Having a Facebook Page for your brand is a great first step to take when growing your online presence. Not to mention having an online social media presence means you can market your products or services to an appropriate audience for a reasonable amount while generating leads.
But this isn’t an easy process and it doesn’t just happen overnight. It is important to plan carefully, making sure to have a comprehensive strategy in place. This will make all the difference and ensure that you get the likes, the leads, the clients and the customers.
So what type of content does Facebook value? With Facebook’s business pages reach continuing to drop, it’s important to note which posts are doing well and what is generally considered successful content to succeed in reaching most, if not all of your audience. Studies have suggested that one of the most crucial factors in Facebook’s ranking algorithm seems to be engagement. So it makes sense for your page to post engaging content receive more engagement from your audience.
But what types of posts tend to garner engagement? We must first remember that what works for most posts is a good starting point and is a useful guideline, but it’s always best to test and measure your own results as you go along. Brian Peters from Buffer.com put it this way, “Over the years, we’ve learned that the best way to reach our audiences on Facebook is to study the data, experiment constantly, be open to learning, and take a growth mindset.”
In 2011, a study by the New York Times found that people shared information online because they wanted to charm others with valuable and compelling content as well as adequately express themselves to others, build relationships, fulfil their need for self-fulfilment, and share various issues, products and brands that they found interesting.
A Facebook marketing strategy that is designed to achieve engagement involves offering your audience something of perceived value. A possible focus could be creating content to educate and entertain your audience. It’s important to keep your audiences’ preferences in mind as it is an effective way to make certain that your posts are engaging. You can also draw on your own experiences. What did you share or click on that you found engaging recently? Was it funny or helpful? Or maybe more serious?
As it stands currently, the most engaging type of posts on Facebook are thought to be different types of video content. This is not surprising as video content is fast becoming the more prefered way of consuming online content. But it’s not just any video content, it’s Facebook’s native video content that ranks high on the engagement metre and surprisingly, even surpasses Facebook’s live videos.
In a Facebook post, Mark Zuckerberg expressed his plans to encourage more “meaningful social interactions” on Facebook as a result of the updated algorithms. He mentioned live video as perhaps being a vehicle to encourage such interactions. Zuckerberg more recently has defined “meaningful interactions” on Facebook as being in the form of private messaging, and not necessarily reactions to public posts.
So what will content engagement look like in the future, particularly when it comes to businesses?
No one can say for sure as it continues to be an ongoing conversation. But whatever it is, the plan will probably include the continuing goal of sparking meaningful interactions.
Contact us today to see how we can assist your business by creating engaging and effective social media content that is tailored to your specific audience.
