By far my most popular post on this site is 50 questions to ask on your parenting Facebook page. It just goes to show that others like me, are trying to crack the Facebook code. How to get your followers engaged with your content and gain more followers. There is no simple answer I’m afraid, I can’t tell you to post a certain way in a certain schedule because it varies according to what your business or blog type is and who you are marketing for. You will need to put some effort into building a strategy that works for you. I can tell you, however, the different types of Facebook posts that you can make, some good examples of each, how to find the best times for you to post and how to create a social media marketing strategy and calendar to make the most of your Facebook page. The goal is to ultimately gain more traffic to your blog and build a loyal following. Let’s dive into it.
How to Effectively Target Audiences on Facebook Using the 3 Types of Posting Strategies
The three types of posting strategies are:
- Promotional Posting Strategy
- Engagement Posting Strategy
- Content Posting Strategy
Having a posting strategy is your key to success on social media. You need to find the right balance of these three types of posts that is right for your audience. If you are low on your own content at first, you may want to spend more time on curated content (other people’s content). As a blogger, your own content doesn’t just mean blog posts, it can be video, photos, inspirational quotes, your key values and message, your own memes or graphics.
Examples of promotional posts for your facebook page
A lot of bloggers now have their own products to sell or promote and almost everyone has affiliates they promote, even if it’s the latest deal they have found on Amazon. You can create product photos and videos, links to your products, affiliate products or links, your exclusive vouchers, money off codes, special offers, and event promotion. Have you written a course you can promote?
Examples of engagement posts
These are posts that you want to get direct engagement from. When we talk about engagement we want shares, comments, tags and likes – or other emoji buttons, even the angry button counts as engagement. That’s why you will often see contraversiol statements from pages, they want the engagment and don’t care if it’s negative. Examples of facebook posts that generate engagement are questions, asking if they prefer this or that, posts that ask for comments (those ones that say “comment if you agree!” are an example), posts that ask for tags like “tag a friend who needs this,” posts with opinion polls and many more. Have a think about it and write down some examples that suit your page. For example, if your page is all about your mechanic services, you could ask people about what their car cover includes and when they check and reply, you could offer your services to close the gaps.
The 3 Basic Types of Engaging Facebook Posts
Facebook posts are a great way to engage your audience and make them feel like they are a part of your brand.
There are 3 basic types of posts you can do on your Facebook page:
- Status updates, which allow you to update your followers with what’s going on in your life or business.
- Photo or video posts, which allow you to share visual content with your followers.
- Link posts, which allow you to share links from your website or other websites directly on Facebook.
Examples of content posts
You can turn your blog posts into a Facebook post by listing the main points and then adding a read more with your link, make a video of your post, post advice from your niche, take a quote from your blog post and put the link in. I use Missinglettr, which automatically creates social media posts for me from my blog posts. They include different quotes, images and hashtags and provide a sharing calendar for me. It’s such a time saver and I really recommend it. Some pages don’t have a blog and they just write their content directly on Facebook. This is OK, but remember you don’t own Facebook so you’re always better off having a website.
When Should I Use Each Type of Posting Strategy?
Social media is a great way to increase brand awareness and generate leads. However, it can be difficult to decide what type of posting strategy you should use and when to use it. This section will help you decide which strategy is best for your business and the days that work best for each type of strategy.
The best time to post on social media varies depending on what type of posting strategy you are using. If you are using an engagement-oriented or content-oriented approach, then the best time is during the weekdays because people tend to be more active and responsive during this time. However, if you are using a lead generation promotional-oriented approach, then it’s better to post on weekends because people tend to be more relaxed and open at this time. A lot of people get paid at the end of the month, so posting your products towards the end of the month you might find you get more sales. A money off voucher would work better during the middle of the month when money is tighter.
The next step is to identify your target audience. You need to know who are the people that are going to be viewing or interacting with your content on social media platforms. The best way to do this is by using an age and gender breakdown of who visits your website or engages with your business on social media. In your business page you will have analytics to look at for each post. Dive down into these to see which posts are performing better than others and that will also give you a clue. Think about when your targeted audience is online and awake, and post accordingly. If they are Mums, early mornings are good before the school run, and after 7.30 in the evening when the kids are in bed.
What Types of Facebook Posts Generate the Most Engagement?
Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. It is also the most popular social media platform for marketers and business owners to use. One of the best ways to get your message across on Facebook is by posting content that will resonate with your audience.
The type of post you choose to share on Facebook will depend on who your target audience is and what they are interested in. There are many different types of posts you can share, but some work better than others.
Some posts that tend to perform well on Facebook are:
- Posts about current events
- Posts with images
- Posts with video
- Posts with links
- Positive feedback
Social media marketing is a relatively inexpensive way of getting your message out there but it can take a long time for your message to reach an audience. So keep going with it and don’t lose heart. If you only have a few followers, start slow and build up the amount of content you put out.
How To Create The Perfect Post For Facebook Social Media Marketing
The most important thing is to always be authentic. Be true to your brand and your voice, and you will find success with your social media strategy.
The best practices for social media marketing are:
- Developing a clear strategy with specific goals in mind
- Creating a content calendar
- Using the right hashtags
- Posting on the right day of the week
- Targeting your audience
- Engaging with your audience
- Knowing when to stop posting
The first step in creating a social media marketing plan is to understand your company’s goals. You need to set clear, measurable goals. For example, if your goal is for customers to buy more products, then one of the objectives would be “increase sales by 10%”. Do you want more traffic to a specific post or just your website in general, do you want to increase sales or ad revenue or affiliate income? Once you know your goals then you can develop your strategy.
Creating a content calendar
Next comes the content calendar. A content calendar is putting down all your content onto the dates in advance. You can do it a month ahead or more if you like. It can be on a normal paper calendar, a diary or online. I like to look at the whole year, then slot in any seasonal content or messages, then put in my evergreen content and lastly curated content. Then you can add in planned promotions and regular affiliates. As you go along you can add in more and some ad hoc posts too. I like to keep a bank of things I would like to share in a file or in my browser favourites, and then when I have time I put them in. Again, missinglettr comes in handy for this as they have a content calendar for posts and curated posts, and I also use SocialBee, you can easily make campaigns with them and add in curated content to your calendar. They have different categories of posts which is super helpful, so you have categories of content and then pick and choose when you want each category to go out. You can just use good old pen and paper or a spreadsheet or table. I like using Missinglettr and SocialBee because a lot of the hard work is done for you and I can easily see it all in advance or swap things around.
A word about hashtags on Facebook
There was a time when it was advised against hashtags on Facebook, but they are valid and searched for. They aren’t as important as on Instagram or Twitter, but I would say use a few targeted hashtags with your posts and that’s enough. If you put too many it just detracts from your main post. If you aren’t sure which ones to post, take a look at the free site best hashtags for some inspiration. The host I’m with, Lyrical Host have a lot of free resources for you and if you sign up for their hosting included in the full resources is a document of hashtags for all niches which they update regularly. If you are looking for hosting for your blog, I highly recommend them, you can use my discount SECRETS10 for 10% off your hosting package. I’ve tried a couple of different hosts and these guys are the best, the personal touch and lots of extras. They help me out all the time!
Engaging with your audience
Once you start to get engagment, don’t forget to engage back. Reply to comments, like or love comments and thank them for commenting. This also shows Facebook you care about your followers and increases the engagement on your post, making Facebook think it is valuable and will show it to more people. If they have shared it and you can see where they have shared it, comment on the shared post a thank you for sharing message.
Another way to engage with your target audience is to follow similar pages and businesses as your page, and then comment on their posts as your page. You can also reply to audience member’s comments. You can do this in some groups as well, but avoid posting links or appearing spammy.
Know when to stop!
We’ve all seen those posts from pages that seem constant and repetetive. Then we get turned off and that leads us to unlike or unfollow the page. Don’t spam your audience with posts. Although with the algorithm not everyone will see all of your posts, start slower and build up. You can certainly play around with different content types and times to see what is better for you, but avoid constant promotion.
Conclusion
Facebook can be a great way of keeping in touch with your audience, increasing your blog traffic and sales. Creating the right strategy is key and knowing your targeted reader. A specific goal will help you narrow it down further. Once you have those and have built your content strategy, think about a content calendar and then analyse your posts in Facebook analytics. Your Facebook strategy will be constantly evolving and should include a mixture of different types of posts. Look at the best times to post, always with your ideal audience in mind.
Got a question? Ask me in the comments below or get in touch on social media @lifeandthelords.
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