AMY PORTERFIELD: Hey there, Amy Porterfield here, and welcome to another edition of the Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast. As always, I’m delighted that you’re here today. And today is a really cool topic. We are talking about Facebook engagement.
As you probably know, if you’ve been following along on my recent podcasts, I’ve been creating freebies (checklists, cheat sheets, guides) for each of the episodes. Today is the best one yet, at least I think so because I’m the type of girl that I love examples.
I don’t always feel comfortable starting from scratch. Sometimes when I’m starting from scratch on anything, an email that I need to write, a sales page copy that needs to get done, or just anything that I need to create. If I’m starting from scratch I tend to just stare at the computer for a while. But if you give me a few examples to go with then I can model my own and make it spectacular. At least that’s how I work.
When I create these freebies I’m always thinking about that, how can I give you a little inspiration and some ideas to get going. So today’s freebie, oh my gosh, it’s so good! What I’ve done is I’ve curated what I call the top 20 examples of high-engagement Facebook posts.
It took me hours to find the best of the best. It’s basically what’s working right now on Facebook and I want to give you those examples. So when you get this PDF you will actually see the Facebook post and then a little commentary from me on why it’s great and how you can model it for your own.
To get your hands on this amazing free giveaway you can go to http:// amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/48download. Or, as always, you can text 48download to 38470 and you can get this really valuable cheat sheet to help you boost your engagement on Facebook. I typically don’t start with the freebie by just going for it in the intro. But it is so good that I just couldn’t pass it up.
As you know, today we’re talking about engagement. Specifically, we are talking about what it really looks like on Facebook. You just might be surprised. In addition to that I’m going to help you understand why engagement matters on Facebook.
Just a few years ago engagement looked different. It mattered in a different way and it just worked in a different way. Today we’ve got to keep up with what’s working right now. And I feel like that’s my mission for you, to help you understand what’s working right now on Facebook and how to make it work to your advantage for your unique business.
We all know that Facebook changes rapidly. It’s changing all the time. You could be in one of two camps. 1) You are in that camp that you just complain about it. You are just frustrated. You even say things like, “I’m not going to use Facebook anymore,” or “Facebook doesn’t work for business anymore,” or “How dare they think they are going to charge us to get out into the newsfeed.” That’s what I call the negative Facebook camp.
Believe me, I’ve put my foot in the water over there a few times. But where I really want you to focus is what Facebook can do for you no matter if it changes all the time. It’s still the force to reckon with when we are talking about social media. It really, truly can change your business. But you’ve got to look at it differently.
Yes, sometimes you do have to pay to get that engagement you are looking for on Facebook. That’s actually not what today’s episode is about. We’re going to talk about the organic strategies, the free strategies to get engagement. But if you want to take what I teach you today and put it on steroids then you do want to explore Facebook ads which, of course, I’ll be talking about in upcoming episodes.
For today, I want you to know Facebook changes all the time but if you just know a few of the things that are working right now you can boost your engagement. If you understand why engagement matters then you start looking at the whole thing a little differently and with a little less stress and negativity and you start seeing the opportunities in it for you.
That’s what I hope you really see by the end of this episode. The episode is a really nice mix of tactics. You know me, I love to give you specific things you can do to see results. And it’s a nice mix of mindset as well (how to look at Facebook, why to approach it differently today than you did a year ago). Mindset and tactics married together will make this episode really powerful for you.
Before we dive in, as always, this episode is sponsored by Lead Pages. Lead Pages truly is my tool of choice, the tool I use to build my email list every day. Lead Pages works really well with Facebook so the two integrate very nicely.
If you want to see how I use Lead Pages, I created a mini training. It is literally step-by- step behind-the-scenes of my Lead Pages account and how I integrate it into everything I do in terms of building an email list on autopilot. You can go to http:// amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/newleads to check out how I use Lead Pages to build my email list. Definitely don’t miss out on that mini training.
Getting back to our topic of the day, engagement on Facebook. Where I want to start is Facebook’s definition of engagement and literally what it looks like in terms of the actions people need to take to get more engagement on your Facebook Page. That’s where we are starting out.
Facebook defines engagement in one way and one way only. So I will make it very specific. You are getting engagement with your Facebook posts if your fans are doing one or few of four different actions. They are either liking the post, they are commenting on the post, they are sharing the post, or they are clicking a link in your post. There are four things: Likes, comments, shares, and clicks.
