What and when to post
Lesson 5 of 7 of our small business guide to Facebook
What to post on your Facebook profile?
When someone "likes" your page, they are saying they like your brand and services. It's now vital to offer them great content to ensure they have reasons to continue to read and engage with your posts.
Identify the type of person who ‘likes’ your page. Who are they? Where are they from? What are the main age groups of your fans? What content to they want to see? Once you have the answers to these questions, it will be easier to keep your fans engaged and entertained.
Other than keeping your fans entertained, there is another important reason why you need to post quality content to your Facebook page.
Not all of your updates will be seen by your fans. In a bid to ensure only great content is displayed in a user’s newsfeed, Facebook uses a post-ranking algorithm to determine which posts are displayed.
A quick explanation of how this works is simply the more engagement (likes, shares and comments) a post gets, the bigger the post’s reach.
We’ll take a closer look at the factors within the Facebook ranking algorithm in the next section of this guide.
Be responsive
Facebook is a great place for customers to get in touch with your business easily and quickly. This makes it easy for users to ask a quick question, even before they make a decision as to whether they want to become a customer. This is an opportunity to show potential customers what great service you can offer with a speedy reply. Even negative comments can be turned into a positive display of great customer service if dealt with correctly. Never ignore a Facebook comment!
Call to action
Where possible, try and include a call to action in your post content. A strong call to action provides direction to your users and adds an objective to your post. “Check out this great link” is a lot more persuasive than “here is a good link”. Some examples of common calls to action you might see on Facebook: Check out, Sign up, Register, Buy, Order…
Check out our guide to creating the perfect call to action.
Be friendly and genuine
Be friendly, conversational and not too formal. Facebook is a social media platform that most people use to communicate with friends and family, so it’s often quite an informal arena. Facebook can help humanise your brand and let your fans get to know the people behind your business.
Ask questions
Ask questions and get feedback from your fans. Customers like to know their opinions are valued, and will feel confident in your business knowing that you encourage their feedback.
Relevancy
Make sure your posts are relevant to your audience and your business. Try to avoid sharing irrelevant topics and information, as this is not why your fans liked your page in the first place. Offer your Facebook fans something they can’t get anywhere else, like exclusive special offers, discounts or unique industry information.
Share
It’s safe to assume that anyone that liked your page wants to know more about your business, so share news about your business! Photos and videos from ‘behind the scenes’ usually go down well.
Exclusive offers
Offer your Facebook fans something they can’t get anywhere else, like exclusive special offers, discounts or information.
How often to post?
There is no exact science or definitive recommendations as to how many times you should post on a daily or weekly basis.
However, if you post too often, fans might get tired of seeing your posts hogging their Facebook feed.
Before every post, ask yourself a few questions: is this content worth posting? Will my fans find this content valuable?
Are they likely to share, like or comment on it? If the answer is yes to these questions, then don't hesitate to hit the "post" button.
After a while, you will be able to gauge how your posting strategy is coming along. By using Facebook Insights, you gain access to historical data about the kind of post your audience responds to – and the type of content that makes them reach for the dreaded "hide" button.
