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Facebook is the leader of the pack when it comes to social media, and for a good reason. They reported that as of December of 2018, they have 1.52 billion daily active users. If you're thinking that Facebook is important for your digital marketing strategy, you're correct — but what are some Facebook best practices?
Having a precise marketing strategy for Facebook is becoming increasingly important. This is because the platform is actually making it more challenging for businesses to succeed. In fact, in January of 2018, Mark Zuckerberg posted on Facebook saying that the platform would be showing us fewer posts from businesses and brands and more from the people we're closest to.
Now, this doesn't mean it's impossible for businesses to be successful on Facebook. On the contrary, it's still possibly the most powerful platform for brands.
What it does mean, though, is that you have to have a bullet-proof plan if you want to use the platform to your business's advantage. Here are nine Facebook best practices to follow and implement.
Post 1 or 2 Times a Day
To be clear, the exact number of posts you share each day will vary depending on what works best for your brand. Generally, however, you need to post regularly and consistently.
Remember what we said earlier about how Facebook is shower fewer business posts to people in their news feeds? This means you have to kick things up a notch if you want a shot at reaching your followers. Posting a couple times a week won't cut it. Nobody will ever see you.
Organic traffic to business pages has dropped significantly in the last couple of years. One of the easiest things you can do to start countering this is post frequently and with consistency.
Share Other People's Content — Not Just Your Own
Have you ever heard of brand fatigue? It's exactly what it sounds like: when people get tired of seeing you promote your own brand excessively.
In terms of Facebook, this means posting only about your own brand and that's all. While the goal of your social media marketing is obviously to promote your business, this isn't the best way to provide value to your followers — and they'll eventually stop paying attention to you.
How can you avoid brand fatigue? Simple. You need to alternate between posts that promote your own brand and content that you share from other pages.
Think about what your followers want to see. Let's go over an example. If you own a gym, you probably post a lot about your own members, classes, and services. To avoid brand fatigue, you might consider sharing content from other pages, such as:
- Healthy recipes to help people get in shape.
- Chair yoga poses people can do at work to help combat the negative effects of sitting.
- Tips for getting better sleep.
This provides value to your followers while also giving them a break from your brand promotion.
Utilize Facebook Insights and Analytics to Improve Your Strategy
Third on our list of Facebook best practices? Track. Everything.
Fact: If you can't track and measure it, you can't improve it. This is the only way to know if things are working (or not). And there's good news, here — Facebook provides its own analytics right in the platform.
Facebook's insights are a goldmine of valuable information. For instance, the platform will tell you how each individual post performs. Do you notice that images perform better than videos? Do posts get more engagement in the morning as opposed to the evening?
This insight can help you tremendously in shaping your digital marketing strategy. Social media is not a "set it and forget it" practice. It takes constant monitoring and refinement. If you're not measuring your results, you're wasting your time!
Use Facebook's insights for greater social media success.
Like and Respond to Every Comment
Yes, every single one!
Post shares used to be the most powerful type of engagement you could get. Currently, though, it's shifted to comments. That means one of your top priorities when you post is to encourage comments.
An easy way to do this is to engage with people who leave a comment. This not only lets them know that there's a human being behind the computer, but it also urges them to continue the conversation.
Plus, any way to engage with your followers is also a positive.
Avoid generic replies, while you're at it. If you have a fashion brand and someone comments saying they like your summer collection, don't reply with a simple, "Thanks!"
Try elaborating a little bit: "Thanks, Sarah! So glad you like it. What's your favorite piece?" You get the idea.
Use Photos and Videos for Your Posts
People get bored easily. They like something cool to look at.
The data backs it up, too. The general consensus is that photos and videos outperform text-only posts.
What about photos versus videos specifically? That's where things get a little iffy. Some research says that Facebook users find videos five times more engaging than images.
However, according to FastCompany, photo posts get more engagement than videos. Additionally, photo posts make up the 93% most engaging posts on Facebook.
Don't get too overwhelmed by these more precise statistics. Instead, simply aim to do more photo and video posts and fewer text-only posts. Then, examine your Facebook insights and look for patterns. Do you notice photos getting more engagement than videos or vice versa? Follow the data.
Pay to Play
You know by now that organic traffic to business Facebook pages is lower than it's ever been. Facebook is actively working to make sure fewer people see your posts. What's the solution?
Paid ads
A lot of brands immediately turn their ears off when we start talking about spending money on social media, but hear us out. You can spend very little money and see a serious return.
To be transparent, you do need to be willing to dedicate some extra cash for a little trial and error in the beginning. Facebook ads take some experimenting before you find what really resonates. You also need someone who's a real pro with ad creatives and audience targeting.
However, if you can get your ducks lined up in a row, your Facebook ads can see significant ROI. Ads are serious stuff: Some brands are spending five figures a month on Facebook ads, and sometimes more — because they're making so much money from them.
Include a Call-to-Action
A call-to-action is a question or statement that prompts your followers to — you guessed it — take action. And, it's another one of our Facebook best practices.
It might sound crazy, but when you tell people exactly what you want them to do, they're far likelier to do it, as opposed to leaving it up to chance.
For example, if you're that gym we were talking about earlier, maybe you share on Facebook a blog you wrote about why weightlifting is so good for you. In your post, you should say something to the effect of, "Click below to read our blog and learn more!"
You will very likely find that your click-through rate — read: how many people click on the blog compared to the total number of people who saw it — will go up.
Share User-Generated Content
Unsurprisingly, user-generated content (UGC) is posts that your followers share that showcases your brand. If you're the fashion line we mentioned earlier, maybe a customer took a selfie wearing a shirt they purchased from you and posted in on Facebook, tagging you.
You know what we call this? Free publicity!
As long as you have permission, you should share this user-generated content on your own channel. It helps establish your presence and shows you have loyal customers who love your brand. Plus, it gives you material to use that you didn't have to create yourself. Win!
UGC also acts as a sort of customer review, which brings us to our final tip in our list of Facebook best practices.
Encourage and Engage With Facebook Reviews
Last but not least on our list of Facebook best practices, we encourage you to ask for and interact with reviews people leave on your business's Facebook page.
Write this down: Reviews are huge. Huge!
Over and over again, research is showing us that people look at online reviews before making a purchasing decision. Some research has revealed that a whopping 70% of consumers are likelier to use a local business if it has positive reviews. 40% avoid local businesses with bad reviews.
Furthermore, a survey from April of 2017 found that 28% of respondents check social media sites specifically for online reviews.
Your potential customers trust online reviews as much as they trust the opinions of your friends and family. Make good use of the review opportunities that Facebook provides.
Also, be sure to respond to every single one — especially the negative ones (professionally and politely, of course).
