This is a mistake. As more brands, causes, media producers, groups, acquaintances, friends and family members fight for share of voice on Facebook – you need to work harder to build an audience and keep them meaningfully engaged.
Here are five tips for writing something that is worth reading on this platform:
1. It’s not all about you
While you can certainly use Facebook as a promotional platform, you can’t expect your audience to keep consuming your content if all you do is market your products and services. No-one wants to be on the receiving end of “sell, sell, sell” messaging every time they log into Facebook.
Mix up your messaging to include content that nurtures, interests, entertains and helps your customers. This could be industry news, tips and guidance, or even a campaign that reaches out to your audience and asks them to share their opinions, creative ideas and so forth.
Be sure to also devote some of your time towards answering questions, reacting to interactions and commenting on your fans’ posts in good time – because through all of this, you’re building your brand as one that is interested in its customers.
2. Converse, don’t lecture
As you may have heard, Facebook is making some changes to its Newsfeed algorithm and prioritising posts from family, friends and groups – because this type of content incites conversations and meaningful interactions. This is going to make it more difficult for brands to get their content into customers’ Newsfeeds, but not impossible.
What’s the solution? It’s more important than ever to draw your audience into a dialogue by writing and creating content that is conversational. This means that instead of telling them what you think or how they should live their lives, you need to encourage them to share their thoughts, opinions and personal news, rather than simply clicking ‘Like’ or ‘Share’.
3. Be newsworthy
You may plan your content in advance but be sure to keep space in your schedule for posts that are well-timed and topical. For example, you could relate your post to an issue that is currently making headlines, to the results of a big sporting event or a trend that’s currently shaping popular culture.
4. Don’t waffle
As people are bombarded with more and more content, their attention spans are getting shorter. You need to understand that most people will skim-read over your post title and it needs to be clear, direct and interesting to make them stop and click on the link to read more.
If the wording you use is too vague, people may skim over your post without even noticing it’s something they’re interested in. You want your audience to instantly understand what you’re trying to communicate – without giving everything away in the first few words, of course.
5. Be a grammar nerd
While it makes sense to use a more relaxed, conversational tone when writing social media content, don’t be so laid back that you neglect to check your spelling and grammar. No-one respects a brand that makes typos and punctuation errors. It just ends up looking lazy and unprofessional. Treat your audience as the intelligent, educated people they are – and take a few extra minutes to read through your content before posting. If spelling doesn’t come naturally to you, there are many tools available online that can help.
These are just a few ways that you can optimise your Facebook content. For more advice on marketing messaging and social media strategy, chat to Kri8it. We can help you to reach the right people with the right content at the right time. We’ll also measure the results and find the most cost-effective ways for you to reach your social media marketing goals.