In an ideal world, users would share our content until it canvassed everyone’s Facebook feed, but with exception to all but the rarest cases, that simply isn’t going to happen.
Darnit!
Business owners have to promote their content for it to succeed the vast majority of the time.
It’s what you do after making a post on Facebook that drastically increases that post’s trajectory towards success, and some promotion techniques aren’t incredibly obvious, especially for smaller businesses.
So let’s dive in and discuss legitimate techniques you can use today to start ramping up engagement.
Boosting posts is far superior at attracting eyeballs than simply throwing a post out into the digital ether and seeing what sticks.
Ok, what’s the catch?
Well, it costs money, and there are a few requirements.
For instance, you’ll first need to have a Facebook Business Page (you do already have one, right?), create a post that complies with Facebook’s content standards, and have sufficient account privileges with the Business Page to boost a post (Admin, Editor, Moderator, or Advertiser privilege).
But in exchange for payment, boosted posts offer a wealth of advantages, including ad targeting, scheduling, the ability to include a CTA button, and greater visibility in the Audience Network. You can even custom tailor your budget to the boost, though there is a minimum budget requirement of $1 a day. The flexibility to set your own budget helps manage overspending, and allows businesses with tight budgets to promote content within their means.
Image quality is paramount to marketing success on Facebook. Consider all of the other forms of content you’re competing with, such as high resolution videos or real-time streams. You have to give Facebook users some eye candy to grab their attention. If you can’t source high quality images or don’t have even basic image editing skills, then it’s time to reach out to someone who does.
Remember to try to avoid overused stock image photos. If the image you’re thinking of using is free and in the public domain, you should likely avoid using it.
You don’t need to become a professional photographer or graphic designer to get quality images, though you’ll likely want to spend money on a membership with an image database like ShutterStock or other similar service. We use CanStockPhoto to find a lot of our images.
Tagging a user, business or group in your post is a great way to grab attention, but there are some general rules to follow.
First off, make sure you don’t try to bomb everyone in your contacts list with a tag, because doing so is rather transparent and irritating. However, if there is genuine relevancy regarding the entity you’ve tagged, go for it.
Furthermore, if you’re connected with key influencer in your niche, you can tag them as well to increase the likelihood they’ll share it with their audience. But this isn’t a tactic that you want to overuse or abuse, because it might come off as a little spammy and could cause the user to block or unfriend you.
In addition, you can post the actual link to your content in another post’s comments, but like the previous tactic, you shouldn’t overdo it. Yet again, the biggest consideration you need to make beforehand is whether or not your link’s content is relevant to the conversation taking place. If you add to the conversation and through your content’s link help educate the audience, entertain them or add value in another way, it’s a great way to put your content in front of others.
Naturally, the idea here is to drive traffic back to your site by engaging your audience directly through Facebook comments.
Of course, you’ll want to have Facebook and Twitter (and probably others) social media buttons to make it easier for those users to share as well. Just remember, however, that posting your link directly into the comments section of a Facebook post must be fitting, appropriate and organic. Otherwise, you’ll appear as a shameless and transparent self promoter.
Chances are your business page has a different audience than your personal Facebook profile. As such, it makes a lot of sense to share your content through your personal account to reach everyone who’s personally connected to you. This strategy is a great way for small businesses to get their content in front of people in the local community too.
You may even ask friends and family to like and share content as well. (although again, they could get tired of you asking if you keep doing it.)
The more your post is liked and shared, it will appear with greater frequency in each feed within your friend’s and family’s network of friends. But I must issue a word of caution: your personal Facebook profile needs to be clean and secure. If there are any images on your personal Facebook profile that are inappropriate or content you don’t want associated with your business, you’ll need to remove them before sharing content.
A/B testing is a marketing tactic that’s so pliable and flexible it can be used in a wide variety of campaigns. More importantly, it can also be used with Facebook posts.
You’d be surprised what an A/B test reveals, too. A/B testing will shed light on seemingly insignificant things, such as adding an emoji to the headline of your post.
Or a test might reveal which image generates the most interest and engagement, or which headline performs the best. A/B testing is a great way to optimize your campaign to get the most out of your advertising budget, but do note that it’s really a way to optimize your campaign, and not the end-all-be-all solution for success.
Facebook feeds have grown turgid with advertisements and live video, and there’s more competition than ever before.
If you’re just throwing up a post and letting it coast with its own momentum, you’re missing a lot of opportunities to promote your content. Remember to incorporate these six promotion strategies into your Facebook posts to grow your audience and attract more attention.
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