When you start a new Facebook page, it can be a daunting task to grow that page into something useful. It is not easy to gain new followers. Not to mention recent updates to how Facebook shows content to its users makes that even harder.
The Facebook algorithm
When you get on Facebook, the posts in your feed are being ranked and chosen for you. And because you are friends with someone does not mean you will get to see their posts. Posts that show in your feed closer to the top are because you have engaged with that person recently. Or it is possible that the post is a topic that you have recently looked up or engaged with.
Having a Facebook post shown on a page is even harder. Posts written by friends will always rank higher than page posts. But with some work, your page posts can get more interaction and increase their visibility.
Engage with your audience
Facebook is all about engagement. And the number one way to create engagement is to create content that is unique to your page. Original content is important to the growth of your page. If all you do is share other pages on your page, you only help them grow.
One of the best ways to create unique and engaging content is to create your own photos and videos. Then take and share them as posts on your page. Make sure to share the content directly on Facebook. Posts that contain links are not shared as much as direct content such as photos or videos.
Focus on quality above all else. Make each post complete and well written. Take the time to spell check. Use proper grammar. And avoid click-baiting. Real content will always trump fake headlines.
Make regular posts
After you go out and get some likes, you need to keep engaging with them. If you do not post on a regular basis, it becomes very hard to show in the feeds of others. Without regular content, there will not be anything for your page users to interact with. If they are not interacting, they are not seeing it.
Everyone has their own rule about how often you should post. It is our opinion that the number of posts is specific to the business. Some of the pages we manage try and do a daily post, others post only a couple times a week. There is no hard and fast rule.
But make the posts you do count. Make them interesting and engaging to those who like your page.
Interact with others
Your page can gain organic traffic by interacting with other people and pages. Liking and commenting as your page creates links in each comment that lead right back to your page.
Go out and find other related pages and get involved in the conversation. Comment something insightful that relates to their page. Remember life is not all about you.
Make sure that what you comment is relevant and useful to others. Do not comment for the sake of commenting. Nobody likes fake people. Don’t make your page fake with false interactions.
Give free information or stuff
Everyone loves free stuff. Gain more users and engagement by giving stuff for free. Free things do not have to be a paid item. Find an easy thing for people to do related to your business, some tidbit of information, and tell people about it. It could even relate to what you sell. But give it away.
You might think that you would lose business, but it works the other way. You show people that you know what you are talking about. And it could help weed out the ones that are too cheap to want to pay you anyway.
Coupons are another great way to gain users. Make up a limited time coupon or offer that drives people to your shop or online store. It does not have to be extreme, but enough to get people talking.
Review and keep moving forward
Growing your Facebook page does not have to be hard to do. But for most pages, it does take time. As you post content, it is important to look at the page insights and see how the interaction for that content was.
As you see one type of content start to pull ahead, or one topic gain more interaction, then create more of that. When people show you that they like that content enough to comment and share it out, you are on the right track.
Don’t forget to mix it up. What works today may not work tomorrow. And have fun. People don’t want to connect with boring pages that only talk about themselves.
Go start growing your page, and your business with it.
