Get Your Facebook Page for Business Movin’ and Shakin’ — 21 Strategies to Encourage More Interaction

21 Strategies for Encouraging More Interaction on your Facebook Page for Business

Some businesses create their Facebook page for business and think their job is done.  The truth is… it’s just beginning!

Your Facebook Page for business will never get off the ground unless you initiate and encourage interaction between yourself (or your official Admin) and those who visit and post.

Fortunately, building a community and making your Facebook Page come alive as an entity in its own right is absurdly easy… as long as you know what to do.

Here are twenty-one proven strategies to help you create strong Facebook Pages that are, as one poster put it, “just hopping!”

 

 

 

1.    Mix your media – don’t always just share photos or just share text.  Showcase a longer “Notes” post.  Post videos as well as photos.  And do share infographics, when you find an apt one:  Not only do you have the power of the Edgerank algorithm assigning high photo value to your infographic – you get to share really interesting or useful information in an instant visual format.

 2.    Use contests.  As with any other form of media, don’t overdo this – but a good strategy is to hold a regular contest on a regular day of the week or month. 

Always posting your contest on the same day creates habitual viewing.  People start to look forward to the feature.

 

A good rule of thumb?  The more trivial, fun and silly the prize, the more often you can feature the contest.  The more high end with “wow” factor your prize, the rarer your contest should be.

3.    Don’t be afraid to occasionally throw in the truly fascinating “human interest” story – even if it’s normally not the type of post your business-focused Page showcases.

 

Human interest stories touch everybody – and are usually high in entertainment value, quickly going viral.

What makes for strong entertainment value?  When something is unexpected, outrageous – or just sometimes even just plain odd.

4.    Consider using Suggested Posts – What’s the difference between a “Suggested Post” and a Sponsored Story?

Sponsored stories have to come from connections of your target viewer, whereas Suggested Posts can appear directly from your company to any member of a demographic you target.

 

The whole key would be to be very, very careful in your targeting.

5.    Show followers how to find Pages they’ve subscribed to quickly – One of the most common reasons given for never visiting a Page again?  “I couldn’t figure out how to find it.”

Let your followers know they can instantly access Pages (not just yours) by pointing out the options in their left-hand, vertical navigation menu. 

 

Sure, you could just tell them how to find your Page alone – but show them this easy method, and you will probably reap more visits!

6.    Use “fill-in-the-blank” questions.  When you aim the right question towards the right audience, these are almost irresistible – even in text format!

 

Note that this simple and rather contrived question generated four times as many responses as it generated “Likes”.

Now that’s interaction!

7.    Use your cover section tabs wisely – This little row of tabs is prime real estate on your Facebook Page, so swap and hide any tabs that don’t actively increase engagement (for example, your Map tab, if your business is not local; or your “Likes” tab, which is only there for vanity) with tabs that can make people interact.

You won’t have any choice concerning your “About” section and “Photos” tab – but you can interchange any other tabs you’ve added, as the fabric site in the following example has done.

Since their business is highly visual, they have featured a Pinterest tab.

 

They have also combined a custom tab with a catchy, short title – “Deals and Steals” – with a simple call to action to further encourage followers to click on it.  (“Sign Up for Email”.  (Top marks for soliciting subscribers!)

They have also chosen to offer Customer Service via their “Need Help?” tab, reinforcing it with a “Contact Us” call to action.

8.    Throw in the odd quiz – Another way to vary your content while maintaining a high level of interactivity:  Serve up quiz-type posts where the viewer has to take some type of action.

 

You can leverage it even more by adding a personal question, as this poster has done on her Page.

9.    If you have a cute logo, feature it in photos and ask questions or run caption contests.

 

(Hey, it worked for the Travelocity Gnome, didn’t it?)

10.  Share specialty-interest information and juicy tips your viewers really want to know.  Again, the whole key to this is making sure you’ve gauged your audience correctly.

 

Do your best to provide tips that really get them excited – then take it one step further by answering questions for those who comment on problems with the tip suggested.

 11.  Make your “About” bio description all about your followers!  – Letting your viewers and followers know the Page is really “theirs” can hook people in and lead to engagement.

12.  Answer questions.  The only exception to this would be if you’re such a big celebrity that you actually need to discourage people getting too personal.  But for the rest of the world (particularly small businesses) the more interaction between you and your commenters and posters, the better!

13.  Don’t be too commercial or cold!  People use Facebook for social connection and entertainment. If your Page or Page posts come across as too commercial or impersonal – or worse, reads like an advertisement – you’ll not only put readers off and possibly annoy them, you’ll actively discourage or kill all chance at interaction. For example, this post, below, may say something important, but it reads like a government pamphlet and leaves zero motivation for commenting.

14.  Use polls.  People love to give their opinion.  As long as your main question isn’t too bland or generic, and you haven’t given your audience members too many choices, you stand a higher-than-average chance of gaining some interaction.

15.  Give your page personality. You want people to feel like your post is coming from a friend – not some official announcement machine. And that your voice is real.  This animal rescue page does it by starting off with a heartfelt question, adding a personal note to a heart-rending but all-too-common rescue posters-with-statistics.

 

(And note that the post resulted in adoption – how’s that for success!)

 16.  Pay attention to your followers.  Here’s one celebrity that pays as much attention to his feedback as his fans pay to him.  Here, he features a fan photo, reaps 2,827 comments on this one post and, incidentally, has now topped 3 million followers.

 

 

  17.  Give your followers a delicious, unexpected deal sometimes.  Here, mystery author Lisa Scottoline lets readers know that an earlier novel is on sale for .99 cents at Amazon (and makes some sales).

 

18.  Don’t shy away from controversial posts.  You should never, ever post strictly to cash in on shock value – but featuring a controversial question or link can really increase engagement.  One rule of thumb, however: Don’t post solely to vent your feelings – post because you think it’s something everyone should care about (or at least, your fans).

 

 19.  Acknowledge your commenters whenever possible.  People like to feel important. (And notice that even though this is a company Page, the respondent answers as a person – “Nicole”.)

20.  Don’t automate posts.  You can preschedule in emergencies – such as, you’re going to be away for four days – but just remember that even the best pre-scheduled post can result in a drop in engagement if (a) it feels out of context (b) it feels impersonal or “canned” and (c) you’re not there to answer or acknowledge

  21.  Wake your readers up!  Spectacular or unusual photos are a great way to do this. 

 

And now that your eyeballs are vibrating and your mind is awake, off you go and increase your Facebook Page’s interactivity quotient! Move and shake the action on your Facebook page for business.

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