Take a couple seconds and do a quick, but very valuable, math problem right now. Look on your business Facebook timeline and right below the cover photo, you will see two numbers – your total page “likes” and right next to it, “talking about this.”
Now do this math:
Most social media managers will tell you the engagement metric should be at least 6 percent in order for your Facebook page to be minimally effective. In my experience, your engagement metric needs to be at least 10 percent to generate significant results, and the higher it goes the better.
It is very do-able to get your engagement metric up to 20 percent, 30 percent and even 50 percent. Of course, the higher the engagement, the more ROI you can generate from your Facebook page.
If your engagement metric is low, you’re probably doing most of the following:
You’re not posting often enough. Make sure you are posting once or twice a day. Even on weekends and holidays!
You are posting “advertisements” for your business too much. Social media is about being social, not being a commercial. When you promote your services too much, you are not interesting to your audience. Your audience wants to engage with interesting pages. Don’t underestimate the value of sharing advice, humor, positive thoughts and education — you are making significant impressions on your audience when you are genuinely social.
You are not taking the time to become keenly aware of what your audience is interested in. Your posts must be compelling to your audience. To begin to get a sense of what is compelling to your audience, ask yourself questions like, “Who is my target customer?” “Where do they live?” “How old are they?” “What do they like to do?” “What really matters to my audience?” “If I were in my customers’ shoes, what types of posts would be interesting to me?”
Your posts are too long. A few words or a sentence or two is the most you need to post at a time.
You do not have a strategy for post variety. I collaborate with my clients to brainstorm a wide variety of posts so their Facebook “conversations” never get boring. We then create a calendar that helps them stay organized with what kinds of posts are needed and when they need to occur. Your variety can include education, fun, humor, links, pop-culture, quotes, advertisements, etc.
Once you master these basic engagement rules, you can go on to the next levels of engagement strategies, which will start to generate some awesome results for you!
Contact me at sarah@blbusinessconsulting.com or message me at www.facebook.com/socialmediasarah to find out how I can help you bring more customers to your business through social media!
Sarah Barrett is a communications expert for business leaders. She has ghost-written articles, blogs, presentations, curriculum, health programs and an e-book for many clients including two NY Times best-selling authors, medical doctors, various business, health and fitness leaders, and internationally renowned fitness brands. Sarah blogs and writes as herself under the brand Social Media Sarah.
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