If you can get your fans to take one or a few of those actions you are golden. What that means is non engagement is really easy on Facebook. Let’s say you spent some time crafting the perfect post. It was inspirational, it was conversational, you included a beautiful image to grab my attention and let’s pretend I’m a fan of your Facebook Page and I see it in the newsfeed.
If I read the post and I think to myself, “What an inspirational post. That was fantastic, great message,” and then I go on with my day you have just received zero engagement from me. Facebook will actually think that I’m not interested in your content. That’s actually not the case because I read it, I enjoyed it, I thought it was fantastic. I just didn’t do anything with it.
In order to make sure that we are getting the engagement we deserve we need to get our fans to “do” something, take action. Just remember: Likes, comments, shares, and clicks.
Remember I said that this episode was a nice mix of tactics and mindset. Well, I’m going to get to the tactics in a moment. I actually have 12 different actions you can take to boost your engagement on your Facebook Page with each and every post that you put out there. We’ll get there in a moment.
But let’s get back to that mindset just for a minute so that you start to look at Facebook a little bit differently. You already know the equation for engagement is getting your fans to actually do something. The more engagement you get with a post the more often your post will be pushed out into the newsfeed.
One thing that is very true is that promotional posts will get far less engagement than what I call the non-native posts. Non-native posts are posts that are not about you, they are about your fans. They ignite conversation. They are full of value. They do not promote anything and they really blend in with the conversations on Facebook.
Gary Vaynerchuk has a book called Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. He really does a great job of talking about non-native content. It is content that just fits in seamlessly with the conversations that your fans are already having on Facebook.
In the show notes I am actually going to list a few examples of non-native posts. I literally took some screen grabs. They are also in that freebie I mentioned in the intro but I will put them in the show notes as well. You can get the show notes at http:// amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/48. You can see some examples of those non-native posts that really just blend into the conversations but spark the engagement you are looking for.
You’ve got these non-native posts. That’s what is going to get you out into the newsfeed. But, of course, there are going to be times that you are going to want to promote on Facebook. You are going to want to promote a webinar or maybe you have a freebie like a lead magnet you want to put out there. Or maybe you are just doing a flash sale and you want to tell people about it.
If that’s the case, when you post those promotional posts on Facebook you’re not going to get much engagement for them. And that’s okay. I’m not against promotional posts as long as the majority of your posts are those non-native posts. But when you do post promotional posts just know you’re not going to get the engagement.
So how do you get people to actually see them when you post them on your Facebook Page? You prime the pump. What I mean by prime the pump is you spend the time on curating native content so that you make sure you are putting out content on a regular basis that will ignite the engagement so that when you post the promotional stuff it still gets out into the newsfeed because you’ve primed the pump, you’ve made sure that your posts are constantly getting out into your tribe’s newsfeed because you’ve got people engaging with the post.
When you promote something that post won’t get a lot of engagement but you’ve already done the work ahead of time so that promotional post will also get pushed out into the newsfeed.
Jumping back to that native content concept just a little bit more, I want to share with you what Mark Zuckerberg said about his vision for Facebook. He actually said he is trying to create “the perfect personalized newspaper for every person in the world.”
What this means is Facebook is truly focused on the fan experience. Of course, they are not putting business owners in the forefront of their focus. They want to make sure the fan has the ultimate experience so they keep coming back for more.
Sharing what is relevant and significantly useful to your fans will give you a huge big advantage in the newsfeed. Failing to share what is highly useful will alienate you from your fans. You really do need to know what your audience wants. And if you need to, you can ask them. I’ll get to that in one of the 12 tactics I share with you.
I’ll share with you what I have recently been doing to really understand my audience’s concerns and struggles. I’ll get there in a moment.
But to help you out, take inventory and really start to understand what your fans are talking about, what they are hooked on right now, and what’s grabbing their attention. If you’re on target with your messaging and have taken the time to really learn about what your audience wants, what the people that are constantly engaging with you are saying, you will definitely be able to hit a homerun in terms of getting those likes, comments, shares, and clicks.
This is what Zuckerberg said, “There’s more competition for what they (the users) see so only the highest quality content is actually going to get through and get shown to those people.”
So truly, if I could suggest one of the best reading materials out there right now in terms of content, it is that book I mentioned earlier, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. I think it has the best chapter I have read on how to get engagement on Facebook. It is worth picking up. The whole book is fantastic but I have probably read his chapter on Facebook three or four times because it’s that good.
