The Perfect Facebook Post. Yes It Exist, And You Must Type It.
Social media is turning into a mess of redundancy, for some reason businesses will craft a post they think is great and continue to post it to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Stop. Just stop right there!
These are three very different mediums, and each carry their own rules of “best practices” with their individualized target groups. Let’s focus on what makes the most appropriate Facebook post, and what propels it to be successful.
ONE: On average post that are between 80-200 words get about twice the engagements are the longer or shorter counterparts! It is important that post be free of grammatical errors as trolls love to leverage typos to create negative conversation. Also make sure that you do not post long URL’s in post, it is distracting and outdated. Take two seconds and run it through a bit.ly this also enables an added bonus as you can track the number of clicks-throughs on the link!
Post with photos or graphics should limit their text length to 40 characters. This way the content is tied to the business, but not too distracting from the visual communication.
TWO: Create visually appealing post. Photos used to generate a lot of organic traffic to your Facebook page but administration has since cut down. However original native videos are promoted on Facebook, this means you can get added exposure for free just from uploading your videos directly to Facebook. Posting links from YouTube does not have the same effect, so consider where you upload content.
THREE: Timing can be tricky and it really depends on who you are trying to reach. But it is suggested to be sure to post on weekends and after work hours, obviously because that is when people are relaxing at home after work and their boss is not staring at the monitor to ensure their productivity. Hubspot claims posts published on Sundays get 25% more Likes, shares, and comments than Wednesday posts. Carefully track and take notice of when you are posting, and answer the question of how much and what kind of engagement are you garnishing. Experiment.
News Feed Image: 1200 x 1200 px (actually uploads to 504 px, but this maintains a quality display)
Shared Link Preview: 1200 x 628 px (actually uploads as 484 x 252 px, but same quality concept)
Shared Video Preview: 504 x 283 px
FIVE: With it being social media, consider the 80/20 rule. Be social and relatable 80% of the time, this can include posting homer, helpful hints, relatable bummers, or just beautiful photographs. These are not random post, stay focused and make sure it somehow relates to the category of your business and is relatable to your target market. The other 20% of the time is when you sell, and you can disguise it somewhat. Talk about a need and the promise your product strives to fulfill. What kind of value to you bring to your customers and how do they realize there is an existing need? Struggling to come up with good content? Then ask a question, people love to give their opinion, and feel like they are being heard. Facebook offers you the option to create surveys right on your post and shows the results in live action, this engagement is exciting and it brings attention to your message.
THE GOLDEN RULE: Always. Always. Always. Respond to any comments or reviews on your Facebook page. You are trying to engage with your target audience not ignore them!
Facebook post can be informational and engaging, but they are not necessarily the best place to put a hard selling message of blog post style informative piece. A quick tool to create awesome and free graphic images in a timely manner is here! What Facebook tricks have you found to create the most engaging post? The best practices is always changing so keep the conversations about posting going!
