The only thing worse than doughnuts at the office on the first day of Whole 30 is spending hours on posts for Facebook only to have them fall flat with no engagement. So, here are a few tips to make sure people are not only seeing your posts but are compelled to pay attention!
Tip # 1
When it comes to content, ask yourself “Is this something I would want to read?” Is it boring, flat, humorless, offensive, poor quality, or error ridden? If you wouldn’t want to read your own content, then no one else is either! Remember these few tips!
HAVE FUN! Talk to your audience as if they are your friends. As a small business owner, they should be! These are your people who like your stuff or store or food. Speak to them as if they were in your place of business.
Work Smart! Write your posts in Word prior to posting to check for grammar or spelling mistakes OR download an addon like Grammarly to check as you go! Also, check all your links before you hit send. Nothing is more annoying than an engaging post that doesn’t go anywhere!
Keep your content short and sweet. Social Media Examiner suggests 100 characters or fewer.
Tip # 2
Engagement on a personal level with your audience is key! A few ways to keep engament high are:
Images (use a photo editor to add your logo, quotes, or slogans)
Ask a Question at the end of your post text. Where, When, Should...or do a ‘like if you would’ type questions. No Why Questions. People will skip responding if they have to think or type to much.
Do 'behind the scenes'. How do you celebrate birthdays, decorate for holidays, in addition to how you do your day to day operations.
Special ‘secret’ deals for FB users. For example, I have a promo code that I only publish on Facebook and I make sure they know it. "FB EXCLUSIVE JUST FOR YOU!"
Take advantage of current events: Women's Day, Elections, Olympics. It proves you are relevant and active in modern culture.
Give directions aka call to action - Post, Comment, submit, like, tell us, share
Tip # 3
Mix status updates up: educate, entertain, promote, inspire - track the analytics of your posts to see what works the best with your audience.
Tip # 4
Relate what you are posting to the type of media required. Videos get the most engagement, but if you posted videos everyday people would lose interest.
Consider the point of the post.
Icing tip? Video.
New blog post? Link with picture
Special Event? Photo.
Question? Text in a graphic.
Tip # 5
Post at the Right Time
If you don’t post your Facebook updates when your audience is most likely to see them, you can’t expect good engagement. When is the right time to post? Well, it varies depending on your audience. For example, if you know your target group consists of working mothers, lunchtime and evenings are probably going to be effective times for you to post because that’s when they’re likely taking a break.
My advice is to always post half an hour before the prescribed optimal time. If the majority of your fans log into Facebook at 8pm, your update should go live by 7:30pm. That way, when your fans come online your post will already be in their news feed.
Adapted from Social Media Examiner