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Until a couple of months ago I wasn’t really paying much attention to Facebook as a way to market this blog. Once I started however, it felt like I shouldn’t have waited so long.

It turned out that Facebook traffic was well worth chasing, since folks coming from Facebook tend to browse more pages than those coming from Twitter for instance. Plus they spend more time actually reading and engaging.

So having said that, if you don’t yet have a Facebook fan page to start marketing your business, don’t wait any longer!

Anyway…

The topic I will be covering today isn’t about creating a fan page neither about building an audience. Instead we are moving a step further – the below paragraphs are all about helping you engage the people you have already gotten to like you on Facebook.

All of this might seem like an easy task at first but it proves harder once you actually try it yourself. Hopefully the below tips will give you a helping hand:

1. Asking Questions is a Key

I’ve been monitoring an interesting pattern… It seems like Facebook stories that don’t contain anything other than plain text get the highest exposure. All of this results in more likes and comments, which in terms makes for an overall higher visibility and new fans. 

That is why one of the best ways to “communicate” with your fans is by asking questions. It might just be the case that comments have more weight than likes (stories that involve a question and that get lots of comments get more viral traffic – visitors who opened up your page, because they saw someone of their friends liking or commenting on a story of yours).

The above is easier said than done as coming up with a good question isn’t always easy. That is no excuse however! Here are three ways to come up with good questions:

• Think about what you are writing - as a blogger you probably have a huge list of finished articles. So why not take a look at it! Even taking a look at  glance at the titles of your finished pieces might spark ideas! You can do the same with articles you are yet to publish. That way the question itself might drive interest to the article once it goes live.
• Take a look at other blogs – If your own posts aren’t enough to get your mind racing, you can always take a look at your competitors. Go for bigger blogs that cover more in-depth topics – HubSpot, ProBlogger and KISSmetrics are the three that come off the top of my head.
• Collect the questions – After having an idea of a few questions to ask your fans about, write them down! Our minds often times happen to forget important facts yet remember things we don’t really need. That might happen to you so be prepared – create a list (in the form of a sticky note for instance) with the questions!

From that point on it’s up to you to pick a schedule and start posting those questions. You might just be amazed by how much comments and likes those kinds of Facebook posts can get you!

2. Quotes Always Work Well

Do you hate quotes? No denying – some people don’t like them. Looking at the facts however, we end up with something different – whenever I post a quote (as an image) that quote receives more likes than the average number of them on other kinds of Facebook posts.

When it comes to posting quotes, there is one thing you should take into consideration – frequency:

Quotes work best when you don’t overdo i.e. sharing a one once every two-three days is good, but going for a quote each and everyday isn’t ideal.

Aside from that, how do you find quotes?

• The easier way is to open up Pinterest and simply search for “motivational quotes“, “business quotes” or something more specific. You will discover lots of material over there.
• The other way is to use Google Image search and follow the same practice.
• Thirdly you can create them yourself with Photoshop – it doesn’t have to be anything fancy – you don’t need a special background or something. Just do a good job to format the text and use a good-looking color combination. The width of the image shouldn’t be longer than 403 pixels for it to fit right. 

3. You Need Lots of
Visual Information

Even if you don’t think sharing quotes is the thing for you, there are different kinds of visual information that you can share. The fact is that images do a better job at conveying a message so it’s no wonder that the same tend to receive lots of likes.

So fortunately for marketers, there is tons and tons of visual information out there. Infographics are the trend nowadays. Additionally if you do a bit of digging you are sure to discover interesting social-media-related comics and pictures.

Great place to start your research is once again Pinterest. Again try different keyword combinations for your searches (social media comics, social media fun, etc.). You might want to try to look for boards on the topic instead for single images. 

4. Encourage People to
Subscribe for Your Updates

Aside from sharing the right kinds of updates, there is one other way to get more reactions from your fans. One feature that Facebook recently implemented allows people who have liked a Facebook page to subscribe for notifications. In other words whenever the owner of that specific page posts a story, that story is displayed as a standard notification (same as when someone likes a comment that you wrote for instance).

The “Get Notifications” feature can be found when you hover over the “Liked” button of a page you’ve liked. “Get Notifications” pops-up as the first available option.

So when someone subscribes that way, you get a better chance of them liking the post, since you don’t only rely on those people actually seeing the story in their streams. They will be directly notified instead.

NOTE: I wouldn’t recommend posting more than 3-4 times a day, as it wouldn’t be nice for your subscribers to see their notifications tab filled with updates from you only.

5. Don’t Forget to Write a Description

Something else that lots of folks seem to neglect are descriptions. I am not referring to the description that appears (along with the post’s thumbnail) when you paste a link, but to the custom one that is optional.

Well if you ask me that is the one thing that shouldn’t be optional. That description serves as a call to action or a way to get the ones who saw the story you published to actually read it and to click the like button if they enjoyed it.

From my experience the kinds of descriptions that tend to get the highest number of likes are either the very-short ones or the longer-than-average ones. Sometimes simply writing something short (e.g. “Great read for marketers, go take a look!”) that creates a feeling of urge is all you need. Other times you might want to write a longer description (say 6-7 lines) to tell people more about why the post you are sharing is worth reading.

As opposed to the above, when you simply put the link without telling people why they should check it out in the first place, you might still get likes. You can be certain that with the proper call-to-action their number would’ve been higher though.

Your Turn

Now it’s your turn guys! What is your approach to engage your Facebook audience? Do you agree with the tips I shared? Let me know by sharing your thoughts in the comments section below (CommentLuv is enabled by the way)!
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