How do I encourage my Facebook fans to be more active on our page?
How much should I post on social media? This is a difficult question to answer when it comes to social media engagement. For most businesses, Facebook is the most popular site for creating a customer base and interacting with fans. Twitter has 900 million active users, which is great potential, but sometimes difficult to harvest.
Encouraging your fans to like, comment on, and share your posts will not only help improve your relationship with them, but also expose you to a larger audience – their friends. If you’re not getting any interactions on Facebook, it can be difficult to tell if your social media marketing is going anywhere. It can also be quite discouraging.
If you’re not seeing the kind of Facebook engagement you’re looking for, the culprit might be one of these reasons:
Because You’re Not Interesting
Talk to them like a friend The most effective way to connect with your audience is by talking to them like you would a friend. Think about why regular people use Facebook every day when you make a post. Be authentic to come across as a relatable person.
Be funny. Be interesting. Post different types of content. Be worth liking. Do not treat posting to Facebook as something that you do everyday without thinking about it. Strive to make each post meaningful.
Because They Don’t Know Who You Are
Are you sure that the story you’re telling your fans is one that they’ll be proud to identify with and share with their friends?
Many people become fans of a brand on Facebook in order to show support for the brand to their friends. Your Facebook page and posts should show the personality of your brand. Ideally, this would be a personality that people would want to be around.
Because You Never Asked Them To
There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that you can get more engagement from your fans by simply telling them what you want them to do (using an old-fashioned call-to-action).
Can you ask your friends to like your posts once in a while? You can encourage your fans to give you feedback by asking them to like your posts if they want to see more content like it. If you find someone’s content useful and compelling, ask them to share it.
It is important that you maintain a balance between requests for content and fun stuff that your audience will want to share without being asked. Even if the latter is not your own content.
Because You’re Not Provoking Them To Respond
If you want people to leave comments, make sure your posts are interesting enough that people will want to comment.
Other examples of engagement posts are fill-in-the-blanks, one-word answers, and photo caption contests.
Do not hesitate to ask your audience questions that can be answered quickly (for example, “would” and “when” instead of “how” and “why”). If you don’t get an answer, just try again later.
Because You Don’t Know Why They’re There
Your fans are interested in the content you post on your page, so make sure that the content you post is related to the subject of your page.
A study conducted by Facebook showed that posts with high engagement levels typically focus on topics related to the brand, but are not specifically about the brand.
Because You’re Not Giving Them What They Want
The biggest reason people become fans of a particular brand is because they want to learn about that brand’s discounts and promotions. The second most common reason is because they want free samples or coupons.
Make sure to post your own content once in a while to give your fans a treat.
Because You’re Posting the Wrong Stuff
The content you post on social media can be in the form of links, statuses, photos, or videos. Different types of content can result in different levels of engagement from your followers.
Brands on Facebook typically focus on links, which draw the least engagement, even though photos typically draw the most engagement. If you need to use links as part of your Facebook marketing strategy, make sure to change them up occasionally.
Because You Don’t Know Who They Are
Before you start writing, think about who your audience is and what they want to read. The same is true in social media.
Facebook Insights allows you to obtain key information about your audience, such as age group, gender, and location. While creating content, always keep your typical fan in mind. By understanding who they are, you’ll be able to better connect with them.
Because You’re Posting at the Wrong Time
Think about your audience and when they are most likely to be on Facebook. This will help you determine when to post.
B2B brands are more successful when they post during regular business hours, while B2C brands should consider posting in the evening or on weekends. This is especially true now that Facebook has added post scheduling. Experiment to find the right time for your audience.
How to Increase Facebook Engagement: 12 Tips That Work
1. Teach, entertain, inform, or inspire
Your Facebook audience will not engage with a sales pitch.
People want content that will make them happy, make them think, or improve their lives.
In addition to pictures of its products, plant delivery company Plantsome also shares lifestyle inspiration photos.
2. Get to know your audience
Even though you might find something entertaining or inspiring, it might not be relevant.
When you’re looking to engage your audience, their wants and needs are what’s important.
It can be difficult to determine what your audience wants and needs unless you have a good understanding of who they are.
The Facebook Page Insights tool provides a lot of useful information about your audience. be sure to pay attention to any unexpected details that could help you connect more with your fans.
3. Keep it short
Almost all Facebook users access the site on their mobile devices.
This Vancouver music venue needed only two sentences and a photo for their post. Your post should be short so that it captures attention quickly and entices users to stop scrolling and engage with your content.
4. Focus on quality
When people are scrolling through content, they don’t have time for poor quality graphics, videos, or text.
If you find yourself struggling to come up with new content to post, content curation can be an effective way to share high quality, informative content that will get your audience engaged.
Pantone spices things up by regularly sharing colorful photography from amateur photographers. For example, they recently shared a picture of a lollipop.
Quality doesn’t have to be complicated, or expensive. Facebook recommends using a consistent color scheme and recognizable images to make your page easy to navigate.
5. Be relatable and human
Whether you are sharing some behind-the-scenes content, presenting some honest and vulnerable emotions, standing up for your values or sharing a funny meme that acknowledges relatable experience, audiences want you to be authentic.
