Is it Still Possible to Have an Engaged Audience on Facebook?
Unless you’ve completely avoided Facebook for the past couple of years, as a business owner, you’ve probably noticed it’s become increasingly difficult to have an engaged Facebook audience. It’s no secret ‘fake news’, paid-advertising, and artificial posts clutter Facebook’s feed. What’s worse, the constant stream of nonsense hurts honest business owners, who work hard to generate original and organic content.
However, establishing a credible presence on Facebook IS possible. You can still have an engaged audience on Facebook by adapting your social media strategy to account for the decline in organic page reach.
Dealing with the diminished Organic reach of Facebook
The following practices give small-to-medium-sized business owners the biggest bang for their buck when it comes to marketing:
A little discretion goes a long way
It’s crucial to be selective about your audience when using Facebook as a marketing tool. Additionally, it’s essential you’re incredibly careful when it comes to publishing content. Mindless, mass-marketing no longer cuts-the-mustard, with targeted content and highly-selective publishing showing the most promise in terms of capturing leads. It’s about people interacting with a post as much as possible—not spamming.
Remember to look left
Reminding Fans they can use the Pages Feed on the left-hand side-panel of their News Feed to restrict content to Pages “liked” in the past, meaning if they’ve liked your page and select this option, they will see more of your content over ads and other clutter.
Keep your customer-base in-the-know
Send a friendly reminder to Fans telling them they can update their settings to receive notifications right from their page. That way, you can be sure your content connects with your audience.
Inspire engagement
Encouraging Fans to interact with your content will make your other posts more popular. A simple reminder, such as “Don’t forget to like and share,” can make your post appear in front of many more interested eyes. That being said, make it authentic and genuine to your brand in a way that doesn’t sound fake and spammy.
Share videos that inspire action
Sharing engaging videos on Facebook is clutch. You want to make visitors stop what they’re doing and tune in. If your material is captivating enough, perhaps they’ll even click “unmute” to see what it’s all about. Using animated text, motion graphics, and robust imagery help to grab the attention of Facebook users.
Recent research conducted by quintly states videos posted on Facebook engage users 186% more than videos from third-party sites. Plus, they’re 1000% more likely to be shared. So, tailoring your videos to your respective online outlets and social media platforms is a smart move if you want the best results.
There are all kinds of platforms and apps out there to help you make videos right from your phone or your computer. Promo is one I’ve recently played around with that I thought was very comprehensive and easy to use- especially if you’re going to run video ad campaigns.
Live in the now
If you haven’t already done so, broadcasting via Facebook Live can jumpstart your business. After all, live broadcasts are viewed three times more than conventional videos on Facebook. You can also use the medium to advertise your happenings across your different platforms to create a buzz about your brand.
Broadcasting for a minimum of 5-minutes ensures your video is likely to surface. Sharing genuine, back-stage footage to attract your viewers and spark their interest is becoming increasingly common.
Pay-to-Play on Facebook
Now, before you go reaching for your wallet, it’s important you’re targeting the right audience with your paid ads. After you’ve established a significant following, it’s crucial to center your ads around content created apart from Facebook.
If advertising on Facebook, go above-and-beyond basic strategies
In recent years, Facebook’s ability to accurately target market segments has improved remarkably. Alongside offering a paid pathway surrounding users’ interests, online behaviors, the social media company also accounts for demographic factors. Tons of useful tools and apps exist solely to optimize your digital marketing strategy. These tools include, but are not limited to, the following:
Conversion trackers – record user activity after clicking your Facebook post.
Lookalike audiences – Target your Facebook ads to users representing your current customers or clients.
Custom audiences - Target your Facebook ads based on details about people in your contact list. (Note: you can also customize your ads around visitors to your website, a.k.a. website custom audiences.
Audience insights – Explore your current Facebook community to increase the effectiveness of your ads.
Customizable reports – Create reports focusing on the standards that define your business.
Facebook exchange – Post retargeted adverts on Facebook from users visiting your stand-alone website.
To sum, having an engaged audience on Facebook is possible, yes, but it may be difficult.
Like I always say, it’s different for everyone. If your target audience is on Facebook and engaging with similar products or services like your own, you should probably focus some time and money on creating a comprehensive Facebook strategy.
If you’re wondering whether or not YOU should spend some time and money on Facebook for your business. Shoot me a note. I’d be happy to help you weigh your options.
