It’s a question every content marketer asks themselves on a daily basis: how do we gain more followers and enhance engagement on Facebook? Let’s start with the basics: an engaged following means that you have an audience that trusts you and likes you. Having an engaged audience is how content marketers and businesses are able to boost sales and build an entire community of online followers who trust, know, and like your brand. But the question still remains: how do you get these followers and what steps can you take to ensure that your brand is making an impact within the Facebook community? Don’t worry, we’ve compiled 5 strategies that will help boost your Facebook engagement that will ultimately enable you to crush your competition.
Want to discover these 5 coveted strategies? Continue reading to become a Facebook expert!
Post at optimal times
Because most of us all have personal Facebook accounts, we like to assume that we are Facebook experts (that cute picture of my dog got 10 likes? Wow, I am totally rocking it!). While my pup Hudson is probably the cutest dog in the world, it doesn’t mean that I necessarily took into consideration best practices for Facebook engagement when I posted his last photo. We tend to think that the best time to post on Facebook is the time that we personally are scrolling through our own newsfeeds. Unfortunately, that’s not the case for digital marketing and building a brand on Facebook.
According to coschedule.com, Eastern and Central time zones represent 80% of the U.S. population. If you’re trying to target the entire population of the United States in your posts, this is a key statistic to take into consideration. You don’t want to post on Facebook at 7 p.m. Pacific Standard Time because, for the majority of your audience, that is 9 or 10 at night (and if you’re a grandma like me, you’re probably already in bed watching Netflix while you doze off to The Office at 8:30). This is where Google Analytics comes into play. We know you’ve probably heard this a million times, but using this tool allows you to see where your primary audience is located, which will help you hone in on when you should and shouldn’t post (i.e if your audience is primarily located in California, you don’t really have to take the east coast time difference into consideration).
So, what are the optimal times to post on Facebook? According to Coschedule, you will get higher engagement if you post on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and/or Sunday at either 9 a.m., 1 p.m., or 3 p.m.. If you post at 3 p.m., you will get more likes, whereas posting at 1 p.m. will get you the most shares.
Pro Tip: People are genuinely happier on Fridays (shocking, I know), so those funny GIFs you’ve been dying to post will create more engagement if you post them on a Friday!
Keep track of your engagement and adjust accordingly
If you want to know how your posts are really doing, you need to take a look at your engagement. You might think that your post did poorly because it only got a few likes, but if the post got 5 shares and a few comments, it was actually a successful post, as shares and comments outweigh likes. Why? Shares and comments give your posts an opportunity to be seen by a whole new audience and, therefore, provide an opportunity for you to gain more people who are interested in your page and your brand as a whole (you might get some new page likes out of it as well)!
Paid Ads
We’ve talked about this before, but Facebook has made it extremely difficult to get posts in front of your audience organically. They want you to have to pay in order to get your posts to be seen by your audience. We know, it’s unfair, but if you want your posts to get a high reach for the specific audience that you’re targeting, you’re going to need to dish out the dough. While you can bid as little or as much as you want on Facebook ads, the higher you bid, the more likes, shares, and reach you are going to get for that post.
Pro Tip: Make sure you’re keeping track of your ads and check on them on a regular basis! You don’t want to be spending money on an ad that isn’t engaging your target audience or just isn’t doing well in general. Notice the trends and make adjustments accordingly. In addition, you can change your ad bid at any time, so make sure that the money you’re spending is within your total budget and is helping, rather than hurting your business.
Extend your organic reach
Community engagement is key in expanding your organic reach. You can’t just sit back and expect people to like your page and engage with your post. Find other pages that are similar to your own. Like their posts. Comment. Share. If you’re engaging with another company’s page on a regular basis, the chance that they will engage with your posts increases substantially. Another perk? You show up on people’s newsfeeds more frequently when you are consistently engaging with the other company’s pages and vice versa. Organic reach is possible on Facebook, but you need to put in the time and effort in order to see results (we promise it’s worth it)!
Use strategies that can help you stand out from your competitors
According to Hubspot Video content represents 74% of all internet traffic. Let me repeat that. Video content represents 74% of all internet traffic. Want to boost your posts and get engagement? Post your own videos or share videos that align with your industry. Videos engage your audience and more people are likely to watch a video to the very end than they are to thoroughly read a post.
If you’re not quite sure you want to dive into the whole video scene just yet, use images to engage your audience. Posts that contain an image do substantially better than posts without. According to Brainrules.net, a person who hears a piece of information will remember just 10% of it three days later, while someone who sees that same information in a picture will recall 65% of it. If you want to make a lasting impression on your audience, images are key. Not a Photoshop or Illustrator pro? Don’t panic! Using sites like canva can allow you to create images that are custom to your brand and look extremely professional (plus, it makes you feel like you’re a Photoshop rockstar).
It’s no secret that it takes some heart and dedication in order to build your Facebook empire. Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen overnight. Want to know how to make this process even easier? Orbit Design’s Marketing Machine Team has its very own Social Media Marketing Package that will make tackling Facebook even easier for you and your business. Contact us today to make sure your brand is the authority figure on all social platforms.