Facebook Engagement Life Savers!

As you will all have noticed our Facebook post reach has fallen off the edge of a cliff… A fuckin’ big cliff! A post that used to reach 500 now only reaches 75, which has a knock on effect to our engagement stats. I’m also sure you know that this is no accident.

Facebook have re-developed their post ranking algorithm (similar to Google ranking) in a bid to drive us all towards paid advertising; Facebook Ads, promoted posts etc. They have made it a lot harder for marketers to gain organic success in order to swell the Facebook bank balance (significantly), but as much as I’m verbally ‘throwing the toys out the pram’ – who gives a shit! Just produce better content! Facebook is a business, and businesses exist to make money. Do they not?

You see, as much as Facebook are making it harder to gain a high organic reach they are also rewarding good content and good pages. So this gives you all an opportunity to leave a large chunk of your competition in the dust. That is unless your competition is reading this article…

So now we all know the problem challenge, let me give you the solution; the key to winning the battle of reach & engagement c2014.

Improve Post Reach

I have a lot of tips to provide you here, so I’m gonna cut out the bullshit and get right to it!

In essence, if you can increase engagement on your page then you’ll win this battle of organic reach, and I’m going to show you how to increase engagement further on. First however, there are a few things you can do that will fall favourably with Facebook’s new algorithm:

        1.     The ‘Get Notifications Tab’

Encourage your fans to select ‘Get Notifications’ and they will see everything you post no matter what.

Be humble about it though. Don’t instruct them to do it. Offer it as a solution:

“Facebook’s new ranking algorithm means you might not be seeing all of my posts L. So if you’d like to see them all, and be part of our continual conversation, then select ‘Get Notifications’ as shown here’.

        2.     Link to Quality Content

Facebook are now showing more links in the News Feed. This is one of the biggest changes to their algorithm. So if all you do is post photos then stop right now and mix it up with more links. However, make sure the site you are linking to is a good quality, reputable site. Facebook will automatically grab the meta data (photo, summary text) and display this. Better quality is rewarded with a high news feed rank.

        3.     Don’t Spam

Facebook want to cut out Pages that are producing 'spam posts'. So to do this they are cracking down on what they call "Like Baiting" - You know those posts that are explicitly aimed at getting people to interact with a post? Posts like “Click like if you love long lies”, or “Share this post if you like pizza; comment if you prefer lasagne”? I'm sure we agree that these posts are useless anyway.

Please don't confuse this with the good practice of including specific calls to action. For instance, asking your fans to answer your question in the comments section, or asking them to share your post with people who would benefit from it.

So how can you avoid being targeted?

1. Make sure your posts are relevant.
2. Don't create posts that have the sole purpose of garnering likes, shares or comments.
3. Avoid explicitly asking your fans to 'Like this post' or 'Share this post'. Give them a reason to do these.

        4.     Tag Another Page

Not only will this increase the chances of that page engaging with your post, but all of their fans will see your post too!

        5.     Boost Your Post

I know I’m trying to tell you how to increase post reach without paying, but at the end of the day boosting/promoting a post every now and again will increase engagement on your page. This in turn will shoot you up the News Feed ranks.

You don’t have to spend much. A £10 boost could help you reach ~10000 people, which could be pretty damn good for your business. Remember that every business should put a marketing budget aside. Do you?

Note that when you are boosting/promoting a post, the image you use cannot be more than 25% text.

Improve Post Engagement

So now that I’ve shown you some technical changes you can make, or as Mathew McConaughey in Wolf of Wall Street would say, “acidic, above the shoulders mustard shit”; it’s time to fix your engagement strategy.

The following is a list of ways that will help you get more engagements than Ross from Friends:

        1.     Post When Your Fans are Online

What’s the point in posting top quality content when everyone’s asleep or at work? Play to the stats and post when they’re usually online. This can be seen in your ‘Insights’.

> Click ‘See Insights’

> Select ‘Posts’, and you’ll be met with statistical gold!

