As many social media platforms continue to flourish, Facebook seems to have an edge in terms of the sheer volume of users and content that is posted each day. While people often get carried away believing that any content they post is likely to reach a large audience since it is on “the Facebook”, the goal of a marketer should be to reach existing customers that are valuable and potential customers that are likely to be interested. It is better to have high engagement within a small group, than to have no interactions with a mass of people.
Here are some strategies we use at Gata Labs to help us engage customers on Facebook.
1. The shorter the better.
Studies mentioned in this blog show that Facebook posts with 80 characters or less will receive 66% higher interaction rates, and ones that are 40 characters or less will have an 85% higher engagement rate.
2. Post content that humanizes your business.
This includes pictures of your staff, interesting news that your business supports, and links to blog posts that align with the interests of your audience.
3. Pictures & videos work.
A recent study by Mashable indicated that 39% of men and 54% of women visit Facebook to see photos and videos. A picture can immediately attract the eyes of a user, and it automatically makes content more engaging as a user scrolls through a plethora of content.
4. Be quick to respond & witty where possible.
When you receive comments on your posts, be sure to respond quickly and try to drive an emotional reaction from your audience. This will make you memorable and increase the likelihood of your post being shared among friends and peers. The goal is to create a natural, genuine conversation with your audience.
5. Promote a benefit, not a product.
Facebook users are not browsing their News Feed to search for information about your company. As such, to engage a user, you need to explain the benefit of your product or service. For example, here at Gata Labs, we like to say “Get a cab faster” or “Order a taxi with a simple click”, something that may not be at the top of the user’s mind but sympathizes with problems they face and promotes a benefit of our service.
6. Use warm colours.
Specifically, we recommend using colours such as red, orange, yellow or green, as they contrast and pop out from Facebook’s cool blue and white interface. Warmer colours tend to evoke feelings of happiness and energy, qualities that users will then associate with your business. Gata Labs’ theme colour of orange tends to be a great option for us when we want something to pop.
7. Leverage Facebook’s power features.
Facebook has a number of available features that can help you engage your audience and we would like to highlight a few useful ones below. First off, you can customize your business’ page by adding a Call to Action (“CTA”) button that allows the user to be prompted to complete an action when on your page. For example, on the Gata Labs page, we have added a “Use App” CTA that prompts the user to download our mobile app, Gata Hub. A second useful tool is the Lookalike Audience feature that allows you to use your existing Facebook followers, or input a database of email address/phone numbers, and Facebook will use its algorithm to find similar users based on properties such as age, gender, location, and interests.
The above are some ways that we engage our Facebook users. We would love to hear more about some of the ways that you as a business engage your customers, or ways that other businesses have engaged you as a customer.