So you set up your company Facebook page and you are ready to start posting and running some Social Media Marketing campaigns. What and how to post on Facebook for strategic marketing purposes? There’s a myriad of content to post that will inspire and engage your audience such as:
Photos- Let your followers see your team, at the last company picnic or holiday dinner party. It shouldn’t just be pictures of your products/services. People make up your company and you want to remind your customers of that.
How to information – Again, not just about your products/services but also information that can help people on a daily basis. Share some innovative uses for common items.
Links – People go onto Facebook to be entertained, so links to funny news items and interesting websites are relevant. Mix it up with links to your blog posts and other fun information.
If you don’t know what EdgeRank is, you should get in the know so you can up your social media marketing game. Facebook uses an algorithm called EdgeRank to decide where your post shows up in a newsfeed and how long it will stay there. It determines this by using three factors:
Affinity: this measures the extent to which you are connected with the user or brand and Facebook delivers content based on your relationship including relationships your friends have with a certain page.
Weight: Posts with photos or videos are given more “weight” or value than posts with plain text. Exciting visual content ranks higher in the newsfeed.
Decay: Social media is all about what is happening in the moment. Most of your post engagement happens quickly after publishing it so content loses value as time goes on.
Now that you understand EdgeRank, what can you do to maneuver your content to influence more engagement and increase interest in your Facebook business page.
As mentioned before, adding photos to your posts when possible will help your newsfeed. Add your featured image when posting a link to your latest blog article. If you want to get fancy, add text to your image with Photoshop or Paint.
Getting your content seen by more fans is great, but don’t forget about your “call to action.” Your goal is to drive more traffic to your website and capture more business.
You need to be specific with your call to action. Tell your fans to click a link you post. They won’t take action unless you tell them to.
You won’t get results if you just paste the title of your blog article into a Facebook post. Devise a message that reveals the value you offer and why it’s urgent they read it now. For example, to promote a blog about social media marketing write a post like “Do you want to drive more business to your company through social media? Click here for our latest blog to find out how to exponentially increase your customer base” instead of “How to get more customers through social media.” Show your fans you will help them solve a problem.
As stated earlier, don’t just publish promotional content. You have to be personable. About one third of your content can be about your products and/or services. Another third should be about engaging with your audience and building relationships. The final third should be content from outside websites and/or blogs related to your industry. Help your followers find resources and information – it shows you care.
- So what happens if you get a negative comment about your post or your business? You need to respond. Even if the comment is unfair or wrong, you should still be polite, humble and when writing your response, put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Pretend that what the poster wrote is true. First, say you are sorry to hear about the issue. Don’t give excuses. Next comes a solution. If there is no solution that would solve future problems, then you can offer some type of compensation. If it is a matter that cannot be discussed in public, send the customer a private message. The time to delete a message, however, is when it is racist or insulting and to that you can answer something along the lines of “we do not feel it is necessary to keep up posts with abusive language and we deleted the comment. Thank you for your understanding.”
If you have a promotional plan all ready to go, Facebook has made it easy to post by letting you schedule posts all at once ahead of time. First, enter the start date for your business. Click the status box like you were going to write a post and click the little clock icon at the bottom left of the box. If you are ready to schedule, add the year for the schedule date above the clock icon. Next, enter the status for the post and set the schedule time. When it’s all correct, click “Schedule.” You will receive a confirmation of the date and time.
We have talked about some of the do’s for Facebook posting, but what about the don’ts? Here are a few:
- Do not talk at your customers, talk WITH your customers.
- Do not speak poorly of your competitors. Promote yourself but don’t diss others.
- Don’t use too many CAPS or exclamation points!!! DISTRACTING!!
- Do not like your own post. That’s overdoing it.
- Do not post, post, then post more in a short amount of time. Space out your updates.
- Do not have a blurry photo on your page. Use the appropriate size and keep it clear.
To make your Facebook page a Social Media Marketing success story, create engaging content with photos, videos and a personal touch. Remember to respond to your fans, whether they comment in a positive or negative way. Your Facebook business page is another social media ticket to inbound marketing and enhanced connections with your customers.