Facebook now has more users than China’s entire population (Source: Sprout Social). But that doesn’t matter much for your recreation center. What matters is that your students are on Facebook every day. The average American spends 40 minutes on Facebook every day. What are they doing? Connecting with their friends. A brand can also enjoy some of this time if they learn how to use Facebook well instead of being annoying.
What are some simple yet effective ways to connect with students on the channel they prefer to use every day? Let’s review:
1. Focus on videos
Video is currently the most effective format on Facebook. A video creates 62 percent more engagement than photos. (Source: Quintly). Thanks to smartphones, a video is pretty simple to create. A video doesn’t need to be super professional and polished. A simple and short video works just as well. Some topics to consider are: educational, informational, behind the scenes, funny, celebration, announcement, etc. Uploading a native video to Facebook will get you the biggest reach instead of uploading it to YouTube and then linking to it in the post. Just make sure to keep it mobile optimized. 75 percent of Facebook video views occur on mobile (Source: Sprout Social)
2. Content that works
We use Facebook for various reasons: entertainment, connection, information, news being among the top. Find out exactly what students likes to do, read, watch and use that to your advantage. You can conduct a short survey on your page to discover the exact needs they have. Then craft your content strategy to fill these needs. If you win their hearts, chances are, you will win their friends’ hearts too. According to data from Pew Research, 27 percent of adults 18-29 years old have more than 500 friends in their network, while only 15 percent of 30-49 year olds do. (Source: Sprout Social). You can grow your fan base by making sure your content is well develop for your audience’s needs.
3. Facebook is mobile
90 percent of all Facebook users access the social network on their mobile devices. (Source: TheNextWeb). Make sure your images and videos are mobile optimized for best experience. To help with your video recording, make sure to record your videos in HD on your phone. More video tips are available from Facebook. Makeawebsitehub.com has a good infographic for mobile optimized images not just for Facebook but for other social networks as well.
4. Quality over Quantity
When it comes to posting you are better off planning ahead. Thinking that you will come up with a great idea every day won’t get you far. You can schedule posts directly on your Facebook page for the week ahead. Spend some time each week to think about and come up with content for each day. Ideally, you have a content calendar that you are your team develop and review every month. Come up with special events, milestones, behind the scenes, funny, educational, inspirational posts. You can always fill in with extra posts based on newsworthy and current materials. Plan to have 80 percent of your content based on your audience needs and desires and 20% self-promotional.
5. Create a team to manage your page
Developing a team in charge of your social media can open up opportunities. Invite interns or other people on your staff to take part. People love this part of marketing because it’s fun. Form a team of 3-4 people. Just make sure you don’t form a committee for every post. Ask people to bring in their ideas and contribute to the content but make sure they are clear on the goals. If the people on your team are of the same age as your audience, they will know what their peers want to read and watch.
6. Boost your posts with paid advertising
Facebook is making it harder for companies to show in people’s newsfeeds. They want you to spend advertising dollars with them. At the same time, Facebook targeting abilities has become incredibly good. Plan on having a Facebook ad budget moving forward even if it’s a small monthly investment of $100. You can use Facebook’s free Ad Manager to create ads. Make sure to add a Call to Action in your ad, Learn more is the best choice. AdRoll’s research found that adding a CTA (Call to Action) in your ad increased the overall click through rate lift by 2.85. You can target your current Facebook fans or create custom audiences based on website visitors, email addresses, mobile numbers and more. These audiences seem to perform much better with the ads than just targeting by demographics and interests. Start with the people who know you first.
7. Analyze
Review your Facebook Insights on a regular basis to determine best days and times to post to your page. You can find your Facebook Insights on your page. You can also see which posts are resonating with your audience and try to create similar ones. It’s OK to repost a post that performs well too. If you have a post that does really well you can boost it with $10 or $15 to give it an extra reach. Analyze the demographics of the people who are engaging but keep in mind they will tend to skew younger. Review your insights once a week, best to do right before you schedule new content for the week.
Milena Regos – Experienced marketer and entrepreneur who works with healthy lifestyle brands to motivate people to make a change. Connect with her at milenaregos.com The post: “Simple Facebook tips for better engagement” was first published on milenaregos.com
