of 968 million daily active users. That certainly constitutes a force to be contended with, and you don’t have to spend very long on Facebook to see that an enormous number of businesses have established a presence there. Here are a few points to consider to help you increase engagement on Facebook.
Post frequently, both to your business page and your personal profile
We can’t stress enough the importance of staying active with fresh posts on your Facebook business page. But as a business owner, you can increase engagement further by also sharing the same posts on your own profile. You may want to give a slightly different, perhaps more personal spin when sharing to people in your own personal network.
Don’t self-promote to excess
Nowadays everyone expects to see you posting about sales and other special deals on your Facebook page. But most people are turned off by it. No one wants to get bombarded with sales pitches when they’re scrolling through their Facebook news feed, and in most cases, people will scroll right past your post if they smell a sales pitch. On the other hand, everyone loves free stuff, so if you combine your promotion with a contest or giveaway, it will likely get your followers in motion and get you more engagement.
Use Images
You’d think people would be getting tired of this by now, but it’s still the case that Facebook posts with pictures get viewed and liked much more than text-only posts. The social media world is constantly evolving, but the fact remains that people love to post pictures of their cats and their lunches, and people read and like those. In fact, in a study last year of the top 10% of posts, those with photos were found to achieve the greatest level of interaction: a whopping 87% of total interactions.
Make Them Laugh
Don’t be afraid to infuse some humor and levity into your Facebook posts. Users are there to have fun, not to shop or do business. A post that makes them chuckle, even if it’s not quite on-topic for your company’s products or services, will do more to increase engagement than loading up their feeds with self-promotion.
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