With the introduction of Facebook Zero early last year, many businesses (and that includes big and small) have seen a decline in the rate of engagement on their posts. Fewer likes, fewer reactions, fewer clicks, which, in turn, leads to fewer people seeing your post, and the vicious circle continues. And, forget telling people to “like this post” or “comment below”; Facebook demotes content which openly tries to force engagement. So, how do you get people to engage without telling them to do so?
Tip 1: Know what content your audience loves.
There’s no use in sharing posts that your audience isn’t interested in, so, the trick is to find out what they have responded best to in the past. For this, you’ll need your Facebook Insights.
One of the most useful tools Facebook Business has to offer, Insights can show you statistics on all of your previous posts, and give you an idea of what content people have reacted well, or maybe not so well, to. From this, you can make a list of your posts with the highest performance, and another for those with the lowest. These will help you to decide which types of content are working well for your brand, and which types need revising.
Image Credit: Buffer
Tip 2: Know when your audience is online.
With so many posts being uploaded onto Facebook every day, it’s not enough to just wait for your audience to come to you, you have to go to them. This means knowing when your followers are online, and making sure your posts land in their feed at that time. And, this is where Facebook Insights comes in handy again. They will analyse your followers and tell you the best days to posts, and, more specifically, the best time to post on those days.
Extra Top Tip: Social media management site, Hootsuite, has an auto-schedule feature which determines the best time for posting, and will schedule and upload your post to social media for this time.
Image Credit: Hootsuite
Tip 3: Ask your followers to help
One of our favourite tips, and often one people haven’t heard of before, Facebook gives followers the option to see your page’s posts first in their timeline. Encouraging people to do so will help with your overall reach and engagement, as, not only will people be seeing your posts before anyone else’s, but the people who choose to “See First” are more likely to be loyal followers of your brand with a genuine interest in your products or services.
The “Community” feature on your feed can come in handy here too. From there, followers can invite their friends to like your page. Put out an honest post to ask for the support of your followers, and request that they invite their friend to start following your feed.
Tip 4: Use Stories
Another tip that will help you gain visibility on Facebook; use their Stories feature. Introduced in 2017 and making no signs of moving, Stories last for 24 hours and feature at the top of your audience’s News Feed, putting them in prime position to be seen. Sharing content as Stories increases the chances of your brand getting noticed and your name being remembered, and will help to push people to your main feed.
Tip 5: Facebook Groups
While Facebook Groups have previously been for the use of personal accounts only, recent updates have allowed Business Pages to join up too, offering you a new platform to share your content, interact with potential customers, and become a part of a community-driven sector of Facebook. Groups relating to the area that your company is based in are worth joining, and regularly interacting with other people’s posts on here will help to strengthen your position in the community and help people to immediately recognise your name. It can also come in useful to join groups relating to the type of product or service you sell, as you will be able to gain knowledge of your market, what people are talking about in real-time, and what they are responding well to.
Extra Top Tip: If you are uploading posts into these groups, it is important to remember not to go for the “hard sell”; there are groups specifically made for advertising your business, products, and services, so it’s a good idea to join these for that purpose.
Top Tip 6: Engage!
Last, but definitely not least; engage, engage, engage! They call it “social media” for a reason, it’s all about – you guessed it – being social. The most important thing you can do to help beat the Facebook algorithms and get your posts seen is to engage on other people’s posts. Head to your page’s feed and get liking and commenting, and in time you’ll see people starting to do the same with you.