If you genuinely care about creating stellar content that gets shared on Facebook you want to focus on that native content, the content that really gets people to pay attention and want to have a conversation with you.
We are moving into those 12 tactics in just a moment. But I want to share something with you that is very relevant right now. Facebook came out a little while ago and let everybody know that if you are being too overly promotional on Facebook your posts will not be pushed out into the newsfeed, even when you have done a good job of engagement.
Earlier I said, and I still stand by it, you will definitely get your promotional posts out into the newsfeed more often if you prime the pump. I definitely mean that and I have seen it work over and over again. However, there is a caveat to that.
In January 2015 Facebook has taken on a new philosophy regarding overly promotional posts that will affect how your promotional posts are seen in the fans’ newsfeed. In an ongoing survey Facebook asked hundreds of thousands of people how they felt about the content in their newsfeed.
The feedback revealed that people wanted to see fewer promotional posts and more stories from their friends and Pages that they have liked. Just to be clear here, Facebook is referring to free status update posts that are promotional and not paid ads. With paid ads you can promote all day long and those will get out into the newsfeed because you have paid for it. What we are talking about is posting on our Facebook Page and hopefully organic reach is going to help us get those posts out into the newsfeed.
Here’s how Facebook is defining overly promotional posts:
- Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install and app;
- Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context; and
- Posts that reuse the exact same content from their ads. That’s an interesting one.
Here’s what you need to know: When you do promote on your Facebook Page and you’re not using ads to do so, always add value in those promotional posts. You are not going to just say, “Click here to get 15% off” and then have a 15% off coupon on your Facebook post. You’ve got to add a little context behind it.
Be more conversational, be friendly, add a little insight or feedback or information. Really connect with your audience like you would be connecting with a friend. If you had a great coupon code for a friend you wouldn’t likely email them and out of the blue say, “15% off, click here now.”
You would tell them why it’s so good (this is how I would do it), “Hey, I just bought this amazing handbag from XYZ. I loved how they had so much to choose from. You can get this actual handbag for 15% off, just click here.”
That’s a whole different conversation? The way you craft your promotional posts actually matters. If you want to use my whole strategy of priming the pump, the native posts, keeping it conversational and friendly and value packed, and then once in a while you are going to promote and you are hoping those promotional posts also get out into the newsfeed, don’t make them overly promotional. Don’t make it all about getting people to click a link and go buy. Definitely, don’t try to do a promotion with no context around it.
The more you have a promotional post, have a little bit of that native aspect to it blending into the conversations, make sure people actually care about what you are talking about, you will get those promotional posts in the newsfeed. I just wanted to bring this up because It’s fairly new and very important to remember.
I’ll make sure to outline this a little bit more in the show notes so that you can make sure that each of your posts, even when they are promotional, aren’t deemed overly promotional so they get no traction whatsoever. I just want to make it clear, you can still promote on Facebook and you don’t always have to run ads when you are doing so. Just add a little context to those promotions.
Now we are going to switch gears just a bit. I’ve gone pretty deep into the mindset around engagement, the definition of engagement, what it actually means for your business, how to use native posts in order to prime the pump so that when you do promote those promotional posts actually get seen by your tribe in the newsfeed.
But you’ve got to really think about your process here, 80/20 is the rule I like to use; 80 percent of the time it is all about those native posts that blend in and become part of the conversation. They are about your audience and fans. They are not about you. Then 20 percent of the time you will want to promote on your Facebook Page. I think you should promote. I don’t think your Facebook Page should be all value and no promotion.
I feel we earn our right to promote. By earning our right to promote, we are putting out really high value content on a regular basis that people can learn from or be inspired from or will be entertained by it. That’s why people are on Facebook. I like to go through seasons of promotion. For two weeks I may promote my Profit Lab program and then for another six weeks I am not doing any kind of promotion. I like to really schedule it out.
But when I am promoting, when it’s time for the Profit Lab, I feel really, really comfortable promoting because I know that I’ve earned my right. I’ve actually given the great valuable content. I’ve been the support person on my Facebook Page. I have actually shown up and tried to offer as much value as possible. So now I have an audience that is genuinely interested in what I am selling. That comes back to the mindset.
