It is impossible to imagine our daily lives without Facebook. Not only as an entrepreneur but also as an individual, you probably spend a lot of time on Facebook. You see so many different posts every day, and you see so many things go viral. But how do you make sure that your Facebook page will be profitable?
When it comes to Facebook, content is the key to success. However, that does not mean you should post everything that pops into your head. As with all social media platforms, Facebook has certain rules when it comes to content, and not everything catches the public eye.
In addition, you can do much more than just post your blog articles and occasionally put a link to your sales page.
So, let’s come up with a plan for success! How can you create good content for Facebook? You can read it below!
What type of content can you post on Facebook?
Quotes, use short and catchy quotes, and make sure they are relevant to your audience. If you lack some inspiration, I have written a very useful article where you can find lots of inspiration for quotes. You can read the article here.
Milestones, to celebrate milestones of your company, brand, or fan page. For example, when you have achieved a (for you) impressive number of page likes. This is something you see a lot on the pages of large and well-known companies.
Play a game, such as “find the differences” or “guess the picture.” This may sound very simple, and it is, but people are usually on Facebook to be entertained. By keeping the game simple, people automatically think of the answer, and it lowers the step to place a comment.
Jump on trending topics, for example, for the holidays, seasons, or current events. Will the weather be great tomorrow? Ask your fans if they think it’s time for a barbecue again. Is the train delayed again? Incorporate this in a fun image. However, don’t post it too often; you don’t want it to overshadow the valuable content.
Facts, every now and then, you should give your fans a fact about your company, brand, or product. This way, your audience can get to know you and your company a bit better.
Ask questions, the best way to get an answer is to ask a question. This can be a serious question regarding your company or product but also a casual question like “Summer is coming. Have you booked your holiday yet?”
Facebook survey, is super useful if you want to do short market research. Just ask what you want to know.
Fill in the blanks, is a good way to start a conversation or discussion with your fans and potential customers. For example, as a coach, you could say: If I help you for free for a day,___.
Fan posts, do your fans often send you funny stories or pictures? Reward them for their dedication or post a message from your fans once in a while.
Contests. Contests are fun, but they can also be a little cheesy. So, don’t come across as too desperate, and make sure your contest really provides value. Don’t give something away just for the likes (which you want, of course), but approach it as giving away a piece of value to your (potential) customer. In addition, it is important to always give away a relevant prize. This way, you reach relevant fans and not just people who compete for the prize.
Give the like button a different meaning, instead of waiting for the likes to flow in, you can also take action. For example: ‘Are you always so unproductive on Monday mornings? Click on like!’ Or: ‘If this article is valuable to you, and it may have given you some new insight and inspiration, will you click the like button?’
True or false, this is a fun way to create content that can also spark discussion. Use a not too controversial fact from your industry and ask a true or false question.
What should you pay attention to when you post content on Facebook?
Keep your posts short, people often don’t come to Facebook to read a book. It has also been proven that posts with short text perform better. That’s why make sure your content is (mostly) short and to the point.
Vary your content, and don’t just post fun images every day. Your fans also want to see that you put time into them and think about their needs. Make sure to alternate between different types of content.
Images, if there is one thing that works great on Facebook, it is image. We, as humans, are very visual. Keep your images clean and make sure the sharpness and quality of the image are good.
The tone of voice, know your target audience, research how they communicate, and adjust your tone of voice accordingly. For example, a target group with young people doesn’t need to be addressed formally.
Full links, there was also research done on this, and what turns out? Placing the full link (to a specific page on your website, for example) in your content works much better than a shortened link.
A nice design, if you place many images, make sure you keep a certain style. Use a few fixed colors and fonts. And don’t forget your logo!
How do I create engaging content on Facebook?
Be relevant, make sure you post content that fits your target audience and is interesting to them.
Play into the emotion, we are all human behind the computer, on our tablet or phone. Business to business does not exist on social media. Therefore, play into the ‘I have that / I know that feeling’ of people.
Identify yourself, make sure you speak the same language as your fans. Be human and honest to build trust with your audience.
Love your fans, respond to their questions. Personal attention is one of the keys to success. Give them lots of love and put them in the spotlight from time to time.
How can you create great Facebook content?
Look at your examples, you probably know a few (famous) people who perform well on Facebook; pay attention to what they post and how they interact with their fans. It is the perfect place to get inspiration from!
Always check if your content is Entertaining, Educational, or Inspiring as you should post with a purpose. Before you post anything on Facebook, think if it is entertaining enough, if your fans can learn from it, or if it can inspire them.
