Admit it. You get a little excited when you post something that gets hundreds or thousands of likes, shares, and comments on Facebook. Is there a way to do this on a regular basis?
The short answer is yes. There are specific things that you can do to increase your engagement on Facebook. Keep in mind, Facebook is a social media platform. In order to increase engagement, you must be social. That means, you must connect with your audience.
Here are 5 Tips for Connecting with Your Facebook Audience:
Learn About Your Audience
Why are they there? What are their needs? What are their common issues/problems? How can you help them? If you can clearly answer these questions and use these answers to help determine the type of posts you’re publishing on Facebook, then you can be sure that you will develop solid connections.
Speak with Your Audience
View this as a social event. The “fans” are your guests. If you’re standing on the table shouting about how great you are or spend the entire time talking about yourself, your guests will leave.
Your audience wants to feel you’re interested in them. Ask open-ended questions that nearly everyone can answer.
- Ask Yes/No questions – “Yes or No: There are many opportunities for homeschoolers in my area.”
- Ask Fill-in-the-Blank Questions: “My family’s favorite type of field trip is _______.”
- Ask for tips or advice: “I’m looking to try a new history curriculum. What has worked for you?”
Be Personable and Genuine
People may appreciate the information you share but they also want to relate to you. Let your personality shine. Post a funny conversation you had with your child. Mention that you’ve had 4 cups of coffee and still haven’t peeled yourself out of bed. Whatever is genuinely “you”, let them see it. And don’t just share the good parts, let them know you are a real person…with real struggles, just like them. Transparency is key.
Time Your Facebook Posts for Maximum Effect
Study your Facebook insights. Schedule your posts for optimal times. Here are some points to keep in mind{according to Sprout Social}:
- Traffic on Facebook is very low on the weekends – It’s difficult to get interactions and click-throughs on Saturday and Sunday.
- Traffic is good between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays – This is the best time to share.
- The highest click-through rates are between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. – This is the prime time for posting anything you want your audience to “click”.
- The highest peak in click-through rates is Wednesday & Thursday between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m.
- Note- these are industry standards, however, the peak times for your particular page may vary. Always check your own Facebook insights and plan accordingly.
Create a Facebook Strategy That Works for You
Having a solid Facebook strategy is key. I use and LOVE SmarterQueue for scheduling my Facebook posts. It is the best {and most cost effective} scheduling tool that I have found and the reach that I receive when using SmarterQueue is higher than any other scheduling tool that I’ve tried including the Facebook scheduler. The following is my Facebook posting schedule. Yours may look different.
- Post either a new post or an evergreen post at 9am Monday-Saturday.
- Post an engaging conversation starter at noon 7 days/week.
- Post a relevant, viral meme from another page at 1:30pm 7 days/week.
- Each day at 3pm I share one of the following: one of my own products, one of my own freebies, or a viral post from another page.
- Monday-Friday at 5pm and 9:30pm, I post an affiliate link.
- Post an evergreen or relevant seasonal post from my blog at 8:15pm 7 days/week.
What tips or tricks have you discovered which have proven successful in connecting your Facebook audience?
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Love this. I post a little more often than you do, but try to stagger things out to not blast people like some do. I’ve found the things that have gone viral for me have all been posted somewhere near 5pm. I guess every audience is different and it’s not surprising to have it be earlier for a homeschooling one. 🙂
I don’t think I mentioned it, but we must also consider time zones. If I post at, let’s say 8pm my time (eastern), it’s likely that it is dinner time for some on the west coast. I’m possibly missing that audience. But 5pm my time means it’s only 2pm there. So it could work for the most part.
As for frequency of posting, that’s up to our audience too. It’s a guideline as well.
I’m in ET too, so that’s still afternoon for westerners. There are also a number of out of the USA people who follow me, but probably not in big enough groups to affect facebook’s stats.
I just wish there were more ways to tell what’s going on at facebook; my blog is great at telling me how people got to my site. Sometimes on facebook I’ll have 4x the usual views for a post without a “share” showing and I know something’s happened, but can’t tell what!
Yes, it’s not easy to find out who sent traffic to you.
This is great advice! But you know – I have found for my audience that they seem to be more active in the evening. I get more interaction and clicks if I post before/after supper. So it’s ok to differ (and it actually might get noticed more in the sea of posts) if it’s working.
It’s true that we all have to do what works for our own audience. Those are simply the times that researchers have shown to be peak times. I post outside of those specific times, too. I just am careful to consider the other time zones.
Great advice…I didn’t know about the Facebook peak times. Maybe it also depends upon the type of audience. I have niche sites for homeschool parents who are often available after school hours and on weekends to check facebook. I’m still learning FB so this is definitely great info. Keep it going!
This is a very informative post. Thank you!