I want to switch gears now and talk about some tactics. I have 12 tips that you can use to get more engagement, more likes, comments, shares, and clicks from each of your Facebook posts. Some of them are no brainers. You are probably already doing them or you have heard them a million times but you are not actually doing them yet. I just want to remind you that you have heard some of these but you just might not be doing them and I want to encourage you to take action on them.
1. Get personal.
You have probably experienced this before. You post a picture of your dog doing something silly and it gets tons of likes. You post a blog post all about how to do XYZ, something related to your niche, and sometimes it’s crickets. You get nothing. We have noticed that even on our business Page getting personal is very, very important; not all the time, not more often than not, just sprinkle in your personality, your personal side, maybe a family vacation photo or a picture of your cat or dog or whatever it might be.
You also want to add a little commentary with that personal post. Instead of just posting a picture of my dog, Gus, I might say something silly about what he is doing.
You want to add your personality so people feel they are connecting with you. I always hate it when someone just posts a picture. I don’t know exactly what I’m supposed to do with that.
It’s not like you would actually mail a card to someone in the mail and then not say anything in the card. That’s what a post with no commentary feels like to me. It is very empty. So always include just a little bit at the top. But again, #1 Get personal.
2.Focus on the fans that are actually paying attention to you right now.
So many times I head people say, “I have 2,000 fans but only ten of them will actually comment on a picture.” Let’s get really, really personal with those ten that are. Respond back to them. Click like next to their comment.
Get the conversations going even more so underneath their comments. So if somebody came to my Facebook Page, saw one of my posts and comment on it, then I want to make an effort to say, “Hey, thanks so much,” or “I agree with you,” or “I see what you are saying about that.” I want to have a conversation.
I can’t do it all of the time because I have a lot of fans on my Page. But when I can, I definitely get in there and do it as much as possible.
3.Try to stick around a little bit, especially after you post a question, even if it’s for ten minutes.
I am actually going to add #3 and #4 into the same story.
4.Make sure you ask questions that are going to ignite a true conversation.
What I’ve been doing about once a week is ask questions to my audience about their concerns with growing an online business, the struggles they are facing, and some of the worries they have actually had while building an online business.
These are true to my own brand. These are things I talk about. The same type of questions might not work for your Page, but let their audience show their vulnerability. Let them express some of their concern about whatever it is that they are working on as it relates to your brand.
I was so pleasantly surprised to see so much honesty come through in the comments when I asked what was one of the biggest fears about your business right now. The thing is, if you are going to ask a serious question like that make sure you stay around and actually reply back.
I think it would be a wonderful, wonderful world if we could reply back to all of the comments on our Facebook Page. That’s not really doable. But when you are going to ask someone to share their heart, one of their concerns, their fears, I think they deserve an answer or a reply back in a timely manner.
For the next 20 to 30 minutes after I posted that question I stuck around and replied to each of the people that posted and used their first name as well. I wanted to let them know that they were heard.
This kind of gets back to giving the attention to the people that are actually commenting. It’s okay if you have thousands of fans but only a few are commenting. Give those commenters the respect they deserve. Use their first name, expand on the conversation, let them know you appreciate them and that you hear them. This will go a long way.
I know there is no science behind it in this conversation I am having with you but I will tell you that it will ignite more engagement. When people see that you are commenting and you are actually making an effort they will be more likely to start the conversation again next time with you. That’s just human nature and it’s something I just wanted to really throw out there.
5.Create posts that are relevant to your brand and tell a story.
That doesn’t mean the post needs to be paragraphs long. Storytelling is always tough for me to express when I’m trying to explain it to a new customer because when you think of a story you think of a storybook. It’s got many twists and turns and some could be longer than others. But it usually takes a little while to get the story out.
That’s not what I mean on Facebook. When I’m talking about storytelling on Facebook it’s just little short snapshots of what you want to convey. Sometimes a great little story is a perfect lead in to a link that goes to a blog post. That is definitely a great way to tell a quick little story and then send somebody on to get even more information.
A lot of times my blog posts will start with a really great short paragraph. Sometimes I use that as my Facebook post to get people to want more so they have to click and go read the whole post.
Just think in terms of what little tiny story you can tell to peak their interest and get them to want to read more. That’s how you get those clicks in the post.
6.Make sure that each post can ignite a feeling for your audience.
This might sound weird but stay with me here. Each time you post, question what you want your audience to feel. Do you want them to be happy? Do you want them to feel inspired? Do you want them to feel empathetic or informed or supported or connected to you? What do you want them to feel?
