Find your winning formula
Social media is constantly changing and sometimes it’s hard to keep up. Luckily, keeping track of the latest social trends and updates is not only what we do – it’s our obsession. Below are 5 best practices that will help you keep up with the evolving nature of Facebook. Don’t worry; you’re not on your own. We’ll be there, every step of the way.
Facebook continues to expand its formats for advertisers, providing more ways than ever to reach your audience at very cost effective rates. Utilizing all these advertising options – including paid videos, slide shows and boosted posts – will ensure you’re reaching your audience. While doing so requires the creation of multiple iterations of a piece of content, diverse advertising tactics will ensure that an audience member is exposed to different ad formats that will trigger a response.
It’s increasingly worthwhile to invest in video content because Facebook’s internal algorithm favors posts containing live video, videos, GIFs or animations. In other words, those kinds of posts will naturally attain a larger reach and be seen by more people than content that doesn’t contain rich media.
On Facebook, people share content that appeals to their emotions. Get your audience to react emotionally with content that angers, excites, or moves an audience to laugh or cry. Examples include videos of soldiers returning home after a tour overseas or photos of an adorable couple celebrating their 50-year wedding anniversary. This approach is particularly important if your content or product or service does not offer strong emotional appeal. Under this approach, cereal is more than a meal, it’s a chance to have a face-to-face conversation with a loved one; redesigning a car is more than a new yearly model, it’s an exercise in limitless imagination.
Tailored content is more likely to entice audiences, so craft posts with a specific audience in mind. Then, aim those posts at your intended audience using Facebook’s geo-fencing and targeting capabilities.
Look at your data to see what content succeeds. Look specifically for spikes in engagement metrics. When you see those spikes, ask yourself why that content succeeded. When a post gains an above-average engagement rate, for example, take a closer look at how you structured the content, what the core message was, and how you can continue to repeat and evolve that experience. You can also determine when users tend to engage most and make an effort to post at those times. Finally, think about who’s engaging the most and what you’ve been doing right to reach those demographics and get them to comment, like, share and click. If a specific demographic within your larger audience is engaging more than another, don’t shy away from tailoring more content for them. Success can breed success.
