The ever-going debate of whether Facebook will soon die out like MySpace or Friendster is often down to the abysmal engagement rates. Social media marketers are used to receiving a ton of interaction just for making their Facebook page feel professional.
And when the same old tactics receive little to no results people start questioning the platform. But analyzing the engagement received from age old tactics doesn’t tell the whole story.
Facebook as platform changes and evolves and so does the way people use the platform.
Today, setting up a business page and just keeping up with the latest trends isn’t as successful as it used to be. Instead, creative marketing strategies and great posts tend to be the most plausible ways to ensure an uptick in engagement and growth.
To help inspire you, we’ve collected as much as 32 out-of-the-box and creative ideas to grow your Facebook page. Without further adieu, let’s get started.
Important Note: Do not forget to keep in mind the tone and brand message you are sending by implementing the following ideas and strategies. While some of the 32 ideas might be silly for a particular industry, they might flourish in others. In addition, tweaking those ideas a tiny bit and giving them your own voice and take can definitely shift their overall appeal and more.
1. Make a Q’n’A and Promote It
One of the easiest ways to achieve better engagement rates is to make a Q’n’A session. Whether a live video or a post-based session, make sure to properly promote the Q’n’A beforehand so that your audience knows when exactly to tune in.
2. Create a Video Compilation
Facebook pages often create video compilations to promote their YouTube channels. Why not do the opposite? Create a video compilation of your most popular Facebook videos and promote them on other video sharing platforms linking back to your page.
3. Giveaway – Want to see instant growth?
Create a giveaway! Especially for new and coming pages, hosting a promotion that includes a giveaway is a great way to seamlessly make your audience share and like your content. Who doesn’t like free stuff?
4. Free Course Video Series
To ensure that people tune in to your Facebook page regularly, you can make a free video course series. Either hire a professional within your industry, or share your own knowledge in a course style video series and post the videos at a regular time each week. The result will be evergreen content.
5. Live Video Series
Similar to the free course idea, live video series can do wonders about your engagement rates. Currently, live video is on the top of the charts when it comes to the ER. Plus, having a consistent content that people are interested in can help you with your overall brand reach strategy.
6. Make Free Content Accessible After a Like
Having this option for seven years, Facebook allows you to create content that is only accessible to your customers once they’ve liked your page. Similarly to how websites give away free ebooks for subscription to newsletters, create something appealing that a user will get as a reward for liking your page.
7. Make a Contest
Another seamless way to make your audience work for you is to create a contest. Whether you’d like the participants to share a post of yours or create their own art based on your brand is your call. Just make sure that the reward is worth it.
8. Make a Useless Android/iOS App
One of those “it’s so silly that it just might work” ideas is to create an Android/iOS App that does nothing else but prompts the user to like your Facebook page. Call it “[Brand Name] + Facebook Like Button Widget” and nothing else.
9. Give a Discount to Facebook Fans
Talk with your marketing team and create a special discount of your product/service that is only available to your Facebook fans. It will not only make people more connected to your brand, but it might also earn you quite a few new likes.
10. Provide a Guest Post for Likes
If you are unfamiliar, a lot of blogs offer guest post options for original content and allow you to include links. Instead of linking back to your website, why not link to your Facebook page? After all, it serves as a gateway for your web page.
11. Hold a “Like” Rally
Create an event out of the action of people liking your page. Think of hashtag trends and send a marketing message of sharing, liking and engagement. Begging for likes can be cool and fun if you make it that way.
12. Give Rewards to the Most Active Users
One way to ensure that you will have a consistent engagement for your Facebook page is to create a promotion where you give rewards to the most active users of your page. You can even start out of nowhere to surprise your currently active users and go from there.
13. Create a “Useless” Like Video Stream Marathon
One of the most popular live streams on YouTube are the “useless” video streams, where a person does something useless for long periods of time (think upwards of 24 hours) just to grow their audience. Why not try that in Facebook? It might work!
14. Personalized Messages for People Who Like
Start engaging with your audience the moment they like your page. Create personalized messages for each and every individual that likes your page. That’s a great way to humanize your brand from the very beginning and will help you boost engagement in the long run.
