ROAD CONSTRUCTION, ROOT CANALS, SITUPS … JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING ISN’T POPULAR DOESN’T MEAN IT ISN’T EFFECTIVE. THE SAME MAY HOLD TRUE FOR YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE.
Sure, it feels great to be liked and adored by thousands. But even if your Facebook page has a lot of likes and followers, your content probably isn’t being seen by all of those people, anyway. Instead of focusing on the number of likes your page doesn’t have, here are 9 tactics to improve the quality of your posts and increase the visibility of your content.
Know Your Audience
Look at your follower demographics. A clear understanding of who’s following your page will help you craft messages that resonate clearly with the people seeing them. Your approach will likely be very different if you’re talking to mostly Millennials than if your followers skew toward Boomers. Once you understand your follower demographics, use our generational marketing guide to help you build targeted messaging.
Sample follower demographic summary for a Facebook page.
Be Appealing
Have you ever been cornered at a dinner party, stuck in a one-way conversation with someone who only talks about himself and the minutiae of his daily life? If you’re only posting about your checking account features and CD specials on your Facebook page, then you’re “that guy!”
Tailoring your posts to your audience’s interests and needs (now that you’ve audited your followers and know who they are) means that your posts are more likely to be read, acted upon, and shared.
It’s okay to post about account features and specials on occasion (especially if you’ve taken the time to design products that benefit your customers), just be sure to craft your posts with the perspective of highlighting the benefit to your customer base.
Tell a Story
Storytelling is one of the most effective ways to communicate in a way that is both memorable and emotional. Instead of telling followers that your FI takes care of the people in your community, tell them about the time your tellers pitched in to buy a neighborhood girl a winter coat when they noticed she was without one. Or, how you earned a customer for life when you loaned a man $20 for his wife’s wedding ring nearly 80 years ago. Tell them that quirky story about the time your drive-thru teller sent a donut through the tube for a customer having a rough day.
As the saying goes, “Show, don’t tell.” Illustrating your FI’s values is much more impactful than simply stating them.
Be a Community Ambassador
You’re a community-based organization, right? Then posts about positive events in your community – great fundraisers, free events, events sponsored by your FI – need to be in your social media strategy. Not only do these posts inform your audience, they position your company as being truly community-oriented in the process.
And don’t overlook your efforts to support the community. Many companies fail to (or choose not to) talk about their charitable involvement and contributions for the sake of humility. However, visibility is still important. Be tactful in crafting your message for these types of posts.
Be Engaging
People love sharing their point of view (otherwise Facebook probably wouldn’t exist), so give your followers the opportunity to do so. Make your posts interactive by asking questions or creating a poll. But keep it fun – look to current trends, oddball holidays, and beyond to encourage followers to contribute and extend your post’s reach to your followers’ friends’ feeds. Or, consider a contest. A recent report showed that 35% of Facebook users liked a page in order to compete in a contest. Consider photo captions or ‘tag a friend who…’ posts, as they can bring in up to 5.5 times more comments than regular posts.
Write Snappier Headlines
As the famous David Ogilvy quote goes, "On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” But some days, it can be tough to craft an engaging headline that people actually want to read. Using a headline scoring tool will help you optimize your headlines for length, word choice, and action.
Give Your Posts a Boost
Facebook’s current algorithm minimizes the number of unpaid business posts to show more posts from users’ friends. This is great for users, but not great news for businesses hoping for organic exposure.
Sponsoring your content by means of an ad or boosted post extends the post’s reach by prioritizing it in followers’ (and sometimes non-followers’) newsfeeds. It also helps you tailor your audience by demographics and interests.
Picture Perfect
With the average social media user scrolling through 300 feet of social feed every day (about the height of the Statue of Liberty), it's no wonder marketers are relying on visual content to catch users' attention.
But that doesn’t mean that every post needs to be 100% visual. Strike the right balance by looking at your overall content calendar with the goal of a fair, appropriate balance of images and text posts. For example, posts informing followers of technical difficulties or weather-related closings don’t necessitate a graphic, while a product promotion or brand positioning post does.
The average person's attention span is 8 seconds (source: Microsoft Attention Span Research Report), one second shorter than a goldfish. Make sure your images stand out and get to the point quickly by keeping them clear, distinguishable, and original.
Think Beyond Facebook
Tying your efforts on other channels – like your website – to your Facebook page can create a more impactful experience. Take Facebook Pixels – a site traffic monitoring tool – for example.
Once the Pixel (a small piece of code added to your website) is placed on your website, you have the ability to automatically track traffic between your Facebook page and your website. Site browsing data is used to remarket content that fits that user's interests on your Facebook page.
For example, a user clicks your Facebook ad or boosted post to learn more about your FI. While on your site, they click through to learn more about your mortgage offerings. The Pixel then activates a preset (by you) mortgage ad that appears in the user’s Facebook feed next time they log in, giving a gentle nudge to take the next step in your mortgage process.
If you’re stressing about your follower count, fear not. A well thought-out content calendar and strategy can be just as effective in maximizing your reach and engagement.
Need help getting started? Give us a call, and don’t worry – we won't be "that guy."