5 Ways to Create More Engagement on Facebook
As businesses rush onto Facebook many struggle with the right way to make this new platform pay.
On Facebook, simply posting your weekly newsletter may make it convenient to read, but that alone won’t turn your Facebook page into a place people want to visit and share.
One of the great things about Facebook is that there are hundreds of millions of users, some percentage of whom you may want to attract as customers. Yet the way people use Facebook is much more like a giant cocktail party or networking event and requires a more engaging touch.
Your success on Facebook as a business will depend, as it often is in any networking situation, upon your ability to involve those you encounter and offer interesting and valuable interaction, entertainment, and insights.
With that in mind, here are five of the best ways to crank up your engagement engine on Facebook.
1. Be Regular
As you begin to promote your Facebook page and gain fans, you’ll find that the more content you add the more feedback you'll get. Now, you can go overboard here, so I’m not really talking about quantity for quantity's sake alone. I am suggesting that you’ll get much more from your Facebook presence as you start to post content several times a day.
The good news is that on Facebook, shorter is often better. Don’t worry about spending lots of time crafting lengthy updates. Share snack-sized pieces of content, update your status with useful tidbits, and point to relevant content that you find in other places.
2. Mix It Up
This tip goes hand in hand with my first one, but adds the dynamic of variety. If you want to promote your daily blog post or weekly newsletter, that’s great, but you should also consider adding lots of images, using polling, and creating short videos.
I’ve found that different people seem to react to and comment on different kinds of content -- and I am certain that relevant content, produced in a variety of formats, is one of the best ways to keep your Facebook presence interesting.
You may find that your Facebook engagement increases when you look at it as an extension of your website or blog, but with a more personal and playful personality. Short, sweet variety -- with a human touch.
3. Ask Stimulating Questions
One of the easiest ways to create great interaction is to pose questions that are easy for people to react to and answer. This tactic plays well with my "mix it up" pointer, although again you don’t want to overdo it.
Ask your visitors questions related to the solutions they seek; ask them about things they aren’t getting, things they like, and things they don’t like. These kinds of questions can draw fans into a discussion with each other, and that’s when you know you’re building community with your Facebook page.
4. Talk Back
This may seem pretty elementary, but it’s a make-it-or-break-it kind of thing on Facebook. People in networking environments are looking for conversations, and the tools on Facebook make it very easy to have lots of them.
The key is to be an active participant. Once fans start making comments on your updates, links, videos, and images, start acknowledging their contributions and offering additional comments and insights.
This might require you to employ a tool like TweetDeck or HootSuite to monitor and talk back in real time, or you might just carve out a couple of set times each day to do a little Facebook monitoring.
5. Reward Good Behavior
If you want more "likes" and comments, one of the best things you can do is thank people for doing just those things.
The funny thing is that once you start to do this, particularly if you do it publicly on your page, you’ll find that your most engaged folks will become even more loyal. Others, in turn, will take note of your shower of appreciation with like-minded behavior.
John Jantsch is a marketing consultant and author of Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine and the founder of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network.
