The more likes, comments, and shares you have on your page posts, the more likely your content will be seen. You’ll discover ways to increase social media engagement.
Create Shareable Content
If you want people to share your posts, you need to create highly shareable content. It’s that simple.
“Highly shareable” means the content is relevant to your audience and compels people to share it. Your content should make people stop in their tracks. Facebook calls this “thumb-stopping,” since the majority of users view the platform on mobile devices. When your audience stops scrolling and pauses to read your content, they should feel an instant urge to share it with their audience.
The content could be breaking news, educational, hilarious, entertaining, or something that’s not typically seen elsewhere. This is the type of content that will make your audience look good to others when they share it.
For example, this video from The Kitchn is a simple recipe that plays off their audience’s love for avocados and desire to learn something new. This post has received more than 6,800 shares.
Create thumb-stopping, shareable content.
Makeup Lessons is another page that posts a variety of engaging, shareable visuals, such as stand-alone, multiple, and instructional graphics. The beauty pics really pop in the news feed. Plus, they use carousel posts to showcase multiple links and images.
Publish link posts with multiple images to create a carousel.
Takeaway: Create videos, graphics, and posts that are relevant, stand out in the news feed, and make people want to share. The content doesn’t have to be fancy, but it should look good and be of value to your loyal following.
Include a Call to Action
Just as you want to create shareable content, it’s important to ask people to engage. Include something as simple as an invitation to share the post. For instance, write, “If you found value, please share with your fans.” Or “If this speaks to you, share it with your audience as well!” You may also want to invite people to comment.
For Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day, Positively Woof invited fans to share a picture of a pet that had passed. The eye-catching video post has over 7 million views, 19,000 comments, and 208,000 shares. (I’m one of the 19,000 commenters. My own beloved cat, Baby the Bengal, went to kitty heaven in September of last year. So sad.) You can see the incredible bond that animal lovers have in the epic thread on this post.
Takeaway: Create shareable content that includes a call to action. Also, post content that aligns with a trend or holiday related to your business so your audience will want to chime in.
Mix Up Content Types
There’s a window of opportunity right now with the Facebook news feed algorithm since not nearly enough businesses are doing video.
If you put a higher ratio of video in your content mix (three times a week), it will increase the visibility and engagement of your page substantially. Mix in other content types and you have a recipe for success.
Betty Rocker is a nutrition and fitness expert who has a wonderful mix of content types. From recipes and checklists to inspirational pics.
She also adds a human element to connect with people viewing her page so they’ll engage. The Betty Rocker mixes up fitness videos and recipe posts with more personal updates.
Takeaway: Provide fun and interesting content for your fans so there’s always something to see, learn, and do on your Facebook page.
Design Video for Viewing With the Sound Off
To encourage engagement, make your videos understandable with or without audio. Although Facebook is testing autoplay video with sound on, you should still design your video to be viewed with the sound off whenever possible, since users will have control over the mute button.
Remember, autoplay video (with or without sound) is here to stay. Use a tool that easily allows you to add text such as lower thirds and captions to your videos.
This Tony Robbins video offers the same info to viewers, whether or not they’re listening to him speak. Design video to be understandable when muted.
Takeaway: When your audience can consume your content with the sound off, they’ll be more likely to engage with it.
Try Instant Articles
Instant articles load 10 times faster inside the Facebook mobile app than links on the regular mobile web. Companies using instant articles include Business Insider, BuzzFeed, the Washington Post, and others. For example, Mashable publishes some content via instant articles, like this one about upcoming LinkedIn changes.
Instant articles are identifiable in the mobile feed by the lightning bolt icon. One click and the article appears.
Instant articles show up immediately when a reader clicks.
Yes, it does require time and effort to set up instant articles. However, since people get instant gratification when they click an instant article link in the feed, they’re more likely to read it. Then they’ll share and otherwise engage with your post.
Takeaway: Perhaps you won’t use instant articles for every article you publish, but test it with some of your flagship content.
Change Your Posting Time
Not getting the engagement you want on your posts? Try publishing content outside business hours, such as in the evenings and on weekends. Publish when more of your audience is online.
Also, it’s totally okay to repurpose content. Post content that’s already been shared on other networks and periodically republish your most popular Facebook posts. Don’t share a previously published post, though; republish it as a fresh post. Post at off-times when your competitors are not online.
Be conscious of the evergreen content you share. If you’re republishing older content, remember to read it first to make sure it’s still relevant. Plus, while you can auto-publish links and blog posts using third-party tools, don’t set and forget it.
Every now and then something may happen in the world or in your business and industry. Just be aware of what you’re posting and when to make sure it’s still relevant and not disruptive during a crisis.
Takeaway: If you’re not already doing so, post once a day to your page, which is what most brands do. News organizations post more frequently because they tend to have noteworthy and time-sensitive stories.
Drive Traffic From Other Sources
Another way to increase engagement for your posts is to send traffic to your page from other social networks and your newsletter.
Click the timestamp of your post to get the permalink. Then use a URL shortener (like Bitly) to create a shareable link. Grab the permalink of your Facebook post to share it in other places.
Share the post link on Twitter (or another social network) with an invitation to join the conversation. This will bring some of your Twitter followers over to Facebook to engage.
Alternatively, or additionally, include information about the discussion (along with the link) in your newsletter.
Takeaway: The more traffic you drive, the more fans you’ll get and the more likely they’ll engage with your content. Remember, newsletter subscribers, are loyal members of your audience. Lead them to your page so they can engage with you and your community.
Embed Posts and Videos on Your Blog
You can increase visibility and engagement for your Facebook content by embedding posts on your blog. To get the embed code for a post, click the timestamp, click the arrow in the upper right, and select Embed. Get the code for your Facebook post.
Copy your code and paste it into the HTML of your blog post.
You can include the full narrative with the media posted on Facebook (image or video) or just the media. The example below is a Facebook video I embedded on my blog to create more visibility for branded content, an important topic.