Canva, can be used for creating images in any format. Canva is bursting with possibilities and helps you to create posters, cover photos, cards, and images for your website; easily and fast. Another great thing about this tool is that you can also create pdf files!
Picmonkey, is my favorite picture editing program. With Picmonkey, you can create cover pictures, collages, and images for your posts. You can import your own pictures and add text. It is a very nice platform to work with.
Pixabay, you can use for free high-quality images which are exempt from copyrights. You can download them, modify them, and use them for whatever purpose you like, even in commercial applications.
iMovie, is a very useful application to turn pictures into a real movie, including accompanying music. Choose a theme, add your images, edit them, find the right music, and your movie is ready!
Moviemaker, is the Windows version that allows you to make the greatest videos. Just download the application, and you can get started immediately. I would really recommend this because videos perform very well on Facebook.
How and when are you going to post the content on Facebook?
Content calendar, is very useful for keeping an overview. Think in advance about what kind of content you want to post and when. You can use your content calendar to see when you have to work something out and when you have to schedule it.
Experiment with time, because not everyone is on Facebook at the same time. Test when your fans are online by posting your content at different times until you find the right one. For example, this could be at 13:00 and 20:00.
Scheduling in Facebook, will save you a lot of logging in each day if you start scheduling your Facebook posts based on your content calendar. This can vary between weeks and months, but this way you’ll always have some time to write new content or do important work in between.
Post regularly, which is why it’s so important to know the right times to post. Posting once a week won’t give you the results. With the amount of daily activity on Facebook, your page would disappear into thin air. You don’t have to go all-in right away either, but see if you can post something 1-3 times a day.
A few more tips for your content on Facebook…
Boost your content, for a few euros, you can already increase your reach by a lot. And I think the intention was to attract more (potential) customers through your Facebook content, right?
Focus on value, not on likes. It is nice if you have many likes on your Facebook page, but they are still not worth any money. They won’t give you an income. So, focus on the value of your content because that does bring in new customers.
Keep the text on images within the 20% margin, if you want to advertise with the image. Facebook checks this margin, so the chances are that if you are over 20%, your ad will get less reach. You can measure this with the Grid tool.
Also promote your other channels, do you have a YouTube channel? Or have you just created a fun Pinterest board? Do a cross-over and promote your other channels on Facebook. This way, you will also have some nice posts for your content calendar.
Reuse your content. An article you wrote a year ago (provided it is still relevant) can easily be re-purposed and posted as new content on Facebook.
Give tips. Are you a personal trainer? Give your fans a tip for a good exercise every now and then. Are you a real estate agent? How about a tip for buying a house? This is going to add a lot of value for your fans.
Give your images text, when you post an image, don’t just put the text above the image but also in the description when you click on the image. When an image is shared a lot the accompanying text often disappears over time. Putting it in the description will keep your important content attached to your image forever.
Make sure you target the right audience, you should know not only who your fans are but also where to find them. This is crucial to making a Facebook ad for your post successful.
Repost your winning posts, this is very simple but very effective. Do you have a post that is performing well? Just post it again! This way, people who are new to your page can also find your best content right away.
Make sure you have a catchy cover picture, that is not only nice but also functional. Also, give your cover picture a text description and use it for a call-to-action. After all, this is the first content that the visitors to your page see.
Post videos on Facebook. Videos get the most attention and reach.
Hang in there, don’t expect your likes to suddenly skyrocket. The strategy is to keep posting consistently and give value to your fans. It may take a few months, but hard work always pays off!
And a few things that you absolutely shouldn’t do…
Hashtags, don’t put a sea of hashtags under every image. This is not really appreciated on Facebook, nor is it of any use. It’s better to save it for Instagram or Twitter.
Make sure you don’t post too little. No matter how good your content is, if you don’t post often, you will still be overlooked. You should post at least once a day (preferably more).
Posting only contests or quotes, are the simplest forms of content, and they are also very nice, but make sure they do not take over on your page. At the end of the day, it’s all about relevance and adding value for your customers and audience. Make sure to alternate your content.
Repost too much from your other channels. Keep Facebook for Facebook, and make sure not to post all of your Twitter posts as well. People will quickly think that maybe you are too lazy to come up with something. And if people really become fans of you, they will look for you on Twitter too!
So many tips, and so little time! Make sure you start working on them step by step and don’t do everything at once. We call that building your business!
I’m very curious: which tip are you going to apply first?
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