        2.     Spark a Discussion

As I’ve said many times, engagement is the key to Facebook marketing. It’s the Holy Grail. So ask questions; get the people talking and discussing in your comments box. This is how posts go viral.

Remember that sometimes to spark discussion you have to light the wick of controversy. Don’t sit on the fence - it’s boring and not worth discussing.

        3.     Be a Learned Master

People love interacting with ‘how to’ content. ‘How to’ content works because you’re offering practical value. Gaining value out of something is a key driver of why we share things.

        4.     Lifestyle Shots

People love to see who’s behind the brand. So make every 3^rd or 4^th post something light hearted and about you the person, or people, behind the brand.

 

Here’s my girlfriend Gemma and I when we took our Mums out for Mother’s day.

 I know what you’re thinking… She is indeed a lucky girl!

        5.     Shorten Your Posts

Get good at being concise. Posts with less than 80 characters get 23% more interaction. Try it!

        6.     Quote the Best

Quotes get 25% more likes and 19% more shares according to early 2014 statistics. So share some inspiration now and again.

Wrapping It Up

In some people’s eyes Facebook have screwed us over, but life is full of changes and challenges. You’ve got to roll with the changes and use them to your advantage.

I heard a great quote recently that was, “Be better, not bitter”. Write that down on a post-it note and stick it on the side of your screen. The fact is that most brands suck at Facebook marketing. So take the opportunity that’s in front of you.

Hopefully you found this article helpful and you put my tips into practice. If you do I’d love to hear how you got on. So connect with me on one of my platforms and let me know.

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The 8 Commandments of Facebook Content Creation

“Quit it with these long posts! I just ignore them!”

I recently posted a status on Facebook sharing my opinion of long posts (specifically on Facebook), backed up with a study of course. However, I believe content creation, in general, is such an important subject that I’d like to harp on about it a little more.

So in this article I’ll go into more depth regarding ‘post lengths’, but also provide you with 8 golden genius drops* of content creation advice.

*Golden Genius Drop: A piece of priceless advice that one’s mind may chew on.

Long posts SUCK (most of the time).

99% of those using social media are doing so for the reason described in the title – to be ‘social’. They’ll come on to check out what’s happening with their friends, maybe skim over a few news stories, watch a video or two, or check out a new restaurant. They don’t come on to read lengthy articles or to learn, in great detail, about any particular subject - We have blogs and news sites for that kind of stuff. At most, people will interact with links to articles that have a brief description before-hand to help them decide whether they want to spend time reading on.

According to Track Social, Facebook posts of more than 140 characters attract a significantly less amount of engagement (Figure 1.). However, this doesn’t mean you have to start cutting all of your posts down to Tweets. The beauty of Facebook is that there are no limitations here.

A long post can still gain a healthy amount of engagement IF it’s structured in the right way; but when I say long, I mean long within reason. My rule of thumb is that if a posts runs over 100 or so words write a blog article. Any more than 100 words and you enter into the boring/ignored category described at the start.

Figure 1

To find out about how to structure these longer posts that still provoke engagement, read on!

The 8 Commandments

Here are the 8 rules I follow when creating Facebook posts:

1.       Write an attention grabbing opening statement:

Think of your post like a newspaper article; the headline is the hook for readers.

2.       Good grammar and perfect spelling:

I shouldn’t need to explain this one. Poor grammar and misspelt words just looks careless, so be careful.

3.       Shorten links:

These save space and look far tidier (I have slight OCD…). Use Google URL Shortener to help you here.

4.       Use bespoke graphics:

Something I try to do as often as possible is use bespoke graphics or original photography. These present a professional image to followers, and will keep you out of copyright trouble!

Simply saving images from Google is lazy and risky. So if you can’t create bespoke graphics, or have no unique photography, then use websites such as Flickr to source images.

5.       Use Hashtags to label the subject, but that is all:

Unfortunately the introduction of hashtags into Facebook didn’t quite work out. According to EdgeRank Checker’s research, Facebook hashtags are actually less likely to make a post go viral. People also don’t tend to take part in public discussions on Facebook the same way they do on Twitter. So again, this makes the Facebook hashtag redundant.

