Facebook Best Practices

Facebook Thumbs UpFacebook is by far the most popular social network, and it’s just that — social. If you treat Facebook like a social environment, you’ll get more out of it than if you’re all business. Have some fun with it, and follow these tips to help you become more engaging.

  • Develop a strategy. Who will be communicating with your audience? How often? Guidelines, roles, and responsibilities should be developed before engaging your audience.
  • Be Human. Be Authentic. In order to effectively engage your audience, you must remember that communication is 50% listening. If you treat your Facebook conversations the same way you treat your face-to-face conversations, you will help to ensure your page will develop a loyal following.
  • Build trust. Reply to people by name. Respond to questions and comments. Speak in the first person. Try not to sound “sales pitchy”, nobody wants to feel like they’re being harassed.
  • Make your page visually appealing. Your profile photo is your first impression. Using photos and images often on your page not only makes it more visually appealing but also more likely to be shared. You can also use the Highlight/Star feature to highlight a post on your page and make it more prominent. When you Highlight/Star a post, it makes the post widescreen and makes any images in the post appear larger.
  • Define your audience. Think about who you are talking to and what might interest them. Remember that Facebook is a tool for communicating, not broadcasting. Asking questions, polling, and posting photos and videos are all great ways to engage your audience and gauge their interests.
  • Create great content. Once you familiarize yourself with your audience, you will be ready to produce content. Great content should be one or more of the following: informative, entertaining, useful and shareable. You can use Facebook Page Insights to track what types of content resonates best with your audience.
  • Exercise self control. Don’t ask too often for likes from other users, and don’t overuse hashtags in your posts. Be interesting and conversational — people will be more inclined to engage with you.
  • Status updateSchedule posts. You can’t be on Facebook 24/7, so take advantage of the scheduling feature if you manage a Facebook Page. Facebook allows you to schedule posts at specific times so you can catch your audience in the evenings and on weekends, even holidays! You can schedule a post up to 6 months in advance in 10 minute intervals.