BLOGs
Marketing
Published July 11th, 2017 by

7 Ways To Make Sure Your Content Gains Traction On Facebook

Facebook reigns supreme when it comes to social media marketing. With 1.7 billion active users, it is the biggest social network making it the perfect platform to reach and engage your audience.

In order to reach your audience and get new followers for your product, service, and brand you need to ensure that your content gains traction on Facebook. Unfortunately, you can’t just throw up a quick post about your brand and hope for the best.

You need to put thought and effort into what you’re posting on Facebook if you want to enthrall your audience enough so they share what you’ve posted.

Creating shareable content that gains traction on Facebook is an art but it’s easily mastered. If you follow the seven tips below, you’re sure to reach your audience and they’re sure to share your content.

1. Keep up to date with Facebook’s policies

Facebook is notorious for changing their posting guidelines on the fly. To keep up with Facebook’s constant changes you’ll need to adjust your content accordingly and ensure that it meets whatever their new standards are.

Usually, these changes affect image sizing and how many characters you can use in post descriptions but it’s always a good idea to read up on what Facebook has changed on a fairly regular basis. You don’t have to research Facebook’s policies before creating each new post; however, setting a Google alert or following sites and blogs that keep abreast of all things Facebook will be very helpful.

Plus, you’ll notice when your post doesn’t meet Facebook’s standards and guidelines because it will appear off-center or pixelated. Here’s a handy cheat sheet for all Facebook image sizes for ads and page posts.

2. There is a right time to post

When it comes to posting times, there actually is a right and wrong time to post new content to Facebook. Generally, most people check their social media pages between 1-3 pm on weekdays (when they’re on their lunch break) and in the evenings around 7 pm (when they’re unwinding after work).

There are free online tools that will analyze your Facebook page and let you know when it gets the most traffic so you can plan accordingly. Creating a schedule to ensure you’re posting content when your audience is actually on Facebook will guarantee that it gets read, liked and shared by the people you’re trying to reach.

Another important thing to remember about timing is that you need to space out your posts. If your posts appear one after another you are not giving your audience enough time to react to each one.

Besides spacing out your posts, you do need to post fairly regularly. You need to find a balance between posting infrequently and frequently. There’s no set number on how many times a day you can post but once or twice a day is enough.

3. Understand your current audience

If you want your posts to gain traction on Facebook, you need to know who your audience is and what they want. Your current audience are who are going to share your post with new people. These new people may become your audience in time; however, you need to know exactly who is reading your Facebook page now and cater to them.

Think about your product, service, and brand. Is it something that men and women use? Is it something that only teenagers use? Is it a service that is only available to people in a certain location at a certain? The more you know about your audience, the easier it is to cater your posts to them.

When your audience feels like you are speaking to them directly, they will be more inclined to like and share your posts. Furthermore, don’t talk down to your audience. No matter how old your audience is they don’t need to be belittled. Treat them like they’re your peers and not your students.

4. Use visuals

Videos, images, infographics; these are the type of posts that get likes and shares. Photos and videos perform better than Facebook posts that are simply text. Visual content that contains an infographic, a picture or a short video is more likely to generate buzz than content that doesn’t.

Most people go on Facebook to be entertained, they don’t want to read long, wordy posts, they want to see posts with enticing visuals. Create custom images that relate to your brand and audience. Share how-to videos and tutorials that your audience actually cares about. Anytime you can show instead of telling, do it.

5. Ask questions that require answers

Asking simple questions that require simple answers is the perfect way to get your content to gain traction on Facebook. Keeping that comments section active allows you to engage your followers and keep your audience talking about your product, service, and brand.

Ask your audience “which one/what if” questions. For example, asking your followers “What would you do for a chance to [blank]” or “What type of [blank] would you be?” produces heavy engagement. You can also be direct with your followers.

Here’s a tip: Tell them to tag their friends for a chance to get 10% off of their next purchase on your website or create a contest that rewards the winner with free stuff.

6. Emojis are your friends

If a picture is worth a thousand words then emojis are worth double that. Emojis say what you want to say with a single character while words require more characters than you need. Don’t shy away from using emojis in your Facebook posts because emojis make your posts appear friendly and fun.

You can even use emojis for more serious posts too because there’s an emoji for everything. But, don’t overdo it. Too many emojis will appear juvenile and keep people from sharing your post.

7. Don’t oversaturate your descriptions

As mentioned in #4, people prefer to see posts rather than read them. Keep your post descriptions to a minimum and don’t oversaturate them with words (see #6 about emojis). Also, posts that are too wordy may not adhere to Facebook’s standards which, as #1 on this list states, you need to keep on top of.

By building valuable content that you’re proud of you will captivate your audience and create brand loyalty. In turn, you’ll get likes, shares and of course, new followers that can be converted into paying customers.

rebecca-hill

Outreach Manager at TechWyse Internet Marketing
Rebecca Hill is the Outreach Coordinator at TechWyse, an SEO agency in Toronto, Canada. While she isn’t building relationships with bloggers and influencers in the marketing world, she can be seen rooting for the Blue Jays.

Latest posts by rebecca-hill (see all)

Our rankings are completely independent, transparent, and community driven; they are based on user reviews and client sentiment. These marketing companies had to earn their way up and didn't just pay their way up.

View Rankings of Best Marketing Companies