The Wild dogs, often called the Painted wolf watch the passing antelope crossing the vast plains will narrow down their potential target, they will separate it from the crowd and they will follow it until the prey is so exhausted and that is when they move in to make their claim.
Just like the ever changing demographic on the African Plains where survival of the fittest scrambles to stay alive, Social Media sites frequently makes changes to its News Feed algorithm, making organic reach a bit more challenging for brands.
Of course, it’s only natural for these portals to enhance its platform to ensure the most relevant content gets to the right people, but that also means marketers need to adapt alongside it. In other words, they need to get scrappy.
However, recently I made a bold decision to Re-Brand.
Why did I do this?
Simply because some things were not as proactive and it wasn’t working as I wanted any longer, and I’ll explain one of the biggest reasons why shortly.
After just a few weeks, the engagement level I received on the new brand was so much better than the previous one.
How was that even possible?
Simple, because the fewer fans that I have now are targeted. At least that’s what I think.
When it came to promoting my old Facebook page, I made a lot of mistakes.
One of which was paying money to increase the number of fans.
To that aim, I’ve done some research on the best Facebook hacks that make managing your workflow and growing your audience a little less taxing from paid to organic.
I hear what you’re saying, you’re already strapped for time enough with your online business and blog. And, finding content to share on Facebook can be a challenge and time consuming too.
So let me help you out here.
Firstly, you don’t need to find extra time to do more on Facebook, you can simply use social media automation tools to save time. Here’s some of them that might interest you –
- HootSuite
- Buffer App
- Sprout Social
Secondly, there are always things you can post on your Facebook business page. Here’s a list of those things –
- Interesting and relevant photos with a call-to-action.
- Native videos.
- Questions.
- Polls.
- Competitions and giveaways.
- Links to relevant blog articles and resources.
- Quizzes.
Here’s the deal, you’ve got to pump up your input if you really want to grow your Facebook audience.
If you prefer to pay money to grow your fans, go ahead. But, I’m guessing you’re on a tight budget, or, you don’t really want to throw your money down the drain pipe to grow your audience, right?
Here are some tips and tricks for you and your peers.
1. Interact with Your Fans
When fans post on your wall or comment on your posts, interact with them when it’s appropriate. For example, if you share a video of local students visiting your station and someone comments on how cute the kids are, post a follow-up comment about how much your station loved having them visit.
If someone makes a remark slamming the mayor about your city’s murder rate, use your discretion on commenting.
You don’t want to get involved in a confrontation or say something that will damage your media brand. This is why you need to have a clear social media policy in place. You want to avoid employees, acting on your company’s behalf, to interject their opinions or get into a heated debate with your fans.
2. Balance Your Posts
Don’t randomly post updates. Use a strategy to balance your posts while following the social networking rules for media pros to grow your Facebook fan page. Bombarding your fans’ timeline with endless posts will make fans hit the “unlike” button. But you also don’t want to make your Facebook fan page look like a ghost town because you’re not posting often enough.
Find when your fans are online by clicking on Insights, then Posts. The data shows the peak hours your fans are online.
Hit those peak times with carefully-planned posts so you can get your posts in front of your target audience without annoying them with a continual stream of content that clutters their timelines.
3. Promote, Promote, Promote
Don’t stop promoting your Facebook fan page. Promote it on your website, on the air, on your business cards and through your other social media accounts.
Never stop promoting your page.
Drive people to your Facebook fan page and drive people back to your website and/or on-air product. That circle will give your brand continuous exposure online and off.
4. Ask a Question
Use your Facebook fan page to pose a question that engages your readers. Use a trending news story to ask your fans’ opinions. Ask which bands viewers are looking forward to seeing at the local music festival this weekend.
Post short, conversational questions that prompt your fans to answer with more than a “yes” or “no.” Statistics show that Facebook posts 80 characters or less perform better than longer posts so cut those long posts down to increase interactivity.
5. Share the Comments
After you’ve asked those questions, use the comments on the air, on your website or in your magazine. People want to see their comments shared and it also motivates people who aren’t yet interacting on your page to do so. All of this will boost your Facebook fan pages interactivity and drive your fan base up.
6. Hold a Contest
Facebook has changed its rules for contests and promotions. Before, to run a contest on Facebook, you had to use an app or risk Facebook shutting your contest down.
In August of 2013, Facebook announced changes to its contest rules.
Now, you can run promotions and contests directly on your Facebook fan page, which means you can collect entries by having fans comment on posts or liking a page post. You can also use likes as votes in your contest to determine the winner. While Facebook’s new contest rules give you more flexibility on running contests, be sure to implement contest rules that follow the law so you don’t end up in legal trouble.
7. Run a Poll
The easiest way to increase engagement on your Facebook fan page is to run a quick poll. People who don’t normally chime in with their opinions in comments will still take the time to click a button that sums up their opinion. Of course, the poll results aren’t scientific but they can be used as content on the air, online and in your magazine.
8. Advertise to Your Demographic and Location
Targeted advertising on Facebook can grow your fan page by the thousands.
Facebook’s Ads Manager lets you narrow down who will see your ad, down to your city and the demographic you want to reach. Spend some time identifying who you want to see your ad so you can get the most return on the ad money you’re spending.
