Facebook is still the dominant force in social media, especially when it comes to news related topics. With more young to middle aged adults using this social network, it still grows despite consistent competition from other social sites.
Representation on Facebook’s news feed is a great way to gain coverage for your brand. The only issue is how to get your voice out there with billions of other users constantly posting updates that compete with yours?
Here’s how to use Facebook’s news feed to make the right waves.
Knowing the Importance of Your Content
Relevant content must be promoted with the right words to persuade your audience to take action on it. Facebook has changed its algorithm from a chronological feed to one that displays content based off its perceived importance in your life.
When Facebook knows your audience, they will put the information that’s most important to them in the forefront of their newsfeed. Moshe Blank (software engineer) and Jie Xu (research scientist) of Facebook found that, “The time people spend reading or watching content they clicked on from News Feed is an important signal that the story was interesting to them.” These metrics reflect those collected and displayed on Google Analytics with regards to time on site/time on page.
Ever conscious of this simple fact, brands must tailor-make posts aimed at specific demographics. It’s not enough to try to generally appeal to all of your followers—try to focus on specific subsections with each piece of content that you create.
It’s all about finding out what keeps them sticking around long enough to watch a video, or share an image. Create something appealing from the start that entices them to click and stay there. Taking a deep dive into Facebook Insights data can provide you with the ammo you need to create content that gets acted on by your target audience.
Diversify Your Content
People get busy during the day and may miss your content when you initially post it. Your followers might only have time to take a quick peek at their news feed during the morning, lunch, and evening. During the course of the day, one piece of content quickly gets old and the rest of the Facebook world overrides its with new and exciting things.
People don’t want to keep reading the same things on social media, and newsworthy topics turn over fast. One way to keep content interesting without creating a lot of extra work is by repurposing your content. On a network like Facebook, you can break down already existing long-form content into noteworthy quotes or share worthy stats.
Not only does repurposing your content get more attention on the news feed, but you can also use it as a tactic for making primarily text-focused more visually appealing. 65% of people consider themselves visual learners. Repurpose some of your content into an infographic, a video, or a topic for a Facebook Live video.
People pay 3x as much attention on Facebook Live as with other Facebook content. Facebook Live videos are ranked by the amount of people that watched the footage, how long they watched, and the resulting engagement. During a keynote interview at Mobile World Congress in 2016, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, showed his support of live video by saying, “It’s a way for people to have a more authentic and intimate experience sharing about their lives.”
It doesn’t necessarily matter if a video is shorter or longer, but rather on how people receive it. If someone watches most of it or ideally the whole thing, then it’ll be ranked higher on the news feed. Use this general advice as a guide to determine what kind of short or long-form videos really take off on your feed.
Encourage Your Audience to Engage
Your posts are not going to be fresh all of the time. They’ll fall off the feed organically because they’re competing with content from followers’ friends, family members, celebrities, and other businesses (like a certain Chicago digital marketing agency).
Try inspiring engagement by asking a question you know that followers can’t help but chime in on. Polls are also an easy way to spark engagement and keep it going as the post starts to age. While your post might not be as new as some more recently published content, the shares, comments, and likes will continue to rack up and breathe life in the content. Make sure that your brand also participates in the discussion and shares representative thoughts.
From time to time, don’t be afraid to share something personal or even a bit outlandish. Like Neil Patel says, “People love transparency.” When you get real about something or come from a human perspective, people can’t help but be drawn in, because you’re creating a bond much deeper than a transaction.
The news feed continues to evolve with time. It’s important that you have an array of content, an intimate knowledge of your audience, and consistently engage with the right messages in order to gain their favor.
Need some tips to help you reach more people on your news feed? Get in touch with Chicago digital marketing agency, Mabbly for details.
