According to The Creative Group, more than 50% of advertising and marketing executives believe that companies are expected to increase their investment on Facebook during the current year.
According to another study published on Zephoria, 16 million local business pages were created as of May 2013, whereas it was just about half at 8 million in June 2012.
Facebook is the second most popular search engine after Google. It is gaining new heights of popularity with each passing day. Every business owner wants to keep the audience engaged, and it is very important to employ current, informative and relevant engagement techniques for this purpose.
Here are some tips to help you boost the reach of your Facebook business page to achieve business growth:
Content is king
All content you post on Facebook must be measured on three criteria: urgency, relevancy and importance. Everything you post must hold relevancy for at least six to twelve months. Sharing blog posts on Facebook page is always advisable. Always keep your Facebook business page updated with current information about your business. If the content is optimized properly, your audience can easily find your posts using different search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Apart from optimizing content, it is also crucial the content is tailored to the target audience. A successful social media marketing company follows a strategy where they segregate their customer's target audience based on an internal tool, and then they engineer custom content in the form of pins, tweets and posts, tailored specifically for that target audience. This ensures the posts don't go unnoticed, are not spammy and in fact, succeed in grasping the attention of the readers.
HubSpot posted an informative article in May 2010, titled “36 Awesome Social Media Blogs Everyone Should Read”. This post garnered attention and comments by readers for two and half years after the date of publishing. The information provided is relevant even today.
One also needs to note sharing multiple posts in a single day is a strict NO for Facebook business pages. Too many irrelevant posts or continual notifications from your page can put your audience off, come across as spammy lead to then "unfollowing" or "unliking" your page. The below image shows clearly how an increase in the number of posts can lead to a reduction in viewer activity.
Effective frequency on Facebook
Effective frequency on Facebook implies the number of times your post gets exposed to the target audience in such a manner that the core message is delivered. Only then the post serves its purpose. Usually people intake media passively, means they are not giving proper attention to the messages. For example, when we are listening radio while driving or working, we are not giving proper attention to what we are listening. Our mind is engaged in multiple things at the same time. Similarly, while using Facebook, users may be involved in other things, like people tend to scroll posts while talking on the phone. Effective frequency level means the stage where the core message of the post is actually delivered to targeted audience. It means to create a level of awareness where the core message is not only delivered, but audience can recall the same when the need arises.
Ideal posts are one that grab attention of readers. Only a good title is not enough to grab the attention of readers when they go through so many posts each day. Inform your reader what it is all about. Evoke their interest in the post. Ask questions or tell viewers about some interesting part of the post and you will receive more likes, shares, comments and clicks.
In the below example found on Social Media Examiner, the author is pointing at a part from the post that amazes her and it is also a tip for business owners. This pushes the reader to open the post go through the content till he reaches point 20.
Integrate a good CRM with your Facebook page
It is very useful if you integrate a good CRM (Customer Relationship Management) with your Facebook page to manage your customers. Every action by a visitor on your page gives you some information about the person. This information is crucial in segmenting your target audience, and then providing them a customized experience such as showing them relevant ads to based on their purchasing behavior. A study done by Fit Small Business for the best CRM for small businesses narrowed down three best CRMs. They were Insightly, Nimble and Zoho. These CRMs are good for integrating with your Facebook and Twitter accounts and help manage your current and future customers well, and gather relevant data that can be used to increase conversions and thereby, your bottom-line.
Use of eye catching images
Another interesting example is Storify. It put up a beautiful picture to depict Aurora Borealis, a phenomenon which leads to the sky being lit with an unnatural display. The image was big and eye catching.
Use different types of posts in your page as followed by Storify. Try and share posts with big images and descriptions as well as posts with small images linked with articles. Always try to spice up your content by bringing in variety. Reading the same type of content every time will get users disinterested in your page. You can make use of videos, photos, questions and links and then check insights to find out which type of posts interest users more.
Best time to post
Posting relevant and engaging content is not enough. Posting at right time is also very important. 9 am to 7 pm is the best time to post on Facebook. Users activity is usually more on weekends so posts posted on weekend grab more attention.
Use of hash tags, emoticons
Hashtags and emoticons are the trend of Facebook. Hashtags are an interesting way to engage audience and to viral your content. Similarly emoticons also help make posts more interesting and help connect with the audience. According to HubSpot, adding a simple smiley or emoticon increases likes by 57%, shares by 33% and comments by 33% in comparison to posts without any smiley or emoticon.
Zappos received 718 likes, 8 comments and 22 shares in 22 hours when it included a heart in its post. It was more than the other posts by the company on the same day.
Know your competitors
Keep an eye on your competitors' actions on Facebook. It can help you plan your marketing strategy. Check what your competitors are posting in their fan page and observe the fans’ activities on their posts. Find out which posts are more successful and devise your strategy accordingly.
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts welcomed the month of November and pumpkin spice with their update. Dunkin Donuts followed the same strategy and acknowledged National Pumpkin day and got more shares and likes comparatively.
The above mentioned are some of the tips you can use to engage your audience and grow your business. You need to use different strategies to find out which one works best for you. As Facebook is one of the biggest social media networks and people are very active on it. So it becomes imperative that you update your strategy and marketing policies for Facebook to ensure better audience engagement and positive results for your business.