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11 Ways to Boost FacebookEngagement for SmallBusinessesBy Andrea Vahl
Published April 20, 2015
Is your small business on Facebook?
Are you looking for better ways to engage yourfans?
Small businesses are winning on Facebookmore than ever before.
In this article you’ll find 11 ways smallbusinesses can improve engagement and drive sales with Facebook posts.
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Discover eleven w ays to boost Facebook engagement for small businesses.
#1: Move Your Audience to ActionLitographs is an online store that creates art from books. They sell posters, t-shirtsand tote bags, so right off the bat they have some great visual content that appeals toreaders.
The company uses their Facebook posts to drive sales, but they also do a good job ofentertaining their audience with questions and humor.
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Ask questions that require action and also use an image for inspiration.
Litographs came up with a fun idea to create temporary tattoos of sentences fromAlice in Wonderland. They invited 5,000 people to join the world’s longest tattoo chain.This kind of idea is a great way to mobilize your audience and make them part ofsomething special.
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Make your audience part of something special.
Also give your community special discounts on Facebook—everyone loves agood deal.
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Give your audience special discounts.
#2: Host a Facebook PartyMamavation is a website that teaches natural wellness and nutrition and championsGMO-free food and products. They have high engagement and use video, blog postsand images to educate their audience about making organic food choices.
The company recently held a fun Facebook party to give away gift certificates and
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discounts to people who engaged with each post.
Use your cover photo to let people know about special events.
Mamavation had several posts with different giveaways and also gave a discount toeveryone. Many posts during the party included tips to educate their audience.
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Think of w ays to engage your audience in real time.
Images still get high engagement on Facebook, and the ideal image size is 470 x 470pixels. Share something thought-provoking, inspiring or humorous for extra
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engagement.
Using images in your posts helps boost engagement.
#3: Show PersonalityThrough a Dog’s Ear is a small 7-year-old company that makes music to help calm
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anxious dogs. Their Facebook page is filled with personal photos of the founder andher dogs.
Get personal w ith your photos.
In the post above, notice that the company also tagged Wells Fargo, and Wells Fargoin turn liked the image. You can also use tagging and hashtags to get your postsmore visibility.
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Share things that are happening in your day and also relate to your business.
#4: Incorporate HumorCool Mom Picks is a website that curates gifts, gear, tech and resources for moms.They have great video tutorials and they bring together interesting finds in blog posts.They also use humor and show some personality in their posts.
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This post uses humor and provides tips that people can use and share.
Text-only posts are not dead and can still get great engagement. Don’t be afraid topush the envelope a little with your humor if that’s part of your brand.
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Text-only posts can still get engagement.
#5: Have FunAuthors sometimes wonder what to write about on Facebook—which is funny, sincethey’re writers. If you’re between projects, think about using Facebook as it wasoriginally intended: a social site where you let people know what you’redoing.
Author Erica Spindler does a great job of getting personal and having some fun.Share things that you find funny or you feel are important for people to know.
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Use humor and tie it into your experience or your brand if possible.
#6: Be ResponsiveMake it a habit to respond to comments quickly, as Erica Spindler did in the postbelow. When you do that regularly, you’ll get more engagement with your posts.
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Ask questions and respond to comments regularly.
#7: Create a Facebook EventWhile libraries aren’t necessarily small businesses, many struggle with engagementand connection.
Lawrence Public Library uses humor and also takes advantage of Facebook events.
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They use things like Throwback Thursday or Caturday memes to takeadvantage of fun trends.
Humor plus cats w ins.
If you have events on Facebook, reshare them, post in the events to get morevisibility and encourage people to join them.
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Reshare your events periodically.
Ask your fans to share pictures in posts or on your page to get moreengagement. When people share their passions with you, they’re more connected toyour brand.
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Encourage fans to post pictures.
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Show w hat’s going on at your location.
#8: Post to Your Page and ProfileDavid Newman of Do It Marketing uses his Facebook page and personal profile tomarket his business, which helps speakers get more opportunities.
He’s connected with many speakers personally, so it makes sense for him to get extratraction by posting about his business on his personal profile. If you occasionallyshare your business page posts on your profile, you can extend your reach.
David has a Speaker Booking Machine cheat sheet and uses his cover image toshowcase that opt-in with a call to action button.
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Use your cover image to drive leads.
Below, he posted to his personal profile with a slightly different twist, telling people toleave a comment if they wanted to get the cheat sheet. That led to a lot of comments(social proof) and more visibility for this post.
Use your personal profile to let people know about a special offer.
This post led to 550 cheat sheet downloads, 120 signups for a teleseminar and 33sold seats to a $777 program—all without any spend on Facebook ads.
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sold seats to a $777 program—all without any spend on Facebook ads.
#9: Invest in VideosVideos are huge on Facebook, and Learn Cake Decorating Online uses themeffectively on their page. They have a featured video and regular quick videosthat get lots of views and engagement.
Facebook videos get high visibility in the new s feed.
The company also uses the 22Social app to give away a free video class to buildthe email list and then offer a membership to people who sign up.
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Drive Facebook fans to your email list by offering them something good.
#10: Provide Great Local ContentRealtors sometimes find Facebook a challenging place to market. Posting images ofhouses is great, but Realty Austin offers great local content, too.
They’ve created their own guide to viewing bluebonnets in Austin. This contentprovides a service to potential customers beyond real estate.
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Post about your area if you’re a local business.
Creating content takes time, but it can be a huge driver for awareness and newcustomers.
Realty Austin goes a step further on their website and tells people to post directly totheir Facebook page if they have something to add. This gives website visitors areason to check out their Facebook page, too.
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Drive w ebsite visitors to your Facebook page to show them w here the action is.
