From Buffer:
Engagement on Facebook Pages has fallen by 70 percent since the start of 2017, according to BuzzSumo who analyzed over 880 million Facebook posts by brands and publishers.
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But we feel there are ways we can combat this organic reach decline on Facebook and we’d love to share some strategies with you.
In this post, we’ll share 14 straightforward ways to increase your Facebook Page engagement — many of which are proven and have worked for us.
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Here are the 14 tactics you can try today to increase your Facebook Page engagement:
- Post less
- Post when your fans are online
- Create specifically for Facebook
- Try videos
- Go live
- Share curated content
- Ask for opinions
- Boost your top posts
- Recycle your top posts
- Watch other Facebook Pages
- Experiment with new content
- Reply comments
- Host giveaways (occasionally)
- Create a linked Facebook Group
Let’s dive in!
1. Post less
Posting less grew our reach and engagement by three times.
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focus on quality instead of quantity.
We were able to share the best content every day when we post only once or twice a day. When we were posting four to five times a day, we struggled to consistently find so much great content to share.
If you are a solo social media manager or a small business owner who handles your own social media, you might have experienced this before. Finding great content takes time, and you don’t always have the time to do that.
. . . .
5. Go live
Facebook has also been pushing their Live videos a lot in this past year.
They tweaked their algorithm to rank live videos higher when they are live than when they are no longer live. Facebook reported that “People spend more than 3x more time watching a Facebook Live video on average compared to a video that’s no longer live” and “people comment more than 10 times more on Facebook Live videos than on regular videos”.
Link to the rest at Buffer
I find my Facebook author page useful, in a limited way. To me, it’s about communicating with readers (some of whom know me personally) rather than hitting them over the head with a sales pitch.
I do get a fair amount of engagement, likes, etc. My approach is: I only post when I have something to say, I respond to every comment, I write every post myself and put it up live (same with Twitter), and I don’t indulge in gimmicks like asking questions unless I really want the answers.
It’ll never make me rich. But it’s a way to interact with readers that authors never had before to the same extent. Those who hate doing Facebook, shouldn’t.
By engagement, they probably mean comments. So many people are visiting FB via mobile that the same effect is probably seen as on blogs: far fewer comments, because the process is slower on a phone, it has a tiny screen, and the keyboard is usually virtual and slow.
They read – they just don’t comment. It’s the mechanics.
Engagement (on Facebook, at least) is measured by more than just comments. It also factors in clicks, likes, and reactions.
I have friends, and I may have one day have a lot of readers. I do not wish to engage with any possible readers on FB. They may find my pen name account, but I’ve pretty much abandoned it and don’t engage with anyone on it. My real-name account is reserved for keeping up with friends and my immediate family–when I feel lik visiting it.
I’m far easier for any readers to engage with on Twitter.