How to Increase Fan Engagement on Your Facebook Page
October 7, 2015 | By Amy Porterfield | No Comments">No Comments
Facebook’s organic reach has drastically declined. That’s a fact. When reach declines, it often feels impossible to get your fans to engage with you on your Facebook Page. It’s really a Catch 22: Low engagement means less people see your posts (this lowers your reach), but you can’t increase your your reach if you don’t increase your engagement. It’s maddening!
Lately I’ve been talking about the importance of making a mindset shift when it comes to Facebook marketing. If you shift the way you view Facebook, you’re opening the door to some BIG OPPORTUNITIES and even BIGGER RESULTS. All that time and energy you’ve put into your Facebook efforts will actually start to pay off.
Engagement Is Your Trump Card
About that mindset shift: The people who are generating leads and profits daily approach Facebook as an INVESTMENT. They aren’t afraid to PAY to promote their posts and utilize the power of Facebook ads.
If you want to see big results from Facebook, you must invest in ads. In an upcoming blog post I am going to show you how to use Facebook ads in a way that can get you MORE LEADS and MORE SALES without depleting your bank account.
HOWEVER, before I show you how to utilize Facebook ads on a tight budget, I want to show you the best way to increase your free, organic reach on Facebook.
I started this post off by saying organic reach has drastically declined, but that does not mean there’s nothing you can do about it. YOU CAN INCREASE YOUR ORGANIC REACH. And if you combine the increase in organic reach WITH your new understanding of Facebook ads (look for that post next week) you will finally start to see the kind of results on Facebook that you’ve been searching for all along.
Think of engagement as your trump card. It’s that one strategy that is sure to work when you know how to do it right. To optimize your engagement on Facebook, there are three things you must understand. Once you have this down, you are well on your way to seeing bigger results on Facebook.
#1: Understand How Facebook Engagement Really Works
Before I show you a bunch of excellent examples of what’s working right now on Facebook, it’s paramount that you understand how things actually work on Facebook.
When you increase engagement on your Facebook Page, Facebook puts your posts out into the news feed more often, so more of your fans and their friends will see your posts. If your posts are not getting out into the news feed often, you are getting little to no engagement. That’s the truth.
But here’s where I can make it EXTREMELY simple for you. When it comes to Facebook engagement, there are just four things Facebook is monitoring. You ready for this? Facebook is looking to see if your fans either:
1) LIKE your post
2) COMMENT on your post
3) SHARE your post, or
4) CLICK a link in your post (if you include one of course).
THAT IS IT. If Facebook users are not doing one of these four actions, Facebook thinks your audience is not at all interested in your content. If Facebook thinks your fans are not interested in your posts, they won’t push your posts out into the news feed and your reach declines. Now do you see how REACH and ENGAGEMENT go hand in hand?
#2: Guarantee Your Fans Will See Your Promotional Posts
Here’s one more thing that most people teaching Facebook strategies fail to explain. When you increase your engagement by creating posts that get more engagement, you increase your chances of success when you promote and sell on Facebook. How does this work? The more often you create posts that elicit action (more likes, comments, share and/or clicks) you are strengthening your reach and showing up more often in the news feed.
That means that when you decide to promote or sell, those posts will ALSO get more reach and show up in the news feed. It’s normal that posts that are promotional or selling something won’t get much engagement, however if you make an effort to build up your engagement and reach with your non-promotional posts, when you do promote, those posts get a free ride into the news feed. See how that works? Good stuff, right?
#3: Craft “Action-Worthy” Facebook Posts
If Facebook engagement is reliant on LIKES, COMMENTS, SHARES and CLICKS, then the goal here is to craft posts that will ensure these actions are happening. Instead of telling you how to post, I am going to showyou how to do it. Use these examples below as your guide. Once you begin to post with the engagement formula in mind (likes, comments, shares and clicks), your reach will increase and everything you do on Facebook will begin to boost your brand authority and help you increase your leads and sales.
How to Increase Post Likes
Likes are easier to get than comments. This post above works a bit differently than you might expect. If you post a question that sparks nostalgia or just a really good feeling, expect to see your likes skyrocket. The more you know what will resonate with your audience, the easier it is to think of questions that get them to take action.
When you combine a great status update with a fantastic image, you will boost your posts’ likes. In this example, notice the casual, fun tone Abel James creates in his status update. The tone is incredibly important – the more casual and friendly on Facebook, the better!
One of the easiest ways to increase your engagement is to ASK FOR IT. Awhile back there was some talk against asking for the like because some thought that Facebook would not count the engagement when you ask for it. However there is no proof of this and I have seen this strategy work very well. The more you make your audience laugh with your “Like Post” the higher the engagement!
How to Increase Post Comments
This is one of my very favorite ways to elicit comments. I do this all the time when I am creating content and my good friend, Pat Flynn is a pro with this type of post as well. Facebook users LOVE to give their opinion, so take advantage of this and ask questions that will help you better understand what they want. (As an added perk, notice how Pat also promoted his upcoming talk with the time and date!)
Now here’s something a bit different, but extremely effective! I recently sent out an email where I encouraged feedback via my Facebook page. So I added a link to my Page inside the email and asked for comments. It was a huge success! To make sure my audience knew I appreciated their feedback and to strengthen my relationships, I replied to every single comment that was elicited from this email. It was a lot of work, but 100% worth the effort.
How to Increase Post Shares
If you want more shares, use an image that tells your fans instantly what the post is all about. If you want more shares, make the post share-worthy!
OK, we all know that quotes work well on Facebook. But as I was hunting for successful posts on Facebook, it was very clear that not all quote posts will spark action. You must find the quotes that are extremely inspirational TO YOUR AUDIENCE – choose the quotes that are so good they can’t resist sharing. It might take a little extra effort to find the perfect quote, but the effort is worth it!
How to Increase Link Clicks
One of the best strategies to use on Facebook when you are going for post clicks is to include an image that will grab attention. You are more likely to get the click if the image sparks their interest. The image also increases shares, so it’s a win/win!
This post strategy is another one of my favorites. If you want more fans to click the link in your post, create a little curiosity. Don’t give it all away in the post, but tease the content a bit so your fans are compelled to click to find out more.
So there you have it! I always get a burst of creativity when I can actually see what others are doing to get success. I hope you, too, feel that creativity spark!
One more thing: It doesn’t matter how many fans you have on your Page. Engagement is engagement. Meaning if you post something that gets a big spike in likes, comments, shares or clicks, PAY ATTENTION. Do more of what’s working for you and you will begin to see your engagement and reach climb quickly! I used the examples above because these posts all saw a spike in engagement compared to their other posts around the same time.
Now it’s your turn: What have you seen that’s been working well in terms of increasing engagement on Facebook?
Republished with permission from AmyPorterfield.com.
Meet Amy Porterfield
Amy is a social media strategist and co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies. She helps entrepreneurs across industries establish strategies to maximize the power of social media and increase the success of their online marketing efforts.
