In late June Facebook announced changes to users’ news feeds, the goal being to show people the stories most relevant to them. Updates from friends are now given more priority over page updates. Here is an excerpt from Facebook’s release “Overall, we anticipate this update may cause reach and referral traffic to decline for some Pages. The specific impact on your Page’s distribution and other metrics may vary depending on the composition of your audience. For example, if a lot of your referral traffic is the result of people sharing your content and their friends liking and commenting on it, there will be less of an impact than if the majority of your traffic comes directly through Page posts. We encourage Pages to post things their audience are likely to share with their friends”.
It is more important than ever to build an active and engaging Facebook page to engage with your online community. These four Petone businesses share their top tips.
ELLEN – ELLEN G
For me it’s not so much about words but instant visual impact. My products are colourful which really helps! I always make sure my images are framed well, are crisp and vibrant. I love the way I can instantly share my Instagram posts on Facebook, this really helps time wise as posting regularly can sometimes be a challenge. I also enjoy reading comments and try to respond as soon as possible. It’s always so nice having customers come to my shop who have seen something they like on my Facebook page. For me it’s the most efficient way to let my customers know about my newest creations! https://www.facebook.com/EllenGiggenbachArt
LESLEY AND BEN – SAPPHIRE CONSULTANTS
Sapphire Consultants has had a Facebook page for a while but we didn’t really utilise it properly, we saw it as more of a social network and then we heard about businesses utilising Facebook. Fortunately I signed up to do a basic business
online course offered by Avelyn from Biz Support Solutions in Petone which taught us how to maximise and use our page effectively. We didn’t know how to promote our services as a training provider on Facebook and wanted to get some help with that. We are still learning but having fun. It has made a distinct difference as we are more aware of what is going on around us and thinking about relevant content for our page. We are also getting out and about more as well.
Our top tips:
- We have fun and enjoy sourcing and putting content on our business Facebook page, we think outside the box but keep it relevant, and aim to invite others to share our story
- We keep an eye on what types of posts are gaining traction and do more of them.
- We capture company or team moments or functions some of it is as it is happening.
- We use Giveaways, photos, occasions, special events e.g. birthdays, seasons, holidays etc to engage people to like and share.
- We use a mix of business promotions spread out through the month with other stories and fun pics, stories to draw attention and extend interest.
www.facebook.com/sapphireconsultantswellington
LESLEY – BABY ON THE MOVE
Top tips for getting engagement through my Facebook page:
• Having a mixture of product info, sales, parenting tips, feel good and funny posts.
• Scheduling posts for early morning or late at night when the traf fic isn’t so heavy but people are scrolling through their news feeds. Mums (or Dads) might be up feeding their babies.
• Boosting posts – this can reach a large number of people. Depending on the post I either set it for ‘people who like my page and their friends’ or my own audience.
• Small giveaways tend to get a great response – people love to win! I try to do a giveaway once a month.
• Ensuring I’m posting regularly but not over the top so people don’t feel like their news feed is cluttered by only my posts.
I often find the most engagement on posts come from information articles e.g. ‘helping your baby sleep’ or funny videos. While this doesn’t necessarily relate directly to an increase in sales, it does increase the brand awareness and the more people that like, comment or share the more well-known I become. So indirectly sales can be increased.
https://www.facebook.com/babyonthemoveLowerHutt
FAY – BUILD A BIRTHDAY
Our top tip for engaging with customers on Facebook is to post interesting content tailored to your customer’s needs. At Build a Birthday we know our target market is predominantly female. Usually they have children or grandchildren, celebrate birthdays or enjoy cake decorating, so we post relevant content, usually with pictures.
When we offer our free school holiday activities, our Facebook engagement figures obviously increase. We can see this on our insight figures in Facebook. We also try to post related content around this e.g. pro file our Finding Dory range, when the Mermaid event is created in Facebook.
If your business is visual, like our party supplies and balloons, consider using Instagram. I post pictures on Instagram and Facebook at the same time (great time saver). I can’t explain why but these pictures seem to get a higher engagement than posted to Facebook alone. Video also receives better engagement and reach than some posts I have boosted (paid advertising).
https://www.facebook.com/buildabirthday
Recent Comments