Double Your Facebook Engagement With 5 Simple Tricks
Why would you want comments and shares over likes on Facebook? If you can get Facebook engagement, it is a stronger indicator of how valuable your content is for your Facebook audience than the number of likes your page has. Comments and shares indicate the level of credibility that you’ve built up with your followers and qualifies them as warm leads for future transactions.
Engaged audiences listen. When they are listening to your message, they’re more likely to buy. It does take some work to get Facebook engagement. It’s a matter of bringing value to your audience: contributing to their lives in a meaningful and helpful way. You can give them laughs, useful information, or resources, but the value you bring should be measured in quality over quantity.
Set up your content calendar
It’s best to create your own content when aiming to get Facebook engagement. But, content creation is a lot of work. You want to make the most of your efforts with impactful content. Videos and images do this best.
Aim to create one piece of really good content per week. Unless you’re a media/news-like organization, in which case you should be publishing content as often as possible. This content should be visually engaging: a how-to, a top list, inspiring story, or funny take on the world are good places to start. You should post a maximum of once per day, 5 days a week – anything more is likely to compromise quality for the sake of quantity. The more content you make, the better understanding you’ll have about what resonates with your audience and what they’ll engage with most.
Segment your audience and promote daily
Advertise your original, valuable content to different audience segments throughout the week. Build audiences based on location, interest, or other relevant factors used for targeting. On each day of the week, promote your weekly content to each audience segment. On Monday, promote to audience 1, on Tuesday, audience 2, and so on.
This segmentation and separation in the schedule are done to avoid “burning out” any one of your audiences by showing them the same content over and over throughout the entire week. Furthermore, over time you will get a better picture of which audience responds better to the different types of content that you publish, and you can promote more effectively.
Throughout the week, the advertised post will gain likes, shares, and comments – generating social proof and reinforcing your value to your followers. You’ll also come to understand what your audience as a whole wants and what each segment is most interested in. This will assist future content and ad creation.
Work with a content creator
Have we mentioned creating original content for engagement is a lot of work? If you’re able, it’s beneficial to work with someone who specializes in content creation to build engaging, beautiful, content. Graphic designers and copywriters are worth their weight in gold when you want to get Facebook engagement.
Facebook’s built-in publishing tools allow you to easily collaborate to create, schedule, draft and publish content. Have the content creator(s) schedule a draft post, then edit and schedule it as you go to create a manageable workload.
Budget effectively
Engagement ads may not directly translate to revenue, but building an engaged audience is invaluable for long-term, repeat, and high-ticket sales. By keeping the cost per engagement low and emphasizing the long-term gain from this strategy, you can easily justify the budget invested to get Facebook engagement. (As a clincher, ensure the Facebook Pixel is installed on your site and conversion tracking is turned on for your ad)
To make the most of your dollar, choose impressions, rather than post engagement. The average cost per 1000 impressions is $6, while the average cost per engagement is $0.18. Post engagement can be many actions, but it’s not the best indication of ad effectiveness. Most people who see your ad won’t engage. By maximizing the number of relevant people who see the ad, you’ll provide the most value.
Also, check out the option of boosting a post.
The knock-out moves
Want to double your engagement with one quick move? Share business posts on your personal profile. Build your own following – separate from your company page – and give your followers periodic tasters of what you’re up to by sharing your polished, original content.
Finally, invite anyone who likes your post (who is not already a follower of your company page) to like your company page. This simple step will make the most of your time and ad dollars while maximizing your post’s organic reach. People who like your page are essentially saying, I like what you have to say and I want to hear more.
Keep producing quality content on a consistent basis, following these guidelines and your engagement (and ultimately your sales) will soar!
For more information, check out the following guides: