3 Unconventinial Ways To Increase Engagement On Your Facebook Business Page
Increase your Facebook engagement
Engagement on your Facebook page is important.
The main feature of Facebook is being able to direct connect with people.
It can also give you provide feedback and let you know why people like your business.
My last post on how to improve Facebook engagement was the practical way to do so. I discuss why researching your previous updates is the best way to see what’s worked and not worked.
If you’ve tried that and are still getting little engagement, you’ll agree that things need to be switched up.
We want your EdgeRank score as high as possible for every status update. To make that happen your updates need shares, likes and comments. That’s how Facebook determines what shows up in peoples news feeds.
Here are a few different things you can use to increase engagement.
You might think they’re silly and have nothing to do with your business and sales. They don’t and that’s the point. You’re reading this because you need to change your posting strategy.
These ideas are about increasing conversation and engagement. When online you should have a networking and conversation mindset. When you network you talk about anything.
I’ll explain the hidden agenda behind these ideas at the end and why focusing on creating conversations will help get the rest of your updates seen.
Create Fun Games
Remember that most people are on Facebook for fun. They don’t normally log on to educate themselves. So posting useful links to articles isn’t the best strategy. Instead they want to check in with their network, browse photos, play games and chat.
Facebook for many is an escape and a way to see what their network is up to.
Keeping these things in mind, play some fun games with your fans through your updates. Here’s a couple of games that might work well.
Finish the sentence
Here is a screenshot showing how the game is played in a discussion forum.
This one would require a lot of a monitoring and trust that people don’t go overboard.
Countries of the World
I played a lot of basketball in high school and we needed to pass the time on road trips. One game we played was naming countries of the world.
Here’s how it works. Start with a country – Argentina, for example. The next person has to think of a place that begins with the last letter of “Argetina”. It can be played with states, provinces, cities and even animals or something related to your business.
These are just a couple of examples of some games you can play. I’m sure there’s more that can achieve the same.
Create Conversations
If your industry is tough to get excited about, don’t be shy posting breaking news from your city. I would stay away from politics or religion. It doesn’t matter, try to be a source for something. As long as you think your fans are into it, do it up.
You could even post about what your favorite TV shows or restaurants are.
As long as you think your fans might like a topic, go ahead and get some conversation going. I see a lot of businesses Tweeting about not so relevant stuff on Twitter. But when on Facebook, they don’t share that or talk about that stuff.
Do not worry about relevancy to your business.
If your main demographic is woman, talk about the things you talk about with friends. The same goes for a male demographics. Talk sports and, well, whatever else us men talk about!
The goal is to create a conversation. You’ll understand why when I reveal the hidden agenda behind these ideas in just a second.
This is the social networking mindset that focuses on conversations. Don’t be media focused and talking about your business all the time.
If your updates are only focused on your business, you need to change that up. This next idea will explain why people are on Faceboook and how you can exploit that to increase engagement.
Make Your Fans & Clients the stars
Why do people use Facebook? According to a recent study they are two main reasons people use Facebook.
By shifting the focus on your posting strategy and updates to your customers, you’ll create a more meaningful connection.
- The need to belong
- The need for self-presentation
Why does this matter? You have to understand why people spend time on Facebook. When it comes right down to it, people want to associate with things they like and share them with their friends.
This ties directly into the second reason and the need for self-presentation. When someone shares an item, they are fulfilling that need for self-presentation and the need to belong.
To make things really easy, people are on Facebook for themselves. With that in mind, make your updates about them.
That’s why questions and survey’s tend to get more comments then others. On top of asking for opinions from your fans, there is an even more powerful way to increase engagement and sharing.
Profile your customers
I’ve recently got one of my clients who owns a barbershop to profile his clients. He posts before and after pictures of his clients and posts them on his page. This works because he can show visually the work he does – which builds trust – and hopefully that person will share the photos to their friends.
I’ll keep you posted on how this works out and the results.
If you have a few clients who you really love, show that appreciation by talking about them. Talk about what makes them a great client. Doing so might get them to share that on their wall to their friends.
The hidden agenda
Now you might be thinking these ideas won’t increase sales. That’s not the goal just yet. There is a hidden agenda at play and here it is.
The more people engage with your brand, the more your updates get seen in their news feed regardless of what your EdgeRank score is. Once they comment, like or share your update, they’ll see more of your updates in their feed.
So you’re essentially opening the door for people to see your updates more often. A big part of the problem with increasing Facebook engagement is that most updates are never seen and thus never engaged with.
These ideas are ways to combat that. From there you should see more engagement with the rest of your updates.
What do you think?
What other ways do you think would work to create more conversations online?
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