However research aside, Facebook hashtags are a great way of labelling what your post is about. Think of them like labelling a blog article... These labels may attract your audience to read your post.

6.       Get to the fucking point:

As previously explained, people have short attention spans when spending time on social networks. Don’t bore your poor followers…

7.       Include a call to action:

Studies show that people are more likely to engage if asked to.

8.       Sign off with your website URL:

Not only does this make a post look professional, but it drives potential customers to the point of transaction.

If you’re purely using social media for PR purposes the same rule applies. The majority of your service/product information should reside on your website.

Let’s wrap it up

So there you have it, eight ways you can create more professional looking Facebook posts that will encourage engagement. All you need to do now is discuss an interesting or useful subject.

To give you an example of what a good post may look like, I thought I’d sign off by following my “8 Commandments”:

A Sweet-Ass Blog Article Sign Off:

I hope you enjoyed reading this article and, as always, would really appreciate any feedback. So who’s going to start the discussion? Comment below chums.

If you’d like to check out some of my Facebook posts then join me here: http://goo.gl/5nbmAV

#FacebookPosts #8Rules

www.dreamtheatremarketing.co.uk

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Facebook is Doomed...Everyone under the age of 30 is leaving it… Bullshit

Facebook is doomed. Everyone under the age of 30 is leaving it…

This is a completely bullshit statement that some would have you believe. We’ve heard it all before; ‘Twitter is going to topple Facebook’, ‘Instagram is taking over’. Neither has happened yet, so I wish writers would calm down and refrain from these sensationalised statements until there is a major attack on the social media giant.

In the following article, social media expert (whom I greatly admire), Dave Kerpen explains that many younger Facebook users are dropping the social media platform to use other networks such as Snapchat & Vine. It seems that their parents and older family members are signing up and becoming very active on the platform… *Damn*

Dave's Article:

http://www.inc.com/Dave-Kerpen/teens-are-leaving-facebook-what-does-it-mean-for-your-business.html

The later part of this statement is true; an older demographic is beginning to take to the most powerful social media platform in the world. However, what has been missed out is that younger users are simply not engaging and sharing as much as they used to. The fact is that they are still, very much, present on Facebook. The statistics speak for themselves:

·         83% of 18-29 year old American internet users are on it.

·         73% of 30-49 year old American internet users are on it.

·         57% of 50-64 year old American internet users are on it.

The last time I checked, Facebook was more than just a platform to share pictures. A lot more.

It’s true that newer social media platforms such as Snapchat and Vine are on the ascendancy, but they have a long way to go before they will seriously affect Facebook. Right now they’re a pimple on the ass of Facebook, and Facebook have shown that they're pretty good at controlling these break outs.

Let’s take Vine for example:

Vine is the fastest growing social media app in the world. However, it currently only has 40 million registered users. They also haven’t announced the number of active users. All we know is that Vine activity dropped when, Facebook owned, Instagram announced its competing video service in June.

So, 40 million Vs 1 Billion… Facebook are hardly doomed. The truth of the matter is that by gaining 1 billion registered users, Facebook is well on its way to saturating the market.

There are 1.9 billion internet users in the world that have access to Facebook (China cannot access Facebook), so Facebook have captured 53% of the potential market. On top of that, Facebook saw a 2% growth between 2012 and 2013.

So, with the number people now on Facebook, of course growth has slowed down. It may even soon halt. But should this cause panic in the Facebook ranks? I’d say no.

Facebook, like Apple, have rocketed to the top and can almost touch the elusive glass ceiling. At this level any small attack at the foot of the market will have a small effect on usage and sales etc. There will always be others that will try to topple them from their throne. Unfortunately this is the life of a champion

.

I have every faith that Facebook will continue to stay agile and innovative for years to come, and will continue to cast there ever-seeing eye across the market.

  

To conclude:

As human beings, we are inquisitive and like to try new things. So we may drift between social media platforms, but for the time being that drift will always be between Facebook and another.

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