A Facebook page is a powerful tool for any brand. Whether you are a restaurant, small business, or large corporation, you can gain immense exposure from having a well-run Facebook page for your business. The key is to know what practices are most effective and then to devise a plan to implement those effectively. Already, there has been a large amount of data gathered which shows what works and what does not work on a Facebook page. Here are three insights to ensure your are developing good Facebook practices.
1. Types of Posts
Believe it or not, short Facebook posts that are patterned after the 140 character limit of Twitter are widely successful. Research has shown that posts with 100-250 characters are 60% more likely to generate likes, comments, and shares than posts greater than 250 characters.
In addition, including photos in your posts helps to generate interaction with your fans. Photos are much easier for your fans to consume and they also elicit more emotion than any text phrase. As such, it is not surprising to learn that photos create 100% more likes, comments, and shares than link and text posts.
2. Frequency and Interaction
More than likely, your fans are online everyday and at all hours of the day. Because of this, there is always an opportunity for you to interact with your audience. To take advantage of this, develop a plan to have at least three posts a day. To help manage these posts, use the Facebook scheduler or programs like HootSuite to schedule all your posts for the week.
This will free up your time to interact with and listen to your fans. Reply to comments people make, send thank you messages to your fans, and even send them free things or discounts.Kill them with kindness. All of these interactions show that you are paying attention to them and care about what they think.
3. Facebook Insights
Attached to your Facebook page is a valuable tool that all page owners should use to their benefit. It is Facebook insights and the best part about it is that it’s free. You will be surprised at the amount of data that is included here. In the insights, you can see when your fans are online, what types of posts receive the most engagement, what the demographics of your fans are, and data regarding your page likes.
For example, wondering why your post on Saturday at 2pm generated more interaction than your post on Friday at 2pm? Well, Facebook insights can show you the reason was because there was over 100 more fans online at 2pm Saturday as opposed to Friday. With this data, you can schedule your posts to coincide with the time your fans are online.
If you factor in the above three insights into your Facebook page plan, you will be well on your way to gaining a much larger following and as a result, more business. The important thing to remember is to always be engaging with your audience. People on Facebook want to be fed new information daily so why not make it be posts from your page. Your fans liked your page for a reason and will welcome new opportunities to interact with you.