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I just took a quick coffee break after writing down this blog’s title. Did Facebook change it’s algorithm while I was away? Hey, I’m not kidding. That’s how rapidly Facebook has got us digital marketers spinning our content. It’s difficult to stick to one plan of action with this medium, you have to just keep tapping what’s new and keep tweaking your tactics while keeping your end goal in mind.
Just recently, Facebook’s new page templates have been launched, giving you the option of showing your most effective content on the top of your page. Just like that, video engagement was the hottest thing on Facebook for quite some time, even though Facebook admitted goofing up with the number of views. But throughout these trends and quick fixes, certain rules remain the same. These are the creative rules of Facebook engagement (as we like to call them in our greenhouse). And we’re going to share five of them with you here.
Successful ways of handling your brand’s Facebook page
#1. Share unique content only
This is exactly why we use the editorial calendar. To ensure that our content on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook is different from one another. Your Instagram followers should be surprised when they land on your Facebook page and vice versa. This quite often means creating more content, unique to that media but it also means tweaking the content to suit the media you are sharing it at.
For instance, when the popular Instagram celebrity @Dougthepugpaid a visit to Mark Zuckerberg’s dog Beast, this is what Mark posted to his Facebook page and his Instagram feed.
Note the difference in the kind of photograph chosen and the caption picked. Your content on Facebook should be specifically chosen for it and altered to get the most engagement on that medium. Don’t state the obvious. Add a little imagination, use a different perspective and make the same card look more appealing and interesting!
#2. Repurpose your content
We are writing this blog for various reasons. A) it has certain keywords that will help push our Google rank. B) we are talking about something that is relevant to our audience C) We found some great examples and decided to put them together in a blog post. Why am I telling you this? Because now you know, this blog post can be presented in at least three different ways.
I will probably share it a few times over the next 6 months and each time it will be targeting a different segment of my audience, while still appearing fresh and relevant. This is called repurposing your content. When you’ve got an active Facebook page, you have to keep filling the newsfeed with interesting content. Hence, when writing blogs or making videos, always keep in mind ‘repurposing’. This would mean minimal efforts and maximum results.
#3. Talk to different segments and time your posts accordingly
As a fashion retailer, Forever 21 knows its audience really well. Who do you think is its target customer? Well, young women, of course! But young women of various backgrounds. The-fashionable-student, the fresher-at-work, the has-gained-some-weight-recently, and so many others. Through it’s Facebook page, Forever 21 wants to reach out to all of these young women.
Thus when your Facebook page reaches out to a diverse audience with customized content and times its posts to do so, there are more chances of engagement. When creating content for your Facebook page, try to make cards for each of your buyer personas and try to target them individually with content that they specifically shall find engaging.
#4. Some engagements always work
Fill in the blanks, Share vs Likes, Q&A, Caption the photo, Tag the first friend you can think of, these kind of engagements are easy and fun.They almost always work. Try to include at least 2 of these in a week’s schedule. This will keep your Facebook engagement soaring. And who says these engagements will not include your product. You can be crafty and hit two birds with one stone. Engage your audience and show your product too! Look how coke does it…
Facebook wants you to put video first. Period. Hence, adopting video as a regular feature on your Facebook page will help increase both reach and engagement. Lululemon does this wonderfully.
This vs that posts work really well for product-based brands. Look how Wallmart often does a Like vs Share contest to create excitement about its products and get people to interact.
Another effective post is a CTA embedded post that does both, excite them about your product and induce them to do something as a result of it. Here’s an example from Nutella.
#5. Stop spoon-feeding them. Now.
The best performing Facebook posts use 40 characters. We often feel that our fans will get confused or feel annoyed for the lack of proper communication. But that’s wrong. People like being treated as intelligent and smart consumers. Let them click on links and go about fetching the information, asking for more. Don’t stuff everything into that Facebook post.
Victoria’s Secret does this beautifully. Take a look at their Facebook page.
Managing your brand’s Facebook page is becoming a very strategic process that should directly correlate to your business objectives. You may think that getting a steady traffic from your Facebook page means your job is done, but you never know when Facebook will change it’s algorithm and your traffic goals will go for a toss. You have to build a connection with your Facebook fans that will help you sustain such algorithm-triggered emergencies. If you need help managing your brand on Facebook and other social media, we’d love to give it a look for you. Get in touch with us here.
Find some Facebook engagement tips to help you drive footfalls to your store here.