Although Facebook’s active user growth has flattened a bit, it remains the planet’s most popular social media platform by most metrics.
Facebook is also gaining recognition as a powerful marketing and lead generation platform for B2B and B2C companies seeking to grow their audiences and expand brand recognition. However, effectively harnessing Facebook for these purposes isn’t an entirely intuitive affair. Some of the strategies that work well for individual Facebook profiles don’t translate well to Facebook company pages, and vice versa.
If you’ve thus far struggled to boost audience engagement and conversions on your company Facebook page, take a closer look at these nine proven strategies. All are easy, quick, and cost-effective to implement.
1. Keep Your Contact Information Up to Date
This is a simple step that you can probably begin and complete today. Start by reviewing the contact information currently visible on your Facebook company page and complete or update any missing or out-of-date details. Include phone numbers and emails monitored by actual employees, not voicemails or auto-response programs. While you’re at it, flesh out your company description to ensure that first-time visitors understand how your company can help them.
2. Acknowledge Holidays and Special Occasions
Acknowledge your diverse customer base by “celebrating” holidays and special occasions as often as you see fit. For instance, Geeks on Site’s Facebook page includes posts on a slew of holidays and special days, including Chinese New Year and President’s Day. Incorporate a simple meme-style image to boost engagement with each such post.
3. Time Posts Properly
Review best practices for Facebook post timing and schedule accordingly. While your results may vary, posts made during the early morning and late evening hours generally perform better than those made during the middle of the day, perhaps because followers tend to be busy with other things during that time. Note that other social properties may have different ideal posting windows — for instance, LinkedIn engagement is generally higher during the workday, when more users are logged in.
4. Post About a Wide Range of Topics
Vary post topics, and don’t be afraid to post on matters only tangentially related to your company’s core business activities. For instance, if your core product is a line of pet toys, posts about pet care and the human health benefits of keeping pets will likely appeal to prospective customers.
5. Self-Promote Sparingly
Limit your Facebook page’s share of self-promotional posts to less than 25% — that is, just one self-promotional post for every four total posts. Use non-promotional posts to draw positive attention to industry thought leaders, suppliers, partner companies, and even individual customers. More likely than not, they’ll respond in kind with posts or comments that mention your organization.
6. Substitute Original Photos for Stock Shots
Whenever possible, swap original photos for stock photos, which are all too easy for savvy Facebook users to spot. Original photos don’t have to be professionally edited. In most cases, a steady smartphone shot will suffice.
7. Add Short Videos to Your Lineup
Complement original photos with short, high-value videos. The best Facebook videos enhance their producers’ product or service offerings without overtly promoting them — for instance, how-to videos or tutorials that reveal new product applications or troubleshoot problems commonly faced by your user base.
8. Ask Questions of Your Followers
Open-ended questions naturally attract engagement while conveying new information about your customers’ motivations, product use patterns, and more.
You don’t have to end every post with a question, particularly when it’s not warranted or doesn’t make sense in the context of a given post. However, daily or weekly “polls” can “train” followers to engage with your Facebook page on a more frequent basis. If you’re struggling to attract responses to your questions, incentivize your readership with contests for prizes.
9. Respond Promptly to Comments and Questions
The best way to sustain follower engagement is to respond promptly, thoroughly, and with personality to comments, questions, and concerns posed by your readership. It’s important to maintain civility and professionalism in your responses, even when your instinct is more confrontational. Encourage followers with serious or complex concerns to contact you privately, where you’ll both feel more comfortable speaking openly.
Expand Your Social Media Horizons
Facebook is not the only social media network to which your company should devote substantial marketing and development resources. B2B and B2C companies alike benefit from professional-appearing, up-to-date LinkedIn and Twitter profiles and pages, for instance. Both platforms are effective lead generators and talent acquisition pipelines.
Invest in other platforms as needed. Instagram is a powerful product showcase tool, for instance, while Snapchat is an effective guerilla marketing medium for companies with younger customers. There’s no correct or incorrect way to pursue your social media marketing strategy, as long as said strategy produces measurable, consistent, repeatable results for your company.
