Everyone has their favorite Facebook feature, and most brands would probably agree that their favorite is Pages. With a Page, brands can engage and truly connect with their fans. It is no doubt one of the platform’s most powerful marketing tools. Making the most of a Page is all about promoting interaction, and thanks to Facebook, there are a number of new ways to do just that.
1. Promote Button
Shortly following its controversial IPO, Facebook officially rolled out the Promote button, a new tool that allows businesses to extend the reach of their status updates – for a fee of course. If you think every post you publish is seen by every one of your fans then you’re wrong.
Earlier this year, Facebook revealed that a given post is only viewed by a small percentage of your audience, and the less interaction, the less visibility it has. The Promote button has so much potential because a marketer’s content will obviously have a better chance if it reaches more people. This feature provides that extended reach for as little as $5 per post.
2. Sponsored Stories
Facebook also rolled out Sponsored Stories to help drive interaction with Pages. Sponsored Stories is the social network’s way of turning social activity such as a like or comment into a new type of ad format that enables it to profit while helping brands increase their visibility. By nature, this content appears more relevant to the user, who as a result, is more likely to interact with it. In the right strategy, Sponsored Stories can help Page owners boost interaction by picking up new fans, and generate the clicks and conversions needed to support their advertising campaigns.
3. Scheduled Posts
One of the keys to getting your fans to interact is posting on a consistent basis. This is something many page owners find hard to do. Some marketers turned to third-party services like HootSuite to support their post scheduling needs, but soon learned that Facebook was overlooking these updates in favor of those organically posted on the social network. The new Scheduled Posts addresses a common problem shared by a lot of businesses. With this platform feature, you can schedule posts for up to six months in advance without worrying about whether your content will be overlooked. This type of luxury gives you some breathing room to keep coming up with new stuff while keeping engagement levels high.
Increasing page interaction is not only a good thing for brands; it is a good thing for Facebook as well. If the company ever needed a friend to believe in its value, it would be the marketing community. Without the continued support (and dollars) of this key group, the mighty social giant would literally crumble before our eyes.
About the Author
Chiko Noguchi is a best practices activist and advocate for a leading provider of email marketing services
