It’s that time of year again! 2013 is quickly approaching which means it’s time to reevaluate your social media endeavors including your Facebook Page engagement strategy. So whip out your pens, pencils and tablets and let’s start making some plans for next year on how to increase Facebook engagement!
In 2012, we’ve seen a number of updates and changes at Facebook. For example, in March of 2012, Facebook launched the App Center, an online mobile store where you can purchase applications for Facebook. Then there was the initial public offering on May 17, 2012 where the company was valued at $104 billion. On July 12, 2012, Facebook added a Gay Marriage icon to its timeline feature and finally, Facebook released an update to its iOS app which didn’t impress all users.
It’s important to stay up-to-date on all the changes going on over at Facebook so your business can exploit each feature accordingly.
Here are 15 different ways you can boost Facebook engagement on your Company Page:
1. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas which means it’s time to start giving to your local charity. Why not give a donation to a charity or cause each time someone likes your Facebook Business Page? Amassing likes is a whole lot easier when the “Liker” associate the ‘Like’ as being a step in the right direction for a movement or cause that they agree with.
2. Join relevant Facebook Groups relating to your industry and contribute something of value to the community. Do you have a white paper or resource they might find useful? Be a good neighbor and add to their discussion. Down the road you can ask people within the group to like your Facebook Page and you can do likewise for them.
3. Get involved with Facebook advertising. Facebook is the master when it comes to targeted ads. Where else can you target people by relationship status, age, location, interests, etc.? Facebook ads are easy to use and you can spend as little (or as much) as you like.
4. Consider using the “Suggest to Friends” feature of your Facebook Business Page. A word of caution, you should only invite people that will find your page useful.
5. Don’t be boring and bland (unless that’s your branded style). Consider being a tad controversial to get noticed. Make your Facebook Business Page interesting so it stands out from the rest. Write about hot topics. Don’t be afraid to share your opinion and start discussions.
6. Ensure that all information on your Business Page is correct and up-to-date. This includes addresses, phone numbers, web addresses, summaries and about sections. I don’t need to explain why this is important!
7. Encourage discussion and be the fun and interactive person everyone knows and loves! Talk to your readers and keep them coming back. Reply to their questions in a timely manner, “like” their comments and start engaging discussions. Ask your fans for feedback relating to your business. You’ll be surprised with the great advice you get!
8. Hold a contest. Here are the Facebook Rules on how to hold a contest. If done correctly, this can lead to tons of exposure for your page. You can use apps like Booshaka or Shortstack. There’s a lot of talk about how Gamification is increasing Facebook Page Engagement. Get involved.
9. Come up with engaging status updates that include the words “Click Like or Share if….” This is a very simple formula and it’s all about whether people agree with you or not. Choose something that you’re sure 50% to 100% of your fans like. Including images in these updates is a great way to increase engagement. A number of our clients have had great success with this strategy.
10. Ask open-ended questions that get your fans thinking. Some of these questions include:
- What do you think about…. ?
- How do you feel about…. ?
- What happens when you…. ?
- What are your goals related to… ?
- Why do you…. ?
11. Consider creating status updates using these words: “Click this link...” to get fans to read a story or perform a particular action. These can include:
- Check out this blog because…
- Check out our latest press release…
12. Invite your newsletter list or email subscribers to like your Facebook Business Page. If your company has a newsletter list through Constant Contact or MailChimp, write a newsletter article asking people to like your page. Make sure to include a link to your Facebook Page. You can also import email lists.
13. Add your Facebook Fan URL to your email signature. Wisestamp offers a free and simple way to do this for Gmail.
14. Offer an incentive to people to “Like” the your Facebook Page. The more valuable the incentive is, the more people will be compelled to do so. Examples of exclusive content could be a video, an exclusive whitepaper, PDF, picture, etc.
15. Ask all of your employees to link back to your Facebook Page as their place of employment and encourage them to get their friends to “Like” the page as well. If you hold Facebook Contests, encourage your employees to share the promotion with their friends.
So you want to increase engagement on your Facebook Business Page. You want to be engaging and keep your fans coming back. You want to actually improve your bottom line via your Facebook endeavors.
These 15 tips are a great way to get started. Do you have any tips to add? Please feel free to share them in the comments below!