August 20, 2013

How to Make Your Facebook Page Shine

With over 1.15 billion users, Facebook has become a force so strong that marketers simply cannot afford to ignore it. And more than 15 million businesses and organizations understand that notion, opting to open pages on the social networking site.

With more and more companies setting up shop on Facebook, it’s more important than ever that business owners implement successful social media strategies in order to stand out from the crowd. By making sure your Facebook page has a personality of its own, including pictures with your posts and posing questions in them, you’re on the right track in creating an enviable social networking persona. Let’s take a look at three things that can help your Facebook page shine against the competition:

Add personality

No one wants to follow a company, organization or celebrity on Facebook only to find out that the entity lacks a personality. Because that’s what Facebook is precisely about: personality. Facebook users, for the most part signed in under their real names, publicly express their opinions about various things. Social networking is about connecting with other people on a human level. It’s important to remember that fact when it comes to managing your Facebook account.

Take U.S. Senator Rand Paul for example. Earlier this year, Paul took to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. and held a 13-hour filibuster questioning whether the government had the authority to kill U.S. citizens on American soil in drone airstrikes. Attorney General Eric Holder eventually answered Paul’s question in the negative. But since that filibuster, Paul’s become sort of the “poster boy” for opposition against drones.

What do drones have to do with the senator’s Facebook page? Paul recently linked an article on his page which details the use of drones to deliver beer to attendees at a South African rock festival. Using a smartphone app, concertgoers can place an order which is then fulfilled by a drone that drops beer in a parachute to a GPS-specified location. Paul’s commentary on the article? “Ok, maybe I’m not against ALL drones!”

One would expect a politician to be all business on social media—and Paul’s posts usually are very political—but the above example illustrates the personalized flavor necessary to be successful on social media. The senator’s page has more than 1.1 million “likes.”

Add pictures

Research shows that Facebook posts with photos on them boast 120 percent more engagement than posts that aren’t accompanied with visual items. On top of that, posts with pictures received 53 percent more “likes” and 104 percent more comments than the average posts.

For whatever reason, animals are all the rage on the Internet. For example, a Twitter account pretending to be a grumpy cat has more followers than actor Steve Carrell. Combine pictures of animals and social media, and you’ve got yourself a goldmine of engagement.

Take a look at the Bronx Zoo’s Facebook page. Virtually every post made by the zoo is accompanied by a picture of an animal. For example, the zoo posted a picture of a silverback gorilla along with the text, “When our silverback found out about the weekend’s delightful forecast, he simply went ape!” That picture got more than 1,200 “likes,” nearly 100 shares and more than 30 comments. 

The zoo’s clearly mastered the art of the engaging Facebook post, and companies looking to do the same should take a gander at their page. The Bronx Zoo has more than 167,000 “likes” on Facebook.

 Ask questions

Posts with questions get 100 percent more comments than those without questions, according to a recent infographic. Facebook is about sharing your opinions, and when people are asked questions, they feel encouraged to answer them.

Take a look at the rock band Cake’s Facebook page for an example. The band has chosen to dedicate its social media presence to raise awareness about political issues the band feels passionate about. Oftentimes when the band shares an article, it will pose a question to accompany it, asking its fans to opine on whatever the subject happens to be. That method has proven relatively successful for the band, as those posts often generate upwards of 100 comments and a comparable amount of ‘likes’ as well.

Cake enjoys more than 465,000 Facebook fans.

By using your Facebook page to showcase your personality while adding pictures and asking questions, your reach is certain to grow. The wider your reach, the more popular your brand will become.




Edited by Carrie Schmelkin




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