Facebook is a powerful tool for marketers, with its extensive reach (Facebook is the #1 social media platform in terms of monthly users), advanced targeting options, and dynamic nature. But these benefits also pose a challenge.
Facebook may be one of the most powerful content distribution channels, but it’s also one of the noisiest. The enormous user base means hundreds of thousands of advertisers are competing for even a small piece of attention. And that dynamic nature means what worked last year or even last month is a tired strategy today. A few years ago, your posts could easily attract thousands of organic views, clicks, and interactions. Today, as we know all too well, you have to pay to play if you want to actually get engagement as a business on Facebook.
Here are nine Facebook tips to cover your bases and make sure you are ahead of the curve with your content distribution techniques.
1. Make A Business Page
Many small (and large) businesses continue to use a personal page to try to do business. They look less professional and are missing out on some incredible tools like Facebook Audience Insights that are only available to Business Pages.
This is one of those low-hanging fruit tactics you can accomplish in under 30 minutes and boost your Facebook performance instantly.
2. Utilize Facebook Audience Insights
This is THE tool to use to learn about your audience on Facebook. If you’re not using this 100% free tool, you are missing out on an enormous source of potential data. Data-driven content marketing is the future.
You can find Audience Insights in the Tools section of the Ads Manager on Facebook. Since the tool is in the Ads Manager, many business owners who do not utilize Facebook ads mistakenly think it is unavailable to them or irrelevant data. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Check in and take a look at the content performance tracking data at least once a week to glean information about the people who visit your page.
3. Get Visual
What comes to mind when you think of highly visual social media? Probably Instagram and Pinterest. But be sure not to overlook the visual aspect of Facebook. The data agrees — posts with quality images get a significantly higher level of engagement than those without.
This is because we engage with visual content more quickly and more deeply than we do with text. Which is probably why Instagram has grown to the second largest network in terms of active monthly users.
Videos are another form of visual content that can quickly improve your engagement rates on Facebook. Get some inspiration from Facebook pages like Tasty and Tip Hero that prioritize short video posts.
4. Boost (Only) Your Best Content
The biggest difference between organic and paid social is that you only pay to promote your unicorn content on Facebook. By casting a narrow net you maximize your engagement rates and decrease your cost.
At INBOUND15, Larry Kim shared his Organic and Paid Social Network Sharing/Posting Pyramid Scheme or, his strategy to get the highest possible engagement rates for the lowest cost with promoted content. This three-step process looks like this: 1. Post lots of content (organically) to Twitter. 2. Boost top content from Twitter and share organically on LinkedIn and Facebook. 3. Pay only to boost the Unicorns on Facebook. (Catch Larry’s session on the top Facebook advertising hacks at CMC16)
5. Advertise with Facebook Ads
A step beyond boosted posts, Facebook offers a form of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising that really is doable for almost every business. The price point is so low that you can see results after spending even $25 dollars. The Facebook Ad Manager provides advanced targeting so that advertisers can get quite granular with their target audience.
Facebook can even find the optimal audience for you with Lookalike Audiences. Simply upload a list of emails and Facebook will identify a large group of highly similar users. Start by promoting your ad to the top 1% match. Once you’ve exhausted that list open your ad up to the top 2% match (but be sure to exclude the top 1% you’ve already reached). Keep following this method until you’ve promoted your ad to the top 5%-10%.
6. Write in a Conversational Tone of Voice
One of the easiest mistakes to make on Facebook is using business-speak or jargon. “Social media was made for people, not for brands. The more humanized you become, the more engagement you will see with your brand,” says social media expert Neal Schaffer. “[The goal is to] create something authentic and transparent that represents your brand and engages your community.”
By writing in a conversational and humanized tone of voice (even in your ads) you encourage interaction.
7. Give Visitors a Reason to Return
Repeat visitors tend to have a higher likelihood of converting, so optimize your page and your content to encourage visitors to come back. This could include hosting a contest that involves returning after a period of time or creating serial content that encourages visitors to tune in for the next installment.
8. Tag Influencers
Influencer marketing is one of the strongest tactics for dramatically increasing the reach of your content as well as boosting your credibility. Influence marketing on Facebook could include tagging top industry experts or users with a large following in your post or curating content from influencers and asking them to share your content.
9. #Hashtag It
Hashtags are no longer just for Twitter and Instagram. They are a powerful tool for helping your content get found on Facebook. The hashtag culture on Facebook is a bit different. It’s less about a volume of hashtags (like Instagram) and more about naturally incorporating two or three into your copy. Hashtags are also critical for participation in trending topics.
While Facebook is an amazing content distribution tool to boost the visibility of your content, it is just one of many. The 2016 Content Marketing Conference is a perfect opportunity to learn about the pool of content distribution tactics, particularly those used successfully by the industry’s leading experts. Check out CMC16 today.
