When crafting a social media strategy, it is important to take into consideration Facebook engagement since it has great potential for a wide organic reach and for your brand to get in front of your potential customers. But with over 200 million businesses using Facebook, making your brand stand out on the platform can be challenging.
I’ve got you covered. Today on the blog, let’s look at the best ways for you to increase your Facebook engagement and leverage it for your business.
Ready? Let’s dive in.
What is Facebook Engagement
Facebook engagement is any action your post gets including likes, comments and shares, and link clicks. It is important to increase your Facebook engagement because the more engagement your page gets, the more Facebook will push your content to the right people.
Note: Facebook tracks engagement at the individual post level and Facebook pages and groups as a whole.
How To Calculate Your Engagement Rate
To know your engagement rate, you can either go to Facebook Page Insights. Insights or you can manually calculate it.
To manually calculate your engagement rate, just divide the total number of likes and comments on a post and divide it by the total page reach and then multiply by 100.
Engagement rate = (Interactions / Audience) x 100
For example, if your post received 15 likes, 5 comments, and 4 shares. If that post reached 1,000 people, your engagement rate would be 2.4%.
For instance: 24/1000 x 100 = 2.4
When it comes to Facebook engagement, you’ll want to aim for at least a 5% engagement rate.
How to Increase Facebook Engagement
1. Create informative, fun, and engaging posts. Avoid being too salesy in your posts, focus on giving value and educating your audience instead. Educational videos and posts will help your brand be recognised as an authority in your niche without coming off as sales pitches. While you’re at it, make your post interesting and fun! to capture one’s attention.
2. Add a Call-to-Action button to your posts. Not only does a CTA button boost your engagement, but it can also generate leads. When you add CTA buttons, you let your audience know the next step and encourage them to take action beyond liking, sharing, or commenting.
Your CTA button can include the following:
- Book an appointment
- Shop your products and offers
- Join your Facebook group.
- Contact you via Facebook messenger
- Sign up for a monthly subscription service
- Watch a video
- Click through to your website
- Visit and join your Facebook group
3. Post consistently and at the right times. Post consistently and when your audience is most active. When you post consistently, your audience comes to expect to see content from you regularly. As you go along you can test how often you should post to get the best response from fans, but I recommend at least two or three times per week and more if you can. Whatever that is, the most important thing is to post consistently—create a schedule and stick to it. You can use Facebook scheduler and other social media schedulers to help you with this.
Aside from posting constantly, it is also important to post when your audience is most active. This way, you’re more likely to see engagement. To find the best times to post, head to your Facebook page and click on “Insights” at the very top, visit the Posts tab, and scroll down to When Your Fans Are Online.
4. Ask genuine questions, opinions, or feedback from your followers. You can ask your followers what kind of content they want to see from you, check their responses, and give them what they want. Post interesting questions to create an active comments thread.
Here are some suggestions:
- How do you [complete this action]?
- Why do you [like this event or brand]?
- Do you agree with [ statement, event, person, etc.]?
- What’s your favourite [fill in the blank]?
- Would you rather [option 1] or [option 2]?
- What do you want to see us launch next?
- What do you want to see more of from us? A. [Option 1] B. [Option 2] C. [Option 3]
- Ask us anything!
While it's okay, to ask a genuine question, or ask your followers for their opinion or feedback. Make sure not to cross the line - don’t ask for comments, like shares with no real thought or consideration.
5. Don't use engagement bait. Engagement bait is an artificial way to increase engagement by urging people to interact with your post to like, share, or comment on your post. Using this tactic will result in you losing your audience's trust and Facebook giving you a penalty by downranking your posts in their algorithm.
As I’ve said earlier, it's okay to ask questions and feedback but don't use react baiting, share baiting, comment baits, vote baiting, and tag baiting. Not only does it make your brand look tacky, but Facebook also doesn't want them and your audience won't appreciate them either.
