March 27, 2018

Increase Your Organic Facebook Engagement With These Content Tips

With 1.4 billion daily active users, using Facebook as a marketing tool is more important for brands now than ever. Facebook’s usership is so diverse that it’s possible to reach any specific audience you want.

However, engaging with your audience today is more challenging than ever, due to Facebook’s changing algorithm. One analysis of 880 million Facebook posts over a year showed a 20% decrease in the average number in engagements. This is due to Facebook prioritizing content from friends and family first, followed by local, informative content. This leaves posts and content from brands to be seen last.

Increasing your engagement may be a challenge, but with a few adjustments to your content calendar, you can create engaging social media posts that encourage your audience to interact with you.

Encourage involvement

When trying to entice your audience to engage with your page, your first line of attack should be to create content that makes them feel like they’re part of the conversation. Facebook provides plenty of built-in engagement tools: from polls and question-based posts, to lists, events and milestones. If your audience interacts with this kind of content, Facebook will be more likely to put your posts in their feed.

While all types of Facebook engagement are important, comments are the form of engagement that Facebook ranks the highest for their algorithm. When planning your content calendar, think of questions your followers would be excited to answer with a comment. For example, if you’re managing the social media of a restaurant, ask you could ask questions like “what’s your favorite food off our brunch menu?” or “what’s your favorite snack to bring to a Super Bowl party?” You know your followers care about food so they’ll be sure to share their feelings with you.

When the post is made and your users comment, be sure to reply to all relevant comments to keep the conversation going. Don’t underestimate interacting with others in your field either; if you interact with their posts, they’ll likely return the favor.

While encouraging engagement can help, you’ll need to be careful about your phrasing. Facebook penalizes posts that outright ask for likes, comments, or shares and considers them “like-baiting.” Keep your wording natural and conversational.

Vary your content

If you always post similar photos with the same types of captions multiple times a week, it’s highly unlikely anyone will want to engage with your posts. Switching it up keeps your viewers involved and excited for what’s coming next.

Many brands have concluded that video performs better than any other content on Facebook. Posting short videos can help you stand out on someone’s timeline and will encourage them to interact with you. When posting a video to Facebook, upload it to their native posting platform. Links to Youtube or Vimeo pages won’t perform as well.

While videos perform best, posting videos for every update would take up an incredible amount of time and wouldn’t be the best vehicle for every bit of information your brand wants to share. For other posts, use images to share information. Text-only posts by brands are far less likely to be seen by your audience, so use an image to supplement your update.

Creating shareable content that’s unique to your brand will distinguish you from others in an otherwise cluttered feed. Utilize content marketing to create blogs or white papers that can be branded and shared on social media. Not only will this give you exclusive content you can share, it can drive your viewers to your website too.

Curate content that matches your audience’s interests

Ultimately, there’s no magic formula that says A post + B post = 800 new likes. When you’re planning your content, think about what makes sense for your audience.

For instance, only posting your own branded content may not increase engagement on Facebook if your followers are looking for more lifestyle-themed information. Be open to sharing content from others in your field, including new industry updates and exciting news. If the brand-adjacent content creates more engagement, it means your audience will be more likely to see your branded posts too.

Post when your audience is on Facebook

Check your individual page Insights for information on when your audience is most likely to engage with your posts. In the past, some reports have said there’s a single perfect time for every brand to post. However, it’s not that simple. If your audience is a bunch of night owls, posting at 9 AM every day won’t grow your engagement. Facebook’s audience insights tools is perfect for a detailed look at when your posts will perform best and base your posting schedule around the data you see.

Want to learn more about increasing your engagement on Facebook or another social media platform? Contact us today.

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