#11: Go Behind the ScenesGetting personal on Facebook is a great tactic, but so is giving your community asneak peek at something no one else can see. The Celtic band Barra MacNeilsliterally takes people behind the scenes during their shows.
Take people behind the scenes.
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Show people photos that aren’t available anyw here else.
Conclusion
Most of these examples illustrate what’s working for small businesses in theirFacebook updates. For your business, focus your energy on getting into the
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news feed. If you’re having trouble, consider boosting key posts that areengaging and interesting to your fans to reconnect with them. Facebook can drive agreat deal of traffic to your website, but concentrate first on getting your posts in frontof fans.
Here are some key takeaways from these examples:
Use visual content, including good images and interesting videos.Add a personal touch, which can help differentiate you from other small
businesses.Incorporate humor and have fun—that always gets engagement.
How about you? Are you a small business using Facebook? Are you workingon improving your Facebook engagement? What’s working well for you?Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
Related Posts
Tags: andrea v ahl, f acebook, f acebook engagement, f acebook ev ent, f acebook party , f acebook post ideas, f acebook v ideo,
small business marketing
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, A ndrea V ahl
A ndrea V ahl is co-author of Facebook Marketing A ll- in-One f or
Dummies and also uses her improv comedy skills to blog as
Grandma Mary , Soc ial Media Edutainer . Connec t w ith her at
w w w .andreavahl.com. Othe r pos ts by A ndrea V ahl »
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19 Comments Social Media Examiner
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• Reply •
Web Outsourcing Gateway • a day ago
Hi Andrea!I really like the article. It's simple and on-point. I tell these 11 things to my team every day. Social media marketing forupstart businesses can be really hard. It's frustrating at first, especially when you know you have great content butcan't get any engagements because your total followers are too low. Anyway, good job on this :)
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• Reply •
Andrea Vahl • a day ago> Web Outsourcing Gateway
So true - I know some people get discouraged when they see that their post only was seen by a handful ofpeople so you do need to get your overall fan-base up. Thanks for your thoughts!
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SocialQuant • a day ago
We've definitely noticed very quickly with our startup that showing personality, behind the scenes and even customerphoto's to work well both on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Definitely need to set up a few contest or parties. Willhave one up by the end of the week for sure. Great ideas here.
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Andrea Vahl • a day ago> SocialQuant
Yes, people want to be more "business-like" but the human side gets more engagement :) Good luck withyour contest!
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SocialQuant • a day ago> Andrea Vahl
Thanks Andrea. We came up with an amazing contest that is relevant to our audience and one thatwe believe will create a lot of buzz. Going to use Heyo to implement it this week. Thanks again for thegreat ideas ~ Mike
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Steve Hedstrom • 21 hours ago
These are some great examples of how to increase engagement on Facebook here. I always encourage my clientsto be creative with these and using humor is a great way to connect. Happy Monday Andrea! :-)
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Andrea Vahl • 18 hours ago> Steve Hedstrom
Thanks Steve! Yes I'm a big fan of humor :) △ ▽
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Mari Baskin • 21 hours ago
Thanks for devoting an article to small businesses! So often examples are given for what the big guys and theirsocial media teams are accomplishing.
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Andrea Vahl • 18 hours ago> Mari Baskin
I agree Mari - sometimes smaller companies are a little under-represented in posts. have an advantage in some ways on what posts "look" engaging but sometimes diving in to the actualanalytics you find that the smaller Pages are getting better engagement percentage wise! something to keep in mind. Thanks!
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Amandah Tayler Blackwell • 20 hours ago
Nice post!
I liked to know if anyone on here as Hosted a Facebook Party. Is it similar to a Twitter chat? How long is theFacebook Party? Thirty minutes? One hour? Two days? Do you choose a topic or just chat as if you were at a "real"party? Any feedback you could provide would be helpful. Thanks!
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Andrea Vahl • 18 hours ago> Amandah Tayler Blackwell
I've hosted Facebook parties in a variety of ways. Sometimes it's more of a Live-streaming party using theapp 22Social or it's just a "chat". I think keeping it shorter is better because the audience doesn't check in andfeel like no one is there. I like keeping them to an hour max. Or if you have a longer party have multiple thingsplanned. Hope that helps!
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Amandah Tayler Blackwell • 18 hours ago> Andrea Vahl
Thanks Andrea! I'll research and "test" out a Facebook party. △ ▽
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Yvonne • 18 hours ago
This is fantastic! Fun, creative ideas that really resonate with 'human beings'. I love it! thank you for writing it, Andrea.I'm going to share with my Art as Action team. I think we can use some of these ideas on our FB page!
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Andrea Vahl • 17 hours ago> Yvonne
Awesome! Thanks Yvonne! △ ▽
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Tami Iseli • 17 hours ago
Thanks Andrea, great article. I'd be interested to see a post with examples of how Facebook parties work in practice,if you have any examples to share.
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Salman Sharif • 10 hours ago
That's a nice guide Andrea, we can also use Video Call-to-Action to increase the engagement to a new level :) △ ▽
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Gurneet Kaur • 10 hours ago
Hi Andrea!,The article states all the essential points for individuals or businesses to follow. I really liked all the examples given byyou. :-)
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Essays Experts • 7 hours ago
Hello Andrea,
I like it .The most important part is about being numerous.At times when conducting online marketing on social siteslike Facebook,we tend to forget that it is a social media where people will log in for not so much formal reasons.Thehumor in marketing is a powerful tool in this.
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claudia marie lenart • 3 hours ago
I really like that the article had so many different types of businesses. As an illustrator and artist sometimes it's hardto relate to large corporations or apply their techniques. I got some ideas from this and may have to post some of myearly works on Throwback Thursday.
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