We have been searching for a way to increase Facebook engagement. The perfect formula for having our pages recognized as valuable and worthy of being listed in the news feed.
Well… I have found it. Or rather… it found me.
I have been on Facebook for a long time and I have seen the algorithm change over and over and over again. My strategy has changed repeatedly in order to battle against this hidden beast who chose to show my page in the news feed… or not.
Hours of my life have been dedicated to watching other pages, detailing what works and what doesn’t. I’ve attended conferences, watched webinars, had hangouts… and still could not find the key to increasing Facebook engagement. I wanted a perfect formula. A magic pill.
Nothing I seemed to do was working and despite having over 11,000 fans, most of my updates were only seen by 150 or LESS. The frustration was so much that I gave up and started automating my blog feed. (And for the record, those automated RSS posts were seen by an average of 49 people.)
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World by Gary Vaynerchuk
Then, one night I was watching an interview with Gary Vaynerchuk and he said something that was like a boom of thunder against the weary recesses of my brain. Lightning flashed and hopes soared as I realized how stupid I had been. How much time I had wasted!
The key to engagement on Facebook is…
SOCIAL media
It’s so simple that you might need to think about it for a minute. I’ll wait…
No lightbulb yet? Okay, let me explain.
Facebook is NOT an RSS delivery service.
Facebook is NOT synthetic.
Facebook is NOT automated.
Facebook is a SOCIAL media outlet. A platform for being SOCIAL.
So, I stopped SHARE-ing with my Facebook followers. I stopped trying to sell them something. I stopped trying to get them to come to my blog. I just stopped almost everything I HAD been doing and went back to what was once fun.
I stopped all of this and started TALKing to them. I greeted my friends and invited them into my life. I only shared what I knew they would LOVE. I got picky with what went on my Facebook feed. I posted less.
Know what happened? After just a few days, my engagement soared!
Give your Facebook fans a KISS
If you want to engage your audience, you must be engaging! But wait… don’t let that word scare you. To be engaging you just need to remember to KISS them.
Keep it simple, Stupid.
[And I mean no offense. We all know how smart you are, but when all of this hit me, that is how I felt. STUPID.]
Get to know them… again. They followed you once because there was something they LIKE-d. What was that?
I don’t follow any specific schedule or strategy. I am just… me… being me… being social. Chatting as I would with people at church or in the supermarket, and it is working.
Drop all the complicated schedules and routines and just be yourself. Ask questions. Share jokes. Post pictures of what you KNOW they like. And… relax.
Since this revelation, realizing how stupid I had been, I have grown to enjoy Facebook again. I love the conversations and relationships I have with my readers. I love getting to know them better and spending time chatting about the small stuff.
Try it and please let me know if it works for you.
I’m always amazed at how much engagement I get from sharing about my everyday life (even when it’s something as crazy as sharing a picture of my dog sitting on a chair next to me as I work at my kitchen table).
My overall blog and Facebook numbers may be small but slow and steady wins the race and I, too, have started to enjoy Facebook more!
I do exactly what you rediscovered and reach is still low. Occasionally fans will ask me to post a product which I do as a behind the scenes. I love facebook because it is social. I reply to every comment and sadly very few people do the same. I can’t see what I can do differently so I’ll keep on doing the same because I love creating my own graphics and talking to people.
While mine hasn’t soared as much as yours, it’s probably because I don’t have the followers you do. LOL BUT…when I started posting fun questions and interacting with them, there was much more involvement. I try to do that throughout the day, but the evenings seem best on my feed. It’s definitely been fun!! Thanks for reminding me I’m not alone in my stupidity! 😉
Great post and tips. You’re so right – interactions work so much better than just bombarding them with info!