When you get somebody to feel something they are more likely to click like or to share or to comment or to click a link in your post. Feelings get us to take action. So if there is no feeling at all we will just read it and move on to the next one. Think in terms of feelings.
That flows nicely into #6.
7.People will share posts that put them in a good light.
There were studies done that proved that people will share your post if it puts them in a good light. That’s why inspirational quotes get shared the most on Facebook. If it’s an inspirational quote and I share it with my friends then I look as though I am inspiring other people.
You will rarely get shares for something that is dark or doesn’t put somebody in a good light if they were to share it. Think about that. If you want more shares then you want to make sure you are putting out content that people will be proud to share and will make them look good.
There are a few studies done about this and it really does make a difference. I have tested it many times on my own Facebook Page. One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is that a comment in a share actually weighs more in terms of engagement than a like or a click.
I don’t want to get too technical about this and I don’t want you to go down a rabbit hole with it. But what I will say is that Facebook gives you a little bit more credit for getting those shares and comments versus if someone just clicks like on a post.
You want the higher-level engagement, shares and comments. Anything you can do to ignite those shares and comments, more so than anything else, is going to be in your favor. You will be out into the newsfeed even more. I don’t want you to focus on that too much because engagement is engagement in terms of just getting someone to take action. But there is a little bit of a hierarchy in terms of that engagement.
So if you want more shares then make sure you are creating content that people will be proud to share.
8.Create each post as though you are talking to a friend.
You’ve probably heard this one but after this episode I want you to go back to your Facebook Page and read your last ten Facebook posts. Do they sound like you are talking to your best friend or are they a little stiff? Most of the time when I am reading different posts on other Facebook Pages there is not that really friendly conversational tone.
It’s something that just doesn’t come natural to us when we are talking about our business and posting on Facebook. I get it. It is something you have to consciously think about. Every single post should make you feel you are just talking to me and we are great friends. Believe me, it will go a long way.
Here’s proof of that: I am going to guess that you get more engagement on your profile than you do your Facebook Page. Am I right? Most people will say that. That doesn’t happen to me because I don’t use my profile that much. But if you are using your profile and your Page on a pretty consistent basis your profile is probably friendlier, more conversational.
People connect with you easier that way where they might feel there is a little bit of a barrier in your Facebook Page posts. Just think about that. I want you to use the same tone you are using on your profile as you do on your Facebook Page.
There are exceptions for this. If you are not your own personal brand and you are posting for a business the tone might be a little bit different than your own profile. I get it. So use your own discretion there. But if you can make them equally conversational you will go a long way with those posts.
9.It is all about the image.
You already know that images on Facebook go a long way. For the majority of your posts you should be including a really eye-catching image. But this tip is not to create images. This tip is about creating an image strategy.
Finding a simple way to get a bunch of images done at once so that when you are posting on Facebook you actually have what you need to make that post look
fantastic. Images are going to get you more likes, clicks, comments, and shares. I can promise you that.
I want to make it easier for you. Sometimes when you start creating images, especially if you use a tool like Canva, one of my favorites, you can go down a rabbit hole. They have tons of backgrounds and images and text to use. This is great. They also have a Facebook post template so you don’t even need to worry about the specs of the images. But you could spend hours creating just one image if you let yourself.
I think we have all been there where we have spent way too much time trying to put together an image. You can do one of two things. 1) If you are going to create the images yourself, give yourself a time limit and batch the images. Maybe on a Friday you will spend one hour creating a bunch of images for the coming week’s Facebook posts. They may be quote image, titles of your different blog posts you will be promoting, or images that actually speak to what you will be talking about in the posts.
To curate these images I like to use BigStockPhoto and maybe overlay some text using Canva. All of that takes a little time. If you need to do it yourself because you have a really tight budget or because it’s something you really enjoy doing and you do it well, set a time limit and batch your images for the following week for Facebook.
Another thing you can do is use 99Designs. I found a designer on 99Designs that I really like and over the last few weeks he has been doing the images for my show notes/podcasts. There is a specific look and feel I am going for. Each of them has a different color but I tend to use the same font, at least for the last few.
He knows what I need. He charges $5 an image and it is worth it to me. Here’s why it’s worth it: Now a days, when I create images for my blog post I am really looking at what will look good on Facebook. As you know, when people share a URL from your blog post it gets pulled into Facebook. That image gets pulled through along with the title.
