It’s difficult to run a Facebook business page these days—or at least an active one.
Organic reach has been dropping steadily for several years, and Facebook is continually altering its algorithm to place more emphasis—and show more users—content from their friends, family and outer circle. That’s understandable, given that it was created to be a social platform, but it makes things difficult for marketers.
Still, engagement on your page is important. It shows you are a personable business, you care about the people who frequent your shop or use your services and the additional engagement will help increase your SEO rankings.
What are some good ways to increase interaction on your business page? Here’s a quick refresher course.
Ask questions. Questions, whether we like to admit it or not, cause us to pause. It is human nature to want to respond to things posed of us, whether through an instinctive desire to help people out, to show how witty we may be or just to show off our knowledge. There are some rules about asking questions, however. Don’t:
- Ask loaded questions that are obviously designed around your products, lead to a special discount or refer to your business.
- Ask political questions. There’s another facet of human nature that’s becoming more and more clear these days: politics makes us angry. No matter how innocent your intent, you will probably upset half your customer base or be fending off boycotts before you know it.
- Ask ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions. They limit engagement. Likewise, avoid ‘true or false’ questions unless you can come back with some interesting data or engaging comment.
Keep your questions open, timely and light-hearted.
Spur their creativity. There are many quick ways to do this, through several different types of ‘ask’ posts. Find an engaging or goofy picture and ask for a caption. Create a fill-in-the-blank sentence around an upcoming holiday or season.
Survey them about your business, an upcoming special or something fun. “Would you rather” posts can be engaging, as long as you keep them family-friendly. Likewise, you can solicit feedback on a new logo, what type of seasonal discount or special product to offer, or more. That type of engagement will help your customers feel like they’re part of your business decisions—not just a name on a receipt.
Those are some of our ideas. What are yours? Let us know in the comments!