Strategies to Increase Facebook Engagement
Social media engagement measures how your audience interacts with your content. Without engagement, social media would be just media. Popular ways to measure social media engagement include likes, shares and comments, though this can vary depending on the platform.
On Facebook, engagement is measured mostly by likes, comments, shares and clicks. To calculate your Facebook engagement rate, use this formula: [(Total Likes + Comments + Shares)/Total Reach] x 100. You can find these metrics using Audience Insights or a third-party analytics tool. Remember you can always improve your engagement, and here are tips specific to Facebook.
Understand Your Target Audience
Knowing who you are trying to target is an important part of increasing engagement. When you know who you are targeting, you can ensure that your content is relevant and useful to them. Also, gather user demographics on Facebook so that you know what types of people are using the platform. Even though younger people are spending more time on Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat, the largest age demographic of U.S. Facebook users are between the ages of 25 and 34.
Know the Best Times to Post
Posting during the best times can also help you get more engagement. While there are overall better times to post on Facebook, it’s also important to consider when your audience is most active. General data suggests that the best times to post are between 7-9am, 1-3pm and 7-9pm. Once you identify the best times to post, use a Facebook scheduling tool to plan out your social media calendar.
Post Consistently
Posting consistently is just as important as posting quality content. Some experts recommend posting 1-2 times a day, but this can be tough. Create a goal that is reasonable for you and stick to it. Quality and consistency matter most. You don’t want to overwhelm your followers as this can lead to content fatigue and cause them to unfollow your page. Many of the clients here at Yovia Social find that their sweet spot is 3-4 times a week.
Focus on Quality Over Quantity
Don’t just post to post. Make sure that your Facebook posts are fun and engaging. This increases the chances that your audience will interact with it. While posting similar content may feel “safe,” repetitive content can cause your followers to tune out. Here are some fresh ideas for content:
Sharing your opinion on industry news
Answering FAQs
Funny jokes or memes
Behind-the-scenes videos
User-generated content
Tutorials/how-to guides
Live streaming
Contests and giveaways
Surveys and polls
Respond to Comments and Messages
When customers send you a message, make sure you respond to them. People want to interact with brands, but it’s a two-way street. Some comments may only need a simple, “Thank you,” but others can benefit from a more thoughtful reply. If you receive a lot of messages, you can always create a Facebook chatbot to handle these conversations for you.
Improve Images and Videos
People prefer to engage with images and videos over plain text. However, not all images and videos perform the same. Stock photos, for example, don’t perform as well as original photos. When you can, create your own visuals, or at least “doctor up” stock photos to make them feel more like your own. And, now with AI being more accessible, you can use programs like DALL-E to create original images straight from text.
Use Facebook Analytics
You don’t have to rely solely on likes, comments and shares to assess engagement. Facebook analytics is a great way to inform your strategy. Use this data to identify your top-performing posts. Important metrics to pay attention to are engagement rate, reach, impressions, page likes and followers.
Get Verified
Verify your Facebook page if you haven’t already. Getting verified tells users that your business is credible, making it more likely that people will follow you and interact with your content. When your page is verified, you get a blue checkmark by your brand name so that everyone knows that your page is authorized. It’s an easy step to take to build trust and improve your reputation.
Improve Engagement on Facebook
Facebook remains the most widely used social network in the world, so you can’t go wrong by being active on this channel. The key is to post quality content on a consistent basis that your followers will actually enjoy. To discuss the many ways that you can improve engagement on Facebook, contact Yovia Social today. We’d love to help you reach new heights with an improved strategy!