You want that image that is getting pulled through to look really good on Facebook. So that’s what I have in mind and that’s why I batch my images and make sure they all have a similar look and feel, especially for my different blog posts and podcast episodes.
Just get a system, whatever might work for you. Maybe your VA does them or 99Designs or you do them on Canva. Whatever it might be, images are definitely worth your time. But don’t let it send you down the rabbit hole of spending way too much time to get them done.
#8 is about getting a system together for your images. But that really flows well into #9.
10.Make sure when people share your content from your blog that it looks really good on Facebook.
You know when you go to a blog post and grab the URL, you copy it and paste it into the post on Facebook and the image and title of whatever is on the web page should get pulled through. You know what I’m talking about?
Have you ever had the experience that nothing gets pulled through or just a thumbnail of the image gets pulled through? That is not what you want to do. What you really want to pay attention to is making sure that your blog posts look really good when people share them on Facebook.
In Episode #44 I actually talked about this pretty extensively when I interviewed Michael Stelzner. Then I created a cheat sheet to walk you through how to use a specific WordPress plug in that will make sure all of your posts, when shared on Facebook, actually get pulled through correctly and look really good.
You can go to http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/44download and you can literally get step-by-step instructions to actually install a WordPress plug in that will help you make sure your blog posts get pulled through correctly on Facebook. The image will show up correctly, the title will be there, the description. This is important stuff.
If you want more clicks, comments, shares, and likes you want to make sure your content is looking good when people share it on Facebook. You don’t want that thumbnail. You want the full image. You want the title pulled through. Do the work for people in advance with this plug in that I teach you how to use versus having people needing to manipulate your image and the title before they actually share it. They won’t do it and then your content looks terrible on Facebook.
I think my most important take out of all of these is this one, #9, to use a certain plug in called WordPress SEO, by Yoast, so that your content looks good. Anyway, you don’t even need to worry about the name of the plug in, just go to http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/44download to download the step-by-step instructions to make this work for you.
11.Mix up your content on Facebook.
This is an easy one but is again a reminder to make sure you are actually doing it. If you want posts to be shared and to get the likes and comments and clicks you have to keep things interesting. That means using video and different images with your posts and maybe trying a few posts without images just to experiment.
Sometimes people get more engagement with the non-image posts. It’s rare so I usually tell people to definitely use images. But you have to experiment. Also, mix things up so that you are attracting people that like posts in different ways.
Some people want image quotes and they want to share them. Other people love to see posts about your blog post so they can be reminded what you’ve got out there. Mix up your content, mix up the type of posts. Sometimes include links to blog posts. Other times just use quotes, quick tips, facts, or whatever it might be.
But make sure your posts are interesting enough. If you want to know what’s really interesting to your audience go into your Facebook insights. Inside of insights you can actually see which posts are getting the most engagement. You will see on that very first page, if you scroll down into Facebook insights (every single Page has Facebook insights, it’s like analytics) you will see what people are sharing the most.
You might be surprised what is getting the most engagement versus other posts. What I always say is keep doing what is working. Do more of the types of posts that have already gotten you some great engagement.
12.Upload video directly to a Facebook post.
I want to actually take one idea that I just mentioned in #10, video. The reason video deserved its own tip is because I’m seeing amazing things with my content and those of my customers in terms of sharing video on Facebook.
I’m talking about uploading the video directly to a Facebook post. I’ve been doing this a little bit pretty consistently. Each time I post a short video I already have 1,000s of people I have reached versus maybe a few hundred with an image post.
We have all seen reach decline dramatically on our Facebook posts. That’s nothing new. You are going to be pleasantly surprised if you upload a short video, let it go for
30 minutes and then come back. I promise you your reach is almost guaranteed to be higher than anything else you have posted over the last week.
Let’s talk video. What are you going to put in your video? One thing you can do is make a quick video whether it’s you direct to camera or maybe you have a few slides that you go through on the video telling people about your latest podcast episode or your latest blog post. You will see I’ll do that with this post specifically and it will get so much more engagement than anything else. This is what’s working right now on Facebook.
You could also do a quick video where you invite people to a webinar or tell them about your cheat sheet. I’m talking about one to two minutes max. It’s really simple stuff. It could be you on video but it doesn’t have to be. But the video is getting the reach you are really looking for.
I encourage you to test this out and then I want you to let me know. Come to my Facebook Page and let me know you have done it and give me some of the details about the results. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
If you want an example of this, I’ll make sure to link to an example in my show notes at http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/48.
