In one of our recent posts we skimmed over Facebook page engagement as a tactic, which can make or break your social media presence. This time we wanted to dive a little deeper into the topic and focus on what’s important for business – how to actually drive Facebook engagement and nurture a more complex relationship with your audience.
There are tons of Facebook marketing tips online, but we tried to focus on less explored domains of this widely discussed topic.
Stalk Your Audience
Facebook gives you only the basic metrics about your audience. It doesn’t offer proper insights into the real people, who are behind the ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ on your page. This is especially relevant for small businesses, which rely on local communities to grow.
Learning about the actual people, who actually care about your business can be really eye-opening and useful for business. So whenever you see someone ‘liking’ your content – spend a couple of minutes exploring that person’s profile, learn more about them.
What’s the point? You’re getting a better understanding of who’s interested in your products or services. Let’s imagine that you’re selling tires. You see a guy from the local go-kart track, who engages your business by ‘liking’ your publications. Offer him a discount on his next purchase. Figure out a partnership. Don’t want to go overboard and engage him personally? Post a tailored discount/coupon on your page. If he reads your page, he’ll learn about the promo pretty quickly. He’ll be sure to ‘like’ or share it, maybe even use the promo code.
There are opportunities like that all over the place, once you start exploring the actual people behind your page
‘likes’. This will also help you create more custom content that works specifically for your audience. Your engagement stats will skyrocket.
Engage Niche Businesses
There are plenty of businesses in your area or in your niche, which you can work with. Let’s use the same go-kart example. That business probably has a Facebook page. You can go there and ‘like’ their stuff, comment as a business page. People there will see your activity and some of them will end up on your page. People, who like go-karts probably care about tires, being car/race enthusiasts. So they’re more likely to engage your business directly, as your shop has something that they might be interested in.
Don’t be pushy though. Don’t spam other pages with comments and interactions. It’s bad for business and for your SMM metrics.
Facebook is Not Craigslist
It’s not just a place, where you post ads for your business in a form of promotions, blog posts about new arrivals or other marketing materials. Yes, your ultimate goal is revenue. But with social media, it’s hard to build revenue, when there’s no engagement. People on Facebook are in a different state of mind. They visit the site to hang out and catch up. They already have tons of ads in their stream.
So your content must not be focused on direct promotions, a la ‘here’s a new thing we sell – it’s an awesome thing – buy it!’
If you take that route, at least try to focus on the benefits that this product might have for your audience. Make it worth their ‘like’ or ‘share’.
Don’t Get Cocky
Businesses are often bad with managing negative feedback. Some companies get cocky and pay the ultimate social media price – bad publicity, bad reviews and horrible reputational fallout. All of these things are the kinds of Facebook engagement that we’re trying to avoid.
Remember that even if you’re right, your attitude towards customers might have a negative backlash. Don’t be rude, don’t be condescending. Always communicate politely, especially with people, who post really bad negative reviews. These people are more likely to complain elsewhere, or make a huge text post, telling about their negative experience with your business to the rest of their Facebook circle.
Always Experiment
Remember to experiment with engagement methods on your Facebook page. Facebook engagement is not your goal. It’s a tool that can help you build a stronger foundation for your business. That’s why experimentation is important – it helps you to refine communication tactics. Getting 10 likes every time you post? Great. Now aim for 20 likes. Discover new methods. Pick new posting times. Try niche content that might be useful for your audience. Try being funny.
Marketing is about trial and error. Facebook engagement is not an exception.
We hope that you liked these tips and were able to find something new to implement in your Facebook marketing. So, as a wise man once said…
What’s your favorite Facebook engagement tactic? Let us know in the comments below!
P.S. Looking for a professional Liverpool web design agency with social media experience? Let us know, so we could work out an actionable solution for your business!