15. A “Talk with our CEO” Reward
An interesting idea would be to give fans access to your CEO for a certain amount of time. Give a reward to a number of people who like the page to have a few minutes of video conversation with your CEO. This can work wonders for your engagement and the humanization of your brand. Just make sure your CEO is prepared.
16. Like Milestones
Like milestones are a great way to boost your like growth. Simply create certain milestones to be achieved by people, such as rewards, giveaways or something else. For example, release a limited edition of your product and/or service once a certain like milestone has been reached.
17. Crowdfunded “Like” Projects
Similarly to the like milestone suggestion, you can actually turn your Facebook page into a crowdfunding-like place for ideas for your brand. This will not only boost your engagement, but will also help you realize what people truly want from your brand.
18. Fan Profile Assessment
Specializing in social media, design or fashion? While this idea might be silly, people love being glamoured on Facebook. Who’s to say that “like and I’ll tell you 10 facts about you” type-of-posts can’t work with business pages?
19. Fan Mentions Contest
Especially if your page boasts some hefty like numbers and you simply want to increase your engagement without doing anything out of the ordinary that requires effort you can create a fan mention contest. This is much like a giveaway with the reward being a mention of certain fans on your page.
20. Personalized Customer Service for a Fan
Another great way to make people feel valued is to give them personalized customer service. Who wouldn’t want to have direct access to the development team or even the CEO for a year? Give it as a reward to a number of fans via a contest in return for likes and/or shares.
21. Message Active Fans of Your Competitors
Taking advantage of your competitors Analytics on Facebook can help you out in various ways. Knowing who their most active users are, you’d be able to instantly engage with them and receive a direct response from targeted individuals that might end up being some of your most active users if you play your cards right.
22. Like Posts of Fans of Your Competitors
Similarly to the previous suggestion, if you don’t want to be intrusive and message the fans of your competitors, you can simply like their posts. Individuals always notice when a page interacts with their more personal content. Just make sure that the content you like is actually related to your industry.
23. Make a Real Life Product and Facebook Page Crossover Promotion
Want to boost your Facebook page of a physical product? Make a crossover promotion. Simply including a card within the box of your product that prompts the user to like your Facebook page is just enough, but you can go even further and create a more exciting promotion.
24. Create a Facebook Game based on Your Brand
Taking things to the next level, you can create an addictive Facebook game that is based around your brand within your specific industry. This might be hard work, but it will definitely help you keep your customers busy with your marketing tricks.
25. Focus on Shareable Content
Diving deep into so many out-of-the-box ideas, we also have to mention that whatever you do you should always keep the shareability of your content at the top of your priority list. Emotions equal a response. A response often results in increased engagement.
26. Respond to Fans with Ridiculous Goals
Keep track of the posts your fans make. If you come across people asking for free stuff, tell them that they will have them when they reach a seemingly unreachable “shares” or “likes” goal. You never know when that might work!
27. Discuss Controversial Issues within Your Industry
A rather more difficult approach, but if you feel like you can handle controversy, do just that. Discuss a controversial issue within your industry publically on your page. The response might result in online publications writing about you and may skyrocket your page. There’s no such thing as “bad advertisement,” right?
28. Send out Physical “Thank You” Notes to Fans
A time and resource consuming process, but one that definitely increases the trust between your customers and your brand is sending out physical “thank you” notes and cards to your Facebook friends. Who knows? You might even become a viral marketing sensation for doing so.
29. Include a “Beg for Like” in Your Product/Service
As mentioned with the physical product crossover idea, there’s nothing wrong with begging for likes if you do it the right way. Whether included in your physical or software product/service, prompt the user to like your page.
30. Promoted Content Works
Don’t forget that one of the most certain ways to receive a boost in engagement is via properly promoted and sponsored content on Facebook. Take advantage of what the platform provides you with.
31. Don’t forget about Internet Memes
Of course, Internet memes should also be on your list. Keep them timely and relevant and make sure to avoid going too far. Know your place as a brand within the industry and don’t blur the lines between professional and personal when sending out internet memes.
32. Create a Limited Edition Fan Products
Last, but not least, you can create limited edition products based on suggestions from your fans. Better yet, create limited edition products that are only available to people who have liked your page.
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