You’ve got to check out one of my favorite scheduling tools.
We are down to the final tip. I didn’t know I would love this tool so much. I think I’ve mentioned it on another podcast episode but stay with me here because I have more to share with you.
I am in love with Edgar. You can go to http://meetedgar.com for all of the details. It’s not free but it’s worth paying for. I’m not an affiliate, I just love it that much. I’ve always struggled to find a tool that I’m comfortable with that’s really easy to use that will help me schedule my Facebook posts.
I have struggled with it because it’s a lot of work to constantly be looking for content to schedule in advance and post on your Facebook Page. I’m talking about other people’s blog posts and other people’s videos and then a mix of your own and then some quotes and all of that good stuff. Basically, what I talk about in #10, mix it up.
Edgar allows you to become a superstar with #10 (Mix up your content on Facebook). Here’s how Edgar works, you can go check it out yourself, but basically there is a little
bookmarklet that you can use as a button on your bookmark. Every time you come across a great blog post you want to share you just click the little image of Edgar and a box pops up. You can make sure the image gets pulled through and looks good and then you can tell it to share the image on your Facebook Page and on Twitter (that’s what I use it for, Facebook and Twitter). You choose where you want it to share, you make sure it looks good, and then you just click enter and it goes into a queue. It will then be queued up and will post at random times (you can choose the times if you want) on your Facebook Page and Twitter.
The beauty of Edgar is it goes into a library. The content you shared will actually be shared again days or weeks later depending on how much more content you have in Edgar. You are building a library of content that will be consistently shared on your Facebook Page.
This has skyrocketed my engagement. Before, if I scheduled it, great, but then I have to keep scheduling and keep scheduling every day to make sure stuff is going on my Page. This is going to recycle that content.
If you have just a tiny library it will recycle pretty fast. But every week I spend 15 minutes on finding great content so my library has gotten really big and I am constantly sharing things. Of course, I am sharing content about my blog post and my podcast episodes with my show notes. Now old shows are getting shared on Facebook and Twitter more regularly.
You might see a post about a podcast I did two weeks ago or two months ago but it is still getting the traction it deserves. I love this tool really for the library affect of it and the fact that it is constantly recycling my content. It also just came out with a report card where it will show you which posts are getting the most engagement and it will actually keep you updated on how many fans you have this week so you can see the growth.
It’s amazing. It was created by my great friend, Laura Roeder. I have always loved Laura for her systems. The girl knows her systems and processes and she has been in the trenches with social media. She is a social media expert so she knows how this all works. Because she “gets” social media and understands engagement she created a tool that will really do some amazing stuff for your engagement on Facebook.
Again, I’m not even an affiliate, I just love the tool so much.
There you have it, 12 tips to make sure you are getting more likes, comments, shares, and clicks with each post. I don’t expect you to do all of these 12 tips right away. But I want to encourage you to take at least one of the ideas that I gave you and run with it whether that be to get a system in place for your images or make sure you are using the WordPress plug in so that people are actually sharing your stuff correctly on Facebook, or maybe it’s just as simple as asking questions and sticking around for the next 10 to 15 minutes to like each for the comments and reply where it makes the most sense.
I encourage you to take action. Engagement truly does matter.
Hopefully you found some really valuable Facebook engagement tips and now you understand what engagement looks like on Facebook, how it is actually working right now, and what you can do, the actual actions you can take to make engagement work for you on Facebook.
Remember, engagement will help you not only build a really, really strong bond with your existing fan base but it will also introduce you to new people on Facebook as you get pushed out into the newsfeed more and more. It’s all about people liking your posts, commenting, sharing, or clicking a link inside that post.
Those actions are crucial for you to build your engagement. Remember, I created a very valuable, useful giveaway for this episode. It’s called The Top 20 Examples of High- Engagement Facebook Posts. They are literally posts that I found on Facebook that are getting massive engagement and I am going to give you a little commentary to explain why they are getting engagement and how you can model it for your own Facebook Page.
It is 20 examples and y ou can dow nload it instantly at http:// amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/48download or you can text 48download to 38470. I can’t wait until you get your hands on this free giveaway. It’s really, really useful and I can’t wait to see all of your engagement-worthy posts on Facebook.
Thanks, so much, for being with me here today. I cannot wait to talk to you again soon. Until we talk again, make it a great week. Bye for now.
