Facebook Friday. There is Only 1 King
No Queen, no Prince. Just a King.
These are the words in my notes from today's training. Literally.
So who is the king according to Facebook? Engagement.
In other words, posting a content piece on Facebook without an engagement goal strategy is stupid. Why stupid? Because it's a waste of time, which to you ... means money.
Let's face it, social media is a massive time vacuum if you think the world cares about your complaints, your cute kids doing funny things or how pretty the sunset is. What's worse, is this type of content - delivered to an audience with value-centered expectations - become offended from you not delivering what they expected! Thus, decreasing your engagement opportunity and being less friendly to Facebook's algorithm in terms of traction for the stuff that makes you money.
If you'll recall, in the previous article Correct Timing For Your Facebook Ads, I walked you through how to properly time your ad campaigns, but also added that organic engagement increases content relativity. A 24 to 48 hour posting time prior to an advertisement is what Facebook recommends to build the momentum and increase visibility. It's entirely up to you then to create engaging, valuable content that doesn't suck. Here are a few examples;
- Brief instructional video that leads viewer to blog link for the complete video.
- Link to a Checklist or Step-By-Step on your blog.
- Link to a Resources Page with content specific hyperlinks.
- Curated content from a respected blog you'd want to affiliate with. Be sure to not copy their entire content piece, rather a quote with complete transparency and respect to the author.
- Link to a kick-ass download on your blog such as an infographic or eBook.
- Product review briefs, there's a science to this, but get started reviewing products or services related to your next campaign.
- Podcast shorts or complete podcasts. This all depends on the amount of value you're delivering. You could either do 20% uploads to mastermind type podcasts or complete podcast uploads onto Facebook. This all depends, but they are great to share and can build huge authority in your brand or help you partner with other groups to collectively grow your lists.
- Links to interviews on your blog, or post the interview in your Facebook page and direct your audience to the Q&A done on your blog.
- Surveys and polls. These are easy quick and will always pull a higher conversion as they're just a click. With a controversially hot survey, you can pump up your engagement and then run your promotion on the back end of it. Sneaky and smart.
- Series link. On my blog I run a Facebook Friday Series. Providing the links to your series will absolutely increase your readership.
You'll notice that mostly all of my examples direct the reader on your Facebook Page to your blog. Just posting links without comments or inviting engagement is stupid also. Sorry to be blunt, but it is. You must pre-frame each piece with a proposition, invite and instruction. As well, get them involved in the discussion. Ask what they think, their own experience or ability to add even more value to your piece.
Most important, remember that engagement is the singular most important metric for using Facebook successfully for your school.
What examples of content pieces have you used successfully to generate positive engagement? I would love to learn from you so let me know.
