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On Facebook, Do What Works

Facebook is this big to your business, even if you don’t use it yet.
Most Missouri businesses and organizations know that Facebook is a good way to communicate with customers, but many of those same businesses and organizations aren’t sure how to make Facebook work for them. If you’re one of them, this post will help.As you read this post, remember that Facebook makes regular changes to its user interface and algorithms. Your best results will come when you regularly test your methods, content, and post frequency to see what’s working.

Sweet Spot for Post Length
How many characters do you think it takes to get the most interaction from your Fans on Facebook?

The answer is that posts should be around 80 characters (one short sentence) long. Anything longer, and you’re going to lose your audience. If you post full paragraphs on Facebook, your audiences are going to scroll right past your post. No one in the history of Facebook has ever clicked on a “read more” link in a Facebook post.

Keep your posts short and sweet to keep your audience engaged.

Best Time & Day to Post
There is no right answer to this question as every audience for every page is different. You need to constantly test and tweak with your content to see when your audience is online. Your Facebook insights also show some helpful information to this answer.

It also depends bit on your geographic location. Here in Jefferson City, for instance, we’ve found that Saturday mornings are another highly effective time to post brand content to Facebook for our retail customers. Overall, though, brands tend to see the highest interaction rates in the evenings on Tuesdays, when people are at home, relaxing on their laptops, tables, or smart phones.

Best Drivers of Interaction
The best drivers of interaction, by far historically, are a combination of photos and videos. People want to see the smiling faces of the people behind your operation, in your business, or at your event.

Think of all the pictures you’ve clicked through on your friends’ Facebook profiles. You’ve probably clicked through all 60 pictures in a friend’s Facebook album at some point. The same holds true on Facebook business pages — photos and videos drive more interaction that plain text posts do.

Using a Personal Page as a Business Page
Using a personal page as a business page is a big no-no. This is against the Facebook terms of conduct that you agree to when you signed up for Facebook.

Using a personal page as a business page is frowned upon, and we highly recommended that you don’t do this. The Facebook police are real and they will shut you down!

Don’t get busted. There is no way to get out of Facebook jail.

How Many Times Per Day to Post?
One post per day is great. Two posts per day is excellent. But three or more posts per day is probably pushing it. Again, test your audience.

For more pages, anything more than four posts per day, and you’re probably going to see a decline in audience engagement.

Check your Facebook Insights to see how many posts per day is too many — at some point, you’ll see a definite drop-off in interaction.

Calls to Action
Put calls to action like, “Follow Us on Facebook” in your restaurant menus and on your store receipts. You could even add a “Follow Us on Facebook” decal to your bathroom mirrors or your business’s front door.

Remember to include your specific Facebook URL on those calls to action so that your customers can find you on Facebook when they search for you.

See also: Get Found on Facebook: A Strategy for Businesses

Even small efforts like those can remind patrons to interact with you — and help them find you — on social media.

Gus Wagner

Gus Wagner is the President.Owner of The Rocket Group – an award-winning marketing and communications firm. The Rocket Group has specialized in building effective tools across traditional means and new media for clients in businesses, organizations, and nonprofits since 2001. Gus is also a five-time certified Social Media Strategist, a former Chief of Staff in the Missouri State Senate, a retired national champion amateur hockey coach, and a would like to be a singer/songwriter. His Welsh Corgi, Taffy, lets Gus and his wife, Farrah Fite, live with her in Jefferson City, Missouri.