Facebook is a great tool you can use to grow your business, however, many people are now reporting that engagement numbers have been dropping off recently. Now the problem is how to increase engagement so you can build your brand awareness and that is what the topic of this post will be about.
Whilst Facebook engagement has dropped off there are ways that you can increase it without spending a fortune. This post will be particularly useful to businesses that don’t have large advertising budgets or simply don’t want to spend money to use Facebook to grow their business.
Below are 10 ways you can increase your Facebook user engagement and the best part is none of them will cost you any money.
Promoting Your Image Is Everything
When it comes to building brand awareness your image is arguably everything you’ve got. It communicates everything important about your business and if you want to build your brand then you need to be proactive about it. One way you can increase engagement, particularly if you are in the food industry is to post images of decadent foods, etc. Also, running contests is a surefire way to increase engagement. If you do run contests just make sure you do so via all social engagement channels so you get the best results.
Repurpose Viral Content
One thing you should absolutely be doing is aligning your content with viral trends. What does this mean? It means searching for content that has gone viral using platforms like Reddit, YouTube, even Google searches. Once you’ve found content that has gone viral you can repurpose it and spread it throughout your community. This is a great way to produce content that is going to be a hit with your audience.
Post Content that Engages with Your Audience
This sounds incredibly obvious but it’s so important. If you post content that doesn’t engage with your audience then how can you expect anyone to engage with it? If you post great content people will engage with it, interact and share it. If you follow the advice from the previous point mentioned above regarding viral content then you’ll go a long way to producing content that will engage your audience.
Listen to what Your Audience Wants and Give it to Them
Something businesses can struggle with is making their Facebook posts too much about only their brand. This is an easy mistake to make but one you need to be aware of so you don’t alienate or lose any followers. The most important thing with social media isn’t necessarily making direct sales but making an impression and engaging with your audience.
Post Interesting Photos
Positive photos with a quote are one of the best ways to increase engagement. In fact, these kinds of photos have been found to cause an increase in engagement by up to 39% over any other kind of photos. Ultimately, it depends on the time of day you post and the demographics of your audience but these photos are something you should keep in mind if you want to increase engagement.
Form Relationships with People in Your Industry
One of the most effective ways to increase engagement is to seek out people in your industry. If you are in the health industry then why not seek out others in that industry and form a relationship with them? If you can work out some mutually beneficial relationship then they may just be happy to help share your content with their audience, which is great for you. However, make sure you focus on providing genuine value.
Work with Others in Complimentary Industries for Traffic Sharing
Partner up with people in complimentary industries. This is a great way to share traffic with others in a similar niche with similar demographics. If you can form relationships with people in complimentary industries then this is just one extra audience that you are able to tap into and it’s a great way to extend your influence.
Be Someone Worth Following
If you want people to engage with your content then post content that is either informative or entertaining, in other words; be someone who is worth listening to. If you are in a niche that is competitive or saturated then find a way to add something different to your content. You might not think there are ways to make yourself stand out but there is and personality is one of the most effective ways to make your brand stand out amongst the noise.
Hosting Giveaways
Host creative or service based giveaways on things like photos or a new promotion your business is running. This will increase user engagement because people like to be incentivised by a brand or event. People will always respond to free stuff or any other great deal that benefits them. The most important thing you can do is ask a question in order to get access to something you’re selling or a giveaway of some sort.
Focus On Providing Value
Providing value is something you should always be doing with the content you create and post. You should focus on providing value by doing things like producing interesting and entertaining content, discounts, giveaways, etc. As long as you help your followers in some way you will be able to produce great content that provides value and this should always be your focus.
Summary
So there you have it. Ten simple ways that you can increase your Facebook user engagement that won’t cost you a dime. Facebook is a great way that you can build your brand awareness and you can do it without spending a fortune on advertising. If you are consistent with these ten methods then you will find that your user engagement will increase and you will develop your brand awareness.
Click over to our social media agency services page and see how we can help to develop your social media strategy.
How do you find using Facebook to develop your brand awareness? Have you had any success using these methods in the past to increase user engagement?
Christian Michaels