5 Tips For More Successful Facebook Posts
Welcome to our “Monday Morning Marketing Moment”. This is the 5th in a series of blog posts that center around digital marketing.
Today we will be talking about how you can improve your Facebook post views and engagement.
Facebook, as we know, is a huge marketing tool for both small and large businesses. Facebook gives us the opportunity to post text, images and videos. We can run contests and create ads. We can define custom audiences and capture metrics.
But, for today, let’s focus on the post – the free post that costs us nothing except a few minutes of our day.
Here are 5 tips on having more successful posts.
1. Post the right types of posts
Facebook allows 4 types of posts:
- Text
- Links
- Images
- Videos
Some studies show that videos get the most engagement. Others will say that link posts are better. The truth is, the studies don’t really matter. What matters is what your audience is clicking on.
If you are a performer, a short video of one of your performances may get the most views. If you are selling art, image posts may work best for you. If you are a technology expert, links to your articles may perform best.
The important thing is to know what your audience likes best. You can easily see how your posts are doing by viewing the insights of your Facebook page.
Experiment with different types of posts. Once you get a sense of what posts are performing the best, you can better focus your efforts.
2. Post at the right time
A common misconception is that we should be posting at peak times.
The problem with this strategy is that you are competing with everyone else that is posting during this time. The truth is, Facebook will only show your posts to a segment of your fans (people who have liked your page).
If you post during off-peak times (evenings, and weekends in particular), you have a much better chance of your post showing up on your fans’ newsfeed.
Again, some experimenting and testing is needed to find those best times. Use your Facebook insights to tack how your posts are doing over time.
3. Keep it short and sweet
Facebook allows you to insert up to 63,206 characters in a status update, but, obviously, that is not optimum. In fact, posts with 40 characters or less get much more engagement than do longer posts.
Take some time to craft your posts to get the idea across in the fewest amount of words.
4. Quality over quantity
A good rule of thumb for Facebook is to post once a day. If you post more than that, you run the risk of annoying people. If you post less than that, you can be seen as being inconsistent.
When you do post, post content that is valuable to your audience. While it’s tempting to post cute cat videos or vacation photos, leave those to your personal Facebook profile and keep your Business Page professional.
5. Lose the hashtags
Unlike Twitter or Instagram posts, Facebook posts with hashtags generally don’t fare as well.
There are a couple exceptions.
When posting about events, or if you have a branded hashtag being used in an advertising campaign, it is acceptable to use hashtags (sparingly) on Facebook. For instance, Nike has had success with #justdoit, as has Pepsi with #PepsiPerfect.
An example of an event hashtag is the use of #SMMW2016 to promote Social Media Marketing World 2016.
For the most part, however, the use of hashtags is better left to the Social Media networks where they work best (Twitter and Instagram).
There you have it … my 5 top tips for improving your Facebook posts.
Which strategy works best for you? Let me know in the comments.
And of course, if you are interested in chatting with us about your Social Media Strategy, drop us a line.
