Let’s start off by addressing the elephant in the room.  The Facebook shaped elephant in the room! You don’t “like” Facebook; you find it clunky and noisy; perhaps even “not cool”. 👀

You need to get over it and focus not on you, but where your customers are spending their time. Unless your customers are all under 25 yrs old, then you need to embrace (okay, lightly hug) Facebook. 

But organic reach has taken a battering over the years, quelle surprise Facebook wants you to do paid ads … so the question is, “how do I get more engagement on Facebook?”

I bet you’ve already Googled it, right? But despite the 813,000,000 search results you were shown, you’re still none the wiser.

The thing is, you already know you need to post at the right time, address your customers’ pain points, ask questions… go live, etc.

And YES, that’s all good, solid advice.

But let’s go back to basics. Here’s 5 Steps to Better Facebook Engagement

1) Change seats

You see, sometimes you can just be too close to your product or service to see things from an outside point of view.

So I want to help you to look at things differently. 

Pretend for a moment that you’re NOT the owner of your business, you are in fact a customer. 

Ask yourself, what would I want to see? What would I — the customer — find useful? 

This isn’t about telling people what you want them to know, talking to them in their language or any of that other good stuff (and it is all good stuff). It’s 100% about stripping things back and putting yourself in their shoes.

If you find this too difficult to do with your own brand, think of another business in your field and think what you’d like to see from them. 

2) Do your research

Spend time looking at what other businesses in your niche are doing. Make a note of what’s working for them. Which content jumps out at you, what sucks you in and tempts you to respond? What do you like, and not like, about their posts? (Think as a customer, not a competitor.)

There’s a great tool in your Facebook Insights called Pages To Watch which lets you see your competitors’ - or any brands’ - most successful posts without you having to follow them.

Add a few pages and analyse the content they’re posting. Are they doing video and sharing tips – or is the page a snoozefest of sales posts?

Also, look at how people are responding. Are they tagging friends, adding an opinion, sharing or leaving a reaction?

For the next few weeks, as you’re scrolling your feed, take screenshots of things that grab your attention.

[Here’s a couple of examples from a client and one of my posts]

3) Test, tweak, repeat

Now that you’re armed with a bank of proven ideas, you can start to try some of them out. 

Remember this is a long game, so take an analytical approach and be patient. 

A great way to see what’s working is to look at the stats in your Facebook Insights. Scroll past the Overview and you’ll see your 5 Most Recent Posts and then click See All Posts.

Now, in the top right-hand corner of the list, click on the downward-facing arrow and select ‘engagement rate’. Facebook is a tough crowd so anything over 1% is good going.

Look at the top-performing posts and think about why they did so well. Do they fall into a certain category? For example, did you share a personal story; make an offer; ask a question; or post a video? 

[Here’s what it looks like on my page Insights]

All this information can be used to form a plan going forward. Recycle, repeat and repurpose your ideas. The more confident you get, the stronger your content will become.

Engagement is, as you know, a huge topic, so before I go I’ll leave you with another couple of ideas….

4) Be there

There’s an inspirational meme that’s always doing the rounds that says ‘Where focus goes, energy flows.’ (it’s actually a quote by coach and philanthropist, Tony Robbins) And it’s true. 

Engagement, at its very core, needs you to be present. So, post regularly and consistently. Whatever that means for you — once or twice a week is perfectly reasonable, but commit to it. Be around to respond to all comments and DMs. Engage with other pages and offer value and support in Facebook groups. 

5) Be everywhere

What happens on Facebook doesn’t have to stay on Facebook! Use your other social platforms to invite followers to visit your Facebook page. Give them a reason to go there. 

Make sure you have links to your Facebook page on your website and in your email signature. Invite your email list subscribers to comment on a specific Facebook post by including a link to it in your next mailer.

Here’s how to find the unique URL of a Facebook post:

1. Navigate to the post you want to share a direct link to

2. Click on the 3 dots in the top right

3. Click on Embed

4. Click on Advanced Settings

5. Copy and paste the URL

[Here’s how it looks]

Put these steps into action and over time your Facebook page and engagement will blossom. I can’t wait to hear how you get on.

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If you need more help with Facebook for your business - book a Super Sixty with me and I will help you achieve fruitful marketing results. Unfortunately I can’t promise you’ll fall in love with Facebook though!