Note: Some exceptions to this are genuine posts that ask people for help, advice, tips, or recommendations, raising money, or circulating a missing child /person report.
6. Respond to followers. Take the time to respond to your followers' comments and questions and thank them for their interactions. This way, you build relationships with them and encourage them to interact more with your brand.
People appreciate it when there is an actual human behind your brand’s account who sees, appreciates comments, and answers their questions. If they need information, make sure you give them answers and lead them to what they need. If you can’t personally respond to them all the time, have someone on your team to monitor and respond to all comments.
7. Use Facebook Reels. Use Reels to start a challenge, give a behind-the-scenes look at your brand, or educate your audience.
Facebook reels are becoming increasingly popular with over 140 billion reels being played daily across Facebook apps as of October 2022. That’s a great opportunity right there.
When creating reels:
- Make sure your Reels are vertical
- You can even repurpose your Instagram Reels to upload on Facebook
8. Use Facebook Live. Facebook Live videos receive the highest engagement on Facebook, so make sure to include them in your social media strategy. It is also a great way to connect and build trust between you and your audience as you can communicate in real time.
You can use Facebook live to host live Q&As, and live fundraisers, give announcements, behind-the-scenes, tours of the company and making of products, etc.
9. Create Videos. Video posts have higher engagement than photo posts. Your videos do not have to be complicated, start with simple and short videos using your mobile phone.
When creating videos, make sure to:
- Use vertical video - so it is compatible with mobile devices.
- Directly upload your videos on Facebook - Facebook’s algorithm prioritises native videos, of course, they want people to stay on the site, so instead of sharing a video link, directly upload it on Facebook.
10. Use Facebook Stories. With over 300 million people watching Facebook Stories each day, Facebook Stories is an excellent opportunity to connect with your audience and boost engagement. According to this study, 70% of consumers prefer Facebook Stories over Snapchat and Instagram stories.
One way you can use Facebook Stories is to make important announcements, sales, discounts, new products, etc. When creating Facebook stories, make sure to include links to your website or product to encourage your audience to purchase.
Like Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories appear at the very top of the News Feed drawing more attention to your content. since it doesn’t show on your audience’s feed, it won’t be overwhelming when you can post as much as you want. Plus, its raw content nature makes it more personal connecting you more with your audience.
11. Join a trending conversation. Take advantage of a hot topic related to your niche and join the conversation. People want to have meaningful conversations, so don’t just post or comment randomly, make sure that you put thought into your comment or opinions. Joining trending conversations also diversifies your content and helps you reach wider audiences.
13. Repurpose your popular content. Repurpose and repackage your popular/winning posts. If it’s a blog post, turn it into a video (shorts or reel), podcast topic, or vice versa. You can also repost it using a new image and caption. When posting, be sure to spread them out so they won’t look like you’re repeating your posts.
14. Run contests. People can't resist free stuff. Giveaways and contests are a great way to get people excited to engage and follow your Page. But before running a contest, Facebook does have regulations on creating contests so make sure to familiarise yourself with them so you won’t get any penalties.
15. Get your brand verified. Getting your brand verified gives credibility and earns your audience's trust. People want to know who they’re talking to online. When you have a verified badge that shows visitors that the posts are coming from you, it is safe to interact with your posts.
16. Show your human side. People love brands that they can connect and relate to so don't be afraid to show your emotions and vulnerability. You can share your story, your struggles, and success, your values, the story behind your brand, mission, etc. Whatever form of post you choose, make sure to connect with your audience by sharing experiences that they can relate to and be authentic. Authenticity cannot be faked and your audience will also know if you’re being sincere or not.
By using the tips above, you’re on your way to boosting your Facebook engagement and getting your brand in front of your audience.
And if you need help, as an expert business consultant, I can help you create and execute a winning Facebook strategy to increase your Facebook engagement and make your brand stand out.
For more help figuring out how to move forward in this area of business, click here to learn more about scheduling a 90-minute intensive with me.