One of the questions that a lot of clients ask me regularly is: What should I be posting on Facebook.
We have got a Facebook profile page but what do we put on it, where do we start?
There are 5 main things you need to take into account when asking yourself these questions:
1. Your posts should be interesting and engaging
In other words they need to grab the readers attention and make them want to interact. You may have heard of the AIDA principles, if not below is a great short video which explains it beautifully.
When planning Facebook posts, this is where you need to start.
Lets face it, in a Facebook news stream there is a lot of ‘noise’ going on. Your job is to make your post resonate with the reader, jump off the page at them and make them take notice! And in some instances – take action.
2. Your posts should be relevant to your target market
When writing your Facebook posts a good place to start is with your customers. What do they want to know? What are the questions you get asked on a regular basis in your business by your customers? Start there, answer frequently asked question in your posts to resonate with your followers and gain trust.
What are the industry related questions you often get asked? Are there any industry updates that you know about that people would rally benefit by knowing? You can add links to these resources and really help people with beneficial information. Think about it, do you quickly forget when people go out of their way to help you?
3. Your posts need to exude your persona to your followers so that they can grow to know you, like you and trust you
Focus on what your client base are interested in as well as occasionally posting about things you are interested in – remember people need to get you know YOU too!
As a general rule, stick to 80/20. 80% of your content focused on them and 20% focused on you.
Give them an insight to who you are. Your passions, your beliefs and what you stand for. Don’t sit on the fence here, you will never be able to please all the people all the time, and if you don’t stand for something, well quite frankly you stand for nothing - and that is not very interesting is it?
Your character is what people are going to remember you buy when they are taking to their friends about you.
4. Engage with people who are interested in what you do by using all the different media available to you
The use of images works really well on Facebook, here are a few tips to get you thinking about how you can use images in your Facebook posts to get people’s attention…
- If you work in a visual industry images work extremely well. Take before and after photos of recent jobs you have done and point out why you stand out in the market place.
- Humour always grabs people’s attention, can you create a series of humorous cartoon pictures that would resonate with your clients and also depict what you do?
- Product images – Facebook is a great place to showcase your products and explain what they do.
- Special offers and competitions. People love a good deal, so if you have one post it out there! Competitions are a great way to engage people and to grow your following.
- Video – Video is extremely engaging and the most likely piece of content to be shared. Think about how you can use video in your business. Here are some examples of good ways to use videos:
- The product unveil
- The FAQ and Answer video
- The 'how-to' video
- The tour of the premises video
- 'Screencast' of a powerpoint presentation or website
- The 'talking head' video
5. And finally be active and engaged yourself!
(This is the one that most people miss out.)
If people see that you are interacting regularly they will know that you are active, and available to answer any of their comments. When you do receive comments and likes on your posts, reply to them! This is your opportunity to start to form a relationship with that person. They are engaging with you and they will at the very least expect acknowledgement.
If you go out of your way to post, comment, compliment and answer people’s questions, you will most certainly stand out from the crowd and establish yourself as a trusted source that people will be happy to recommend.
After all, people buy people. Facebook is not just a platform for you to promote and ‘sell your stuff’. When used correctly Facebook is a powerful tool used to create and build long lasting relationships with people and companies and as a result of that you certainly will be able to ‘sell your stuff’.
In summary and to answer that elusive question of where do I start with Facebook posting:
Focus on what your client base are interested in as well as occasionally posting about you and the things that you find interesting – remember people need to get you know YOU too!
Make it interesting by using photos, video, humour, questions, competitions, special offers etc.
Most importantly give it some thought, plan what you would like to say and how you will be saying it and monitor what is working well for you.
