You may not know this, but the new 2018 Facebook algorithm gives you style points for posting correctly. Here’s the secret recipe for getting high marks for your post.
1. All in the timing
There are lots of statistics regarding the best time to post on Facebook. The common results say post your most important content on Wednesdays at noon or 2pm and on Thursdays at 1pm or 2pm. The rest of your content should land on weekdays between 10am – 3pm. Avoid Saturdays, evenings and early mornings.
But these are general statistics – there are variations for nonprofits, education, healthcare and other industries. And an engaging post can happen at any time, so pay attention to how your posts perform to see when your audience likes to respond.
2. Warm it up
This might be the most underrated tip in the bunch. Spend 10 minutes before you post using Facebook. Target people, groups, and other pages that you want to see your post – read through stories and news feed leaving comments and interactions, communicate via messenger, visit groups with members that would be interested in your post and try to start conversations. What you’re doing is telling Facebook that you’re active and give an indication to the people you have a relationship with, and who want to see your post.
3. Mind your content
The biggest factor in a successful post is how engaging it is. It needs to inspire people to want to respond. The text in your posts should be 85 characters or less. Use video whenever possible.
According to Facebook IQ, users looked at posts with video 5x longer than posts with static content. And FBLive is 6x more effective than regular video in generating interactions. Remember, you’re looking to keep social media social, don’t just talk about yourself – start conversations.
4. Post it
Make sure you post directly in Facebook and not a 3rd party app like HootSuite or something else. If you need to schedule a post, use the FB scheduler. If you want to post a video/photo, load it directly into Facebook and don’t link from YouTube or Flickr/Instagram. And don’t just post to your page, use your stories. Facebook wants you to use Facebook. So use Facebook.
5. Share it
If you’ve posted to your business or organization’s page, share it using your personal account. Get others to share it. Share it to groups you belong to that might find the post interesting. If you want it out in the world…get it out in the world!
6. Interact
The 15 minutes after posting are the most critical. This is the time that shows the algorithm how engaging it is. If you’ve dropped some good content, hopefully you’ll get some comments. Respond to each of them, and up the ante – ask follow up questions.
Try to start as many conversations as you can, then move them to Messenger. You’ll notice, at least on phones, a new option called “message” appears after a few replies…use it. This applies to all the pages/groups the post appears on. Facebook wants to promote posts that lead to interactions, step up and do your part.
7. Post in moderation
Don’t post too much or you’ll eat up your own audience. Post a maximum of 3x a day and at least 3 hours apart. If you need to do more than this, say if you’re at a conference or sporting even giving updates, use stories.
This video originally appeared on Facebook and asked for feedback on the channel. I’d still love to hear from you, please use the form below to let me know… what did I miss? What topics to you want us to address in the future?
Also, check out this video and others on our YouTube channel.
Until next time… happy Facebooking!
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All of our service area leaders have dozens of years of experience. These are protips they’ve picked up along the way that you can use right now to solve common issues.
