What can I do to increase my facebook page interaction levels?
They are just a row of little red numbers at the top of the screen on Facebook – but most of us have felt at least a little buzz when they show us we’re popular. These numbers tell us how many people ‘like’ what we’ve had to say, or how many people have talked back to us on a post or even shared it. For many of us bloggers, these numbers matter.
So, how can we increase them?
This is a question I see bounded about a lot and its a topic I have had a few discussions about lately.
I’m fortunate to have an active community on my page, but I certainly don’t hail myself as the all-singing all-dancing expert of Facebook – although that would be nice. I’m only going to tell you what works for ME in the hope that some of it might work for you too. However all blogs are different and if your blog is on a very different genre or has very different themes to mine, then you could very well disagree with these pointers.
Ok first things first.
- How can I see how many people are being shown my content?
Go to your insights tab and scroll down to your ‘All Posts Published’ table. How does your reach figure compare to the number of people who like your page? The aim is to get as many of your likers to see your post and then some.
Using my stats as an example, I have just under 1.4 k likes on my facebook page and the lowest reach I have received over the last 10 posts is 1.5k. If you are only seeing your reach as a small proportion of the number of your page likes then you might want to reconsider your approach. Or just smile sweetly and carry on as you are – whatever.
So how do you increase your interaction rates?
- Understand how Facebook works. Your content is rated directly by the number of people who like, click, comment and share it. If what you post is being received well, then Facebook will show it to more people and if it’s going down like a lead balloon then they will assume your fans are not interested enough and kill it.
- Be selective with what you post. Share stuff that is, well, shareable – relevant, timely and emotive. Your audience probably doesn’t need to know that you are having fish fingers for dinner. Save your stream of consciousness for twitter and Instagram where your visibility won’t be penalised for what you are posting.
- Don’t feel the need to post regularly. Only post when you have a good piece of content. I usually post a couple of times a week, sometimes I might not post for a whole week. This has no negative impact whatsoever and is much better than posting filler crap that will likely drag your reach down.
- Don’t post the same thing twice. I’ve already seen it once today it’s, um, annoying me!
- Don’t ask for likes in return for competition entries – Why would you want followers who are only there because they wanted to win a prize? It’s highly likely that these compers won’t interact and having a high proportion of likers who don’t interact is basically like shooting yourself on the foot. Go for quality over quantity every time.
- Interact with your community. If people take the time to comment on your page, especially with a witty retort then reply – or at the very least like their comment to show it’s been read. People like to feel appreciated and hopefully it will encourage them to come back and comment again.
- Ask questions. I used to manage the Facebook page of a well know ice-cream brand and all I had to do was ask ‘what flavour ice-cream will you be having tonight?’ and everyone would go flipping crazy. I tend to do this on my page alongside a link to a blog post to see what people think.
- Don’t auto share your posts. Write a bit of compelling copy to entice people to click though and make sure the photo that accompanies it looks good; if the one Facebook pulls in automatically doesn’t work well then edit and upload an alternative.
- Post at the right time. Experiment and see what works for you, but as a parenting blogger I find lunchtime and early evenings are best because that’s when most people have downtime. This is particularly relevant if you are posting links which require time for reading.
- Mix up your content. Yes memes and photos are a good way of getting likes, but they are not the quick win you might be hoping for. Looking at my stats you can see although sharing links does not usually lead to as many likes – the reach is often far higher because the commitment of a click through is considered a deeper engagement.
In short focus on creating good quality, original content that other people will want to read and share. The upshot of this is that your posts will spread further, leading to more organic likes. It might be a slow process at first but the more likes you get the faster they will grow.
There we go. I will also say that I am a geek and I like stats! However if you don’t care about this stuff and are happy just having fun and not worrying about how many people like it, then good for you! As you were.
– Katie Kirby, Hurrah for Gin
[Photo:Shutterstock]
