10 ideas to engage (better) with your Facebook fans

In the digital era we live today, it is essential for every brand to communicate with its customers via social media networks. Facebook is by far the most used; more than one billion people (1.400.000.000 as I am writing this) are active on Facebook these days – from their mobile or desktop, at their offices, homes or on their way.

And although these numbers give us a (strong) clue about social media power, there are still a lot of businesses that don’t take advantage of them – either by not having social media accounts at all, or by using them with no strategy (a massive 72% of small & medium sized businesses use social networks, but not as they should).

If you wish to have an effective presence in the social media, you should do much more than publish once in a while your brand’s deals and some content because you thought “this is ok to do so”. Social engagement and selling acquires skills, good design, clear content and above all strategy.

Given that for more of 80% of companies, the person managing social media is the owner himself or herself, who is a person with no time or training to do so, it’s clear that it’s almost impossible to have an effective strategy.

And this of course is a loss, in many ways:

• For you because of the time you spend with little or no impact,
• For your company because of small or zero revenue
• Sometimes bad social media management is even responsible for a brand’s bad “word of mouth” – for not answering a complaint (or even worse, answering the wrong way), for not engaging conversations with the users (who are all clients or potential clients or even brand ambassadors).

Many small {or even bigger} business owners, are struggling every day to find content ideas, in order to create a good post for their Facebook fan page – where a “good post” is interpreted as a post that will generate likes, shares and comments, even clicks to the company’s website.

Here are 10 ideas to help you engage better with your Facebook fans.

1. Tips from the expert – a great way to show your fans you have the knowledge and experience in your field; give them a solution to a common problem and prove your market leadership position. If you want this to bring more traffic to your company’s site, do this in a blog post which you will then share on Facebook.
2. Show the people behind your brand name – every brand, every company, every business has a major asset: its employees. Share their photos from inside the company, while they help customers, arrange products or meet; this will help your audience have a more personalized view of your brand. And also this is why Facebook was created in the first place – to bring people together.
3. Share useful information from your field of business – Facebook should not be used as a company’s noticeboard, speaking only about its products. Find and share useful information and news, which your audience will find interesting.
4. Testimonials – even if you have a small selling history, even if you have sold only one product, try to have your customer’s opinion on it. This will help you, not only to post and share original content with your potential customers; it’s a great way to create your brand’s ambassadors and the word-of-mouth all brands seek.
5. Giveaways – everyone likes to win, and what a better way to give your audience this chance than to host a contest. There are several contest apps that you can use to run a contest yourself and gain emails to add to your list. If you prefer a more professional approach with a creative concept, custom apps and artwork, trust the experts.
6. Share inspirational images and quotes – you are dealing with people, and all of us have some good and some bad days. Inspiration and motivation are always welcome; ideally focused on your niche market. Posts like these have a higher probability to get liked and shared on Facebook.
7. Show your other social media channels – for companies who wish to have a strong and solid presence on the internet (and also maybe better SEO results), it is clear that they have to choose wisely and perform on more than one social media channels, even if Facebook is the strongest one of them. So communicate your other social media accounts, such as Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram etc.
8. Humor – a smile on someone’s face is always a big win. Give your audience something to smile for, ideally regarding something in your company’s field.
9. Show your products and offers – we’ve said before that Facebook should not be used as a company’s noticeboard. There is the 80/20 “golden” rule – It simply comes down to this: use just 20% of your content to promote your brand and dedicate 80% to content that really interests your audience and engages them in conversations.
10. Be personal – as said before, Facebook was created to bring people together and behind every brand there are people. Answer all questions and comments, especially if the person contacting you is addressing you with a complaint. Never, ever, ever erase any posts (unless they use foul language or are spam). This way you will be able to build a strong reputation.

Try to keep in mind that social media management is a marathon and not a sprint. It may take up to 1 or 2 years to see the results you want – always based on the strategy you have, which must be redefined every 6 months.

Don’t just watch your competitors always be a step ahead of you. Act now! Try to build a real online community where you can interact with your followers and reach your customers.

If you wish for UCME experts to help you on your digital journey, feel free to contact us here.

Copyright 2015 UCME Communication & Stuff