10 Tips to Maximum Engagement on Facebook

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Updated on July 8th, 2013

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1. Have a dynamic Facebook Cover photo.

There are three ways you can use your cover photo: Direction, Promotion and Identification.

Direction – this means to direct someone to perform an action for example “Download this song on iTunes’ or “sign up now”. Although this is against terms and conditions of Facebook some companies are still using this technique. To review what is allowed in terms and conditions of the cover photo please see the following blog post:

Promotion– this means product or event advertisement. Remember this is sell-able space look a billboard. Want to access someone else’s Facebook followers? Why not advertise on their cover photo?

Identification – Brand recognition. Coca-Cola page does this very well. Their company logo appears 9 times in the cover photo.

2. Take time to say thank you

Your community are on your social media journey with you so celebrate the little wins for example Reaching 100 fans or hitting milestones. You can say thank you to your fans by either recognizing a fan either every month or week based on their activity on your page. This will draw a crowd and soon they will all be joining the community and entering the lead nurturing process. Don’t forget to also treat your community like a potential leads. Give them a VIP services whenever you can.

3. It is all about the timing

What is the use of spending all that time creating smart Facebook content when you’re fans or leads aren’t there? Start looking at your “people who saw this” number under your published Facebook updates. Start to test specific times of the day to post your content and then to review whether these times are working for you keeping an eye on that number. This is a pro secret; don’t tell anyone I told you.

4. Become a story teller

It is the stories we tell about how we got to where we are that matter and not the destination. What is your story? Or is there a story you can follow over a couple of updates? Can you build anticipation and excitement? You can do this for the launch of a new product or event. Leave them on the edge of their seats wanting more.

5. Learn the art of news-jacking

A wonderful term coined by David Meerman Scott which means to pick up the latest news stories and hot topics and post these to your wall. Your community will soon come to you for the latest info on particular subjects and the press will also take notice. This does take a while to get a hang of though so be patient and

try, try again.

6. Do you love playing games?

Your community are real people, so lets have a little bit of fun with them. Try these top questions:
Caption This: Place an interesting picture on your Facebook page and then ask “Caption this”. Be prepared to see your news feed fill up!Trivia: test the general knowledge of your community by posting up a trivia question. This always gets engagement and you can even make it industry related.

Fill in the blank: “When I heard Diana died I was ______” This is obvious to your community what you are asking of them and it is a great conversation starter.

Verse your community to a game: Pacman, the old Spice Game, if you are playing an internet arcade game then there are bets then your community is probably doing it too. So why not play with them. Have your staff post their scores to the platform and encourage a little competition.

Spot the difference: it is a quick and easy game but one well worth it

7. It is not called Social Media for nothing

Facebook has an ever changing algorithm but one part of it is if a person clicks on a lot of videos, then these are more likely to show up in their newsfeed. This is the same for photos.
Remember we are in a time where Pinterest and Instagram are getting great notoriety and it is now all about the image. Try telling your story with a photo or why not show us the short film version.

8. Monitoring

The real key to social media is to have a goal with what you are wanting to achieve with your community and then monitor that goal’s success. This what your Facebook insights are in for. Try to choose an actual metric and then a deadline for each week or month and then monitor your progress.

9. Run a competition

Facebook competition guidelines state that you cannot run a competition of your Facebook wall or timeline however you can direct people on your timeline or wall to click on app. Be sure to check the rules of your state for these guidelines. Don’t make the competition too difficult or ask for information that you don’t need.

10. If all fails ask them what they want

There is nothing wrong with asking your community what they want to see on your Facebook page. Is it more photos and videos or is it more hard hitting news and articles. You will be surprise the amount of fans that will contribute to the conversation. Try and conduct this as a poll, it will be easier and more efficient.