As the Social Media Editor for the Content Solutions team, my goal is to improve our partners’ social strategy. One way that we accomplish this goal is by testing and implementing strategies that boost engagement and gain new audience members.
Earlier this year, we focused on the Daily Puppy’s Facebook page. When we began the test in early February, the Daily Puppy’s Facebook page had 117,800 fans. By May, that number grew by 24 percent.
How were we able to grow their audience through those tests? Here are three action items you can start implementing today:
1. Know Your Audience
If I had to pick the very first thing to learn about gaining a Facebook audience, it’s understanding who your target audience is in the first place, along with learning their posting habits.
For example, which formats attract your target demographic? Food photography is a huge trend among millennials and moms, so any food brand should certainly be showing off their best pictures. But did you know that nearly 72 percent of all food diary photos shared on social media showcase a main meal, rather than snacks or appetizers? If foodies are your target demographic on Facebook, you may want to focus on meal photos and recipes for lunch and dinner.
But that’s not nearly enough to gain more followers or keep them engaged. You should also dive deeper into the niches of your target demographic. For the Daily Puppy, puppy parents are conscious about what their dogs eat, so we chose to highlight natural food recipes. For food brands, “mommy” food brands should highlight kid-friendly meals, while brands targeting millennials should offer quick, easy and inexpensive recipes.
2. Profile Pictures Matter
Your brand’s Facebook profile picture will appear in your news feed, on posts in users’ timelines and in comments that you post. This means it’s crucial to create a profile picture that positively showcases your brand to first-time visitors. The picture should also be recognizable, so that existing fans can immediately identify your brand when they see your image in their timeline.
I would also suggest adding a unique cover photo that connects with visitors. Facebook isn’t like Instagram (which is nothing but visuals), so your profile and cover photos are a great way to add stunning visuals to your brand’s page.
3. Engage Your Audience With Content
Knowing your audience and maintaining a visual page are the basics to building and engaging an audience, but this tip is the most important: Calls. To. Action. Ready it slowly, repeat and make it your Facebook mantra. Without calls to action, even your most engaging posts may get lost in the Facebook clutter.
For our own test, we shared photos that we knew the Daily Puppy audience would love (it’s practically cheating when you’re posting pics of cute puppies, right?). These photos performed exceptionally well because we encouraged fans to “share” or “like” the photo. These calls to action drove almost all of the 24 percent new audience growth we experienced over just a few months. It also made existing fans feel involved with the Daily Puppy brand.
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