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Have you ever had the courage to check your engagement rate on your Facebook posts? I bet that after Facebook changed its algorithm, you, like many other small businesses are in panic mode after this change has affected the organic activity of business pages. After all, this means that less people are seeing posts from pages in an organic way (not paid).
But does this mean Facebook marketing is no longer a viable alternative?
Not really. Studies show that Facebook is still the most popular social channel. A survey by Buffer (The State of Social Survey 2019) indicates that 93.7 percent of businesses use and are currently active on Facebook — the most among any other social media network.
Take this opportunity to rethink your Facebook strategy
If you are a brand whose audience is using Facebook, then this is a great opportunity to adjust your strategy and switch the focus from selling to entertaining.
This has always been true, but it’s becoming ever more practical as competition increases on social, and as users become a lot more discerning with how they use their time. Good storytelling (and entertainment) brings engagement. Obviously, this is a skill that comes over time, and for many brands changing the strategy can actually feel counter-intuitive: I need Facebook to sell, but I’m not using it to sell? No, you’re using Facebook to build a relationship.
Think about why people come to Facebook. Is it really to be pitched every single step of the way? It’s to be entertained. So are you entertaining your audience?
The graph above is the result of a study by Quintly showing the growth of using reactions such as wow, haha, ove and angry on Facebook over two years. These reactions are expressions of emotions, moods, feelings people have in relation to Facebook posts. These are also benchmarks for how engaging your content is, next to comments and shares.
Love and haha made up 81 percent of the total Facebook video reactions in 2018 (likes not included in the data set, source). These reaction emojis indicate that people want to interact with content that is inspirational, funny, or a mix of both. Another good content category to take into account for your Facebook posts would be something that is practical.
Buffer released an official top 10 Facebook posts of 2018. If you look at it you can see how the various 3 content categories are displayed here.
10. “An amazing moment in African enterprise history” – Strive Masiyiwa
9. “Hero Boy Saves Chicken” – Life Changing Videos
8. “When your dogs smells another dog on you” – Funny in Public
7. “Tianmen Mountain, China” – Inspire Uplift
6. “Common Dental Procedures” – Science Nature Page
5. “Wow” – Penoy Rap Radio
4. “Before You Take Someone For Granted Watch This” – Jay Shetty
3. “Scalloped Potato Roll” – BuzzFeed Tasty
2. “7 Super easy ways to keep your food fresher, longer!” – So Yummy
1. “Before You Feel Pressure Watch This” – Jay Shetty
How do you know your content creates engagement?
One way to figure out how entertaining your content is on Facebook is by looking at your post Engagement Rate. This is calculated as the number of Engaged Users divided by the total reach of that post. Multiply the whole thing by 100 to turn it into a percentage.
Engagements on Facebook include reactions, shares, comments, and some clicks on links, videos and images.
The printscreen below is from my DIY page Fata cu Flori de Hârtie. For 3 months last year I published content every single day, a mix of live content, stories, in progress pics, prerecorded videos (with focus on inspirational and practical content). I dropped the sales pitch to less than 1x per week, as my focus switched to building a brand and a community. So objectives have been increasing reach and engagement, rather than website clicks or DM.
Fast forward half a year later, and my posts are still getting insane engagement even though I no longer post daily and I haven’t went live in a couple of months. I do keep a focus on inspirational and practical content, and I am still blown away by the engagement rate on my posts. This is the power of building a community that is inspired and entertained by what you do.
Obviously the engagement rate per post varies across countries, audiences, industries, types of content etc. But anything above 5% is something to be proud of, especially when it is all organic performance and you have a small audience.
So, what’s your engagement rate per post?
Go to your page’s insights, click posts, and select engagement rate from the right drop down menu.
Think about what you’ve done lately to increase your organic reach and your post engagement. This would be a good time to evaluate what you’ve been doing and what you could be doing going forward on Facebook.
Look at your target audience (client, market), research what they want to see and experience on Facebook and use this information to optimize your Facebook strategy, copy, ads, community engagement tactics etc.
If you want to learn more about growing organic visibility on Facebook in 2019, I am sharing three tactics right here.
Books to Learn more about facebook marketing
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The Complete Guide to Facebook Advertising by Brian Meet
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Give: The Ultimate Guide To Using Facebook Advertising to Generate More Leads, More Clients, and Massive ROI by Nicholas Kusmich
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Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising: How to Access 1 Billion Potential Customers in 10 Minutes (Ultimate Series) by Perry Marshall
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Facebook Marketing: A Step by Step Guide to Guaranteed Results (Facebook, Facebook Advertising, Facebook Ads) by Greg Brooks
Need help figuring out your visibility strategy?
Hello go-getter. It’s great to have you here. I love working with business owners and marketing professionals who are ready to take their brands to a whole new level of growth. I am a visibility and marketing coach who helps entrepreneurs & leaders grow their businesses with powerful visibility strategies and personal growth. I have over 10 yrs experience working in international markets, both with B2B and B2C audiences.
Contact me here and lets see how we can work together to create a tailored marketing strategy that serves your audience and helps you increase revenue.
Hi there! My name is Monica Badiu. I am a mom, a paper artist, an entrepreneur and marketing coach.