The UEFA football organization celebrates the hard working volunteers who help make their tournaments happen, instead of just posting about the excitement of the game or hot pics of soccer players.
Don’t be afraid to make your content more personal and real. In some cases, being too polished can make it seem cold.
6. Use (great) images
Posts on Facebook that feature a photo see more engagement from users than posts without a photo. Simple shots work well. Facebook suggests a product close-up or a customer photo.
Paddywax candles are known for their beautiful product and lifestyle shots. The lighting, framing, and composition of these shots are always well done and visually striking.
You only need a cell phone to get started in photography. You don’t need any extra fancy equipment. The following tips for taking better Instagram photos can also be applied to Facebook photos.
If you are not confident in your photography skills or would like to use photos taken by professionals, then stock photography may be a great option for you. If you need some good photos for your next post, be sure to check out our list of free stock photo sites. You’ll find some great resources there.
7. Make a video or broadcast live
Video posts see even higher engagement than photo posts. Videography, like photography, can be a simple and affordable hobby to get into using your cell phone.
Even a short video with a good atmosphere, like this one from Glossier, can catch the attention of someone who scrolls through social media a lot.
Facebook Live videos are the most engaging, so try incorporating a live broadcast with real people (including dogs, like in this example from Helping Hounds Dog Rescue) into your social media strategy from time to time.
You should keep in mind that videos shot in a vertical orientation will take up more space on a mobile device than a horizontal one.
It is important that Facebook’s algorithm favors videos that are uploaded directly to the site, not shared as a link.
8. Ask a question
Starting a conversation with an interesting question is a great way to get people to actively participate in the discussion. Here are some ideas to get you started.
- How do you [complete this action]?
- Why do you [like this event or brand]?
- Do you agree with [a notable statement, event, person, etc.]?
- What’s your favorite [fill in the blank]?
Burger King is asking fans to help name its sourdough starter in a caption to this video. We are still waiting for them to choose an answer, but we like “Glen.”
You could also inquire with your fans about the type of content they would like to see from you. Then, give them what they ask for. This targeted content will inspire even more engagement.
9. Respond to fans
Thank the person for their comment and make sure to reply. Fans don’t like to be ignored, and if they’re taking the time to engage with your posts, they want you to engage back.
Make sure you have a team in place to monitor and respond to any and all comments directed towards your company or product. Sometimes a simple comment back is all that’s needed. Sometimes more action is required. If a question requiring customer service arises, direct the poster to the customer service channels or have an appropriate person follow up. ModCloth is always on the ball.
10. Test and measure everything
The saying is “when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me.” You can learn a lot about your fans from Facebook. You can find out what they like and what they don’t like.
The statistics might say that video posts get the most engagement, but that might not be true for your particular brand. or maybe your followers just really enjoy 360-degree videos.
It is essential to test any marketing strategy to ensure its effectiveness. Our guide will show you the proper way to test your strategy.
11. Post consistently and at the right times
Your fans won’t necessarily see your content right when you post it because the Facebook News Feed is based on an algorithm. Still, one of the signals that the Facebook algorithm uses is when something was posted. According to Facebook, you are more likely to receive engagement if you post when your fans are online.
To find out the best times to post on Facebook, learn when your audience is active using Page Insights:
- From your Facebook Page, click Insights at the top of the screen
- In the left column, click Posts
- Click When Your fans Are Online
Times are shown in your local time zone. The fans that are most active when you are sleeping are likely in a different time zone. To see a list of the countries and cities where your fans and followers live, click on the “People” tab in the left column, then scroll down.
Although you may not need to get up in the middle of the night to post on Facebook, that doesn’t mean you don’t need to post on Facebook at all. This is a great reason to schedule your Facebook posts using a social media management tool. This way, you can ensure that your posts are published at the best times for maximum engagement.
If you want to maintain a loyal following, it’s important to post regularly so your audience knows what to expect from you. To get the best response from fans, you should post at least two or three times a week, but testing will help you determine how often you should post.
12. Use Facebook Stories
Facebook Stories appear at the top of the News Feed, similar to Instagram Stories. Facebook stories are a great way to get people to see your content. 500 million people use them every day.
You can post as often as you like without worrying about overwhelming your fans’ News Feeds. Since people assume that the quality of stories is lower, you can be more personal to create a stronger connection with your followers.
When you have a stronger connection with your followers, they will be more likely to interact with the content on your page.
How to calculate your Facebook engagement rate
The engagement rate is a way to measure how much interaction social media content gets in relation to the number of people who see it. The types of interactions that can be included are reactions, likes, comments, shares, saves, direct messages, mentions, click-throughs, and more, depending on the social network.
There are various ways of measuring engagement rate and different calculations may be more appropriate depending on your social media objectives.
Engagement can be measured in a variety of ways, including reach, engagement rate by posts, and engagement rate by impression.
To calculate engagement rates using a specific formula for six different engagement rate calculations, visit our engagement rate calculator and input the numbers.
By following these tips, you will be able to use Facebook like an expert. For more ideas on how to grow your social media presence, read our post on increasing social media engagement.
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