Elizabeth Victor
1.393 billion people have a Facebook account. On average, Facebook users spend 21 minutes a day on the site. Your company’s Facebook page is your access pass to all of those users. But many company pages are sparse, rarely updated, and just wrong. If you want engagement from your fans, it’s imperative to make your company’s Facebook page as attractive as possible.
Don’t Waste Space
Facebook offers lots of bells and whistles for company pages. Patrick Baume is Group Communications Manager for Isentia, which offers media monitoring and analysis tools and services, as well as PR distribution. He says that the biggest mistake a brand can make is to not take advantage of the features Facebook offers for free. “There are all of these tools offered to you. Not using them is like throwing money away. Also, if your competitors are using them, your page will look sparse by comparison.”
Start with the basics. Completely fill out the description fields, including your hours of operation, your website, and your mission statement. Be sure to include a photo of your logo, product photos, and other images. Choose profile and cover images that fit together. Don’t forget to take advantage of the new call to action button Facebook has recently rolled out. You can ask users to sign up, contact you, and any number of other actions.
Post Frequently
Facebook has admitted that it doesn’t display all of posts from pages to users. It does so based on a combination of user interaction, number of posts available to display, and the secret sauce in its algorithm. Most social media analysis recommends that you post at least several times a week, if not daily. Don’t post more than twice a day unless you have evidence that your audience responds to it. For most brands, posting more than twice day leads to a large drop in engagement.
Make it a point to post during time periods that appeal to your ideal audience. If your audience is a late night, partying crowd, you’d get more interaction during the late hours than perhaps a brand geared toward young mothers, who tend to rise early in the morning.
Tailor the Content
You may find it difficult to come up with content for your company Facebook page at first. This is especially true if you’re posting more often than not. However, the best way to come up with content is to find a way to be useful to your audience. The more useful you are, the more users will consume, like, and share your content.
Let’s say your company sells cars. You could absolutely post status after status of your own products. But you’d bore your audience. Even if they like your product, your audience doesn’t want to be bombarded with a sales pitch over and over again. Instead, you’ll engage with them more if you post a combination of new products, information about general car maintenance, and entertainment pieces related to the car industry.
Another important thing to remember is to inject personality into your Facebook page posts. Show snapshots from your company picnic and add a little blurb about activities the day. Spotlight special features of your office, such as wall art, office setup, or the company dog. Introduce various employees to your fan base. If your company makes handmade rugs, take turns introducing the artisans who make the actual products. Include their backgrounds, favorite parts of the job, and a picture of them on the job. Your fans can find a press release anywhere. Make your Facebook page where they can get to know who your company really is.
Visualize for Your Fans
Humans are visual creatures. We process visual content 60,000 times faster than we do text. Visual content is very important to the engagement of your Facebook page. Posts with images receive 94% more engagement than those without.
If you’re looking for images to pair with your content, look no further than your own. From professionally taken product images to photos from company events, you probably have an inventory of photos to choose from. For images that aren’t specific to your brand, you can use stock photos or images licensed under Creative Commons. Just remember that all images should be in good taste and clearly show the subjects. The more visually appealing the image, the better your content will be received.
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