Facebook Pages nowadays seem like staples for all businesses. Practically all of the top brands are on Facebook, and they routinely getting thousands of likes per post. Part of their success is the millions of dollars they spend on advertisements, but there is more to Facebook marketing than the amount of money in your pocket.
Facebook has made it hard over the last couple of years for your fans to see your posts. Less than 10% of your fans actually see your posts in their home feeds. Many people see this as something that spells “trouble,” “danger,” and “avoid at all costs.” However, you can have a successful Facebook Page that generates massive attention without spending a penny. These six Facebook marketing tips are all easy to implement, have the potential to bring forth big results, and, they are all free.
#1: Host A Giveaway Or Contest
One easy way to get more engagement for your posts and more likes for your Facebook Page is by hosting a contest or giveaway. If you choose to host a contest, encourage your fans to share posts about your page to their audiences to get entry. If you choose to host a giveaway, encourage people to share posts on your Facebook Page to get entry. In both scenarios, you should make it clear that someone must like your Facebook Page in order to be eligible for the giveaway or contest. The more valuable the prize is, the more likes and shares your Facebook Page will get.
The tricky part about hosting a giveaway or contest is that some people may choose to unlike your Facebook Page when the contest or giveaway is over. Esurance’s $1.5 million Super Bowl giveaway says it all. The Esurance Twitter account gained over 200,000 in a 24 hour period and about 50,000 Twitter followers on the next day. After the winner was announced, Esurance was quickly unfollowed by over 100,000 people within a few days. For the 2015 Super Bowl, Esurance did not offer the $1.5 million giveaway. I think they would have done the same giveaway again if it brought in good results.
The solution for your Facebook Page is to let your fans know that you will be hosting a giveaway once every quarter. That way, the people who only liked your page for the giveaway or contest will stick around for the next giveaway or contest. As they stick around and see you more often, these people will start to read your content and take it more seriously. It is at this point when your fans are more engaged with your content and share it at will, whether you are hosting a giveaway, contest, or nothing at all.
#2: Post More Often
Would you like to reach twice the amount of Facebook fans your posts are currently reaching? Send a second post every day. Although Facebook is secretive about its whole algorithm and doesn’t let us know if a cycle is in place to determine which group of your fans sees which of your posts, when you post a second time, it theoretically reaches more people. Even if the second post gets sent to the same fans, your Facebook Page is still getting more visibility because some of those fans may have missed your first post.
My recommendation is to send at least four posts every day. That way, you give your Facebook audience four chances to see your posts. If you constantly appear on your fans’ home feeds, they will remember you. If these people like what you provide, then they will go straight to your Facebook Page when they want to see your content. You want this to happen often because the people who go directly to your Facebook Page get to see all of your Page’s content.
#3: Include Pictures In Your Posts
Chances are you recently saw a social media post that went viral. Whether it was a tweet that got hundreds of retweets or a Facebook post that was seen by 1 million people, you and I see viral content many times every week. How many of those viral posts included a picture? Probably all of them.
Including a picture in your Facebook post is one of the easiest ways to get your posts to reach more people. As people like, share, and comment on your post, their friends will see your Facebook posts. Some of those friends will like, share, and/or comment on your post as well, and if the cycle continues long enough amongst many people, your post may go viral.
#4: Pin The Most Important Facebook Post On The Top Of Your Page
Did you know that with a Facebook Page, you can select one post from your entire page, no matter when it was written, and pin that post to the top of your Facebook Page? This capability is important because it allows you to always call attention to one thing each time someone visits your Facebook Page. For some people, that may mean promoting a landing page. For others, it may mean promoting a product. Regardless of what you choose to promote (hopefully you go with the landing page), you can put that post on the top of your Facebook Page’s feed, and even if you send another post a few minutes from now, the pinned post will remain on top. Here’s a quick guide on how you can pin a post to the top of your Facebook Page.
#5: Look At Your Insights
You don’t want to randomly send Facebook posts to your fans at will. Instead, you should send Facebook posts to your fans when a majority of them are on Facebook. If you have 1,000 fans, you need to know when they are on Facebook so you know when to send posts. If 600 of your fans are on Facebook at 6 am, but only 100 of your fans are on Facebook at 11 pm, then it would be better to publish a post on your Page at 6 am than 11 pm.
Facebook Insights is a valuable tool directly provided by Facebook that allows you to know how many of your fans are on Facebook at certain times throughout the day. These insights allow you to go hour by hour for any day of the week for free. By looking at your insights, you will do less guessing and more strategic posting so more people in your Facebook audience see what you post.
[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1E44hpw”]Your #Facebook Insights hold the answer to the optimal times to schedule posts for your fans.[/tweetthis]
#6: Spice Up The Content
Provide the value and variety that your fans are looking for. If your Facebook Page is about social media, then your fans will want to know social media advice for various social networks. For this Facebook Page, posting content about Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, Facebook itself, and other social networks is the variety. When I say variety, I want you to stay in your niche but provide more than one perspective on more than one thing related to your niche. No matter how much money you have in your pocket or how effectively you implement the other five tips, the strongest relationships and the most successful Facebook Pages are built by a series of valuable posts one right after the other.
In Conclusion
If you have a lot of extra money in your pocket, then Facebook ads will be very valuable. However, most people are skeptical to using Facebook ads, and I don’t like the idea of paying to interact with the audience I have built on my own. These six tips allow you to reach more of the people in your audience without taking any money out of your pocket. As relationships build between you and your fans, some of your fans will instinctively go to your Facebook Page to see your posts. Even if Facebook never sends these fans one of your posts to their home feeds again, these fans will know to check your Facebook Page. By getting enough of these fans, your Facebook Page will continue to grow, and you won’t have to pay a single penny.
What are your thoughts on Facebook advertising and using free marketing tactics to grow your Facebook audience? Which tip was your favorite? Please share your thoughts and advice below.
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