Today kicks off day one of week one of Two-Minute Marketing! That’s a lot of numbers, but the point is to create a series of helpful daily lessons, connected by a common theme each week, that you can learn from without taking more than a couple of minutes out of your day.
Crap, I’ve already used up twenty seconds. Without further adieu, let’s get to the good stuff:
Facebook has, for more than a couple of years now, been an essential branding platform for the modern business. Between gathering a laser-targeted audience and then serving up your own tasty content to them, Facebook has plenty to offer.
But things change. Facebook isn’t bad, but it certainly is different that it was even a couple of years ago, and if you don’t understand how people interact with brand pages in 2015, you could be wasting a lot of time. Here are a few things you shouldn’t be doing in 2015 if you want your company Facebook page to be any more effective than a flyswatter made out of cotton candy.
#1) Don’t post anything that won’t get engaged with.
Facebook’s algorithms have recognized over the past few years that newsfeeds would refresh and scroll at a frustrating rate if every single post from a friend or page showed up for an individual.
Now, pages’ posts are served up to only a handful of actual followers unless they explicitly visit your page to read your updates. That said, the more engaging your post is, the more Facebook views your page as valuable, and more of your followers will see your future posts in their news feeds. Conversely, consistently posting content that gets little to no response will only bury you further in the newsfeed priority list.
Before sharing a post, ask yourself: Would a real person be interested in commenting on/sharing this post/bothering to click the like button? If the answer isn’t a resounding ‘YES!”, don’t post it.
#2) Don’t be textually active.
While individuals love to update Facebook with mini-essays on their latest life revelations, page posts are going to get the most engagement when they’re image-heavy. If you want to promote a link, post a relevant image with an above the fold link in the description. If you want to ask a question, write it over a nice graphic and ask for responses in the comments; don’t just post a paragraph and expect people to stop their thumb scrolling and read your tiny little text (most people are browsing FB on mobile now, if you didn’t know already).
#3) Don’t set it and forget it.
While no one outside of Facebook knows the exact algorithm, responding to interactions with your content can only foster more engagement, and therefore make your post look more important to Facebook (and thus shown to more and more people!). So, when you post, make sure to monitor activity and try to nurture greater interaction and discussion – this is especially important to remember if you use services like Buffer to queue your social posts for later.
And there you have it, three missteps to avoid when Facebooking as your company.
Alright, you can take off your speed reading goggles now.
To your success,
Brandon
@ResponsterHQ