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Life Health > Running Your Business

Anatomy of an Effective Facebook Post

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Below are seven things to think about when crafting that perfect Facebook post.

1. Audience. Of course, your company Facebook page is not your personal page. You may need to post with more restraint or regularity and keep in mind a more general audience. Remember to address your specific audience when you post on your company page.

2. Voice and Tone. The “voice” you use on your company Facebook page should reflect the image you are trying to project. Unlike your personal network, your company Facebook fans may not know you very well. Therefore, decide how you want to come across: Fun? Serious? Quirky? (Remember that the Facebook culture leans toward casual, so make sure you don’t come across as too stiff.)

3. Content. Your posts shouldn’t center on promoting your company or products. Everything you put out should offer engaging value to your fans. News, humor, entertainment and insider insights grab your audience’s attention and motivate them to return for more. Simply pouring out post after post of ad copy will guarantee you lose fans and readership.

Content that leads people to interact on your page is particularly powerful. You can use your posts to drive fans to such things as personality tests, surveys and Facebook sweepstakes. This type of content is a great way to get “Likes” and “Shares.”

4. Context. Post as part of a series, to announce an offline event or in response to customer feedback. The larger context gives people a reason to keep coming back to your page to search for the next piece of information.

5. Timing. The best time to post to Facebook is a matter of much debate. As a general rule, think about who you are trying to reach and when they are most likely to be spending time catching up on their Facebook activity. The best posts go “live” when your fans have time to read and digest them and hopefully react. Chances are this is not when they are hard at work but rather during lunch time, evenings, weekends, etc. Experiment to see what makes the most sense for your page.

6. Interaction. Drive interaction with your Facebook posts by asking for advice, opinions or related stories. And to get things started, it’s fine to have a friend, employee or loyal customer comment first.

7. Responsiveness. Once someone has responded to your initial post, make sure you comment to keep the conversation going. Now that it is possible for an individual to send your company a private message, there is a huge opportunity to engage in real dialog with your prospects.

Make sure that you are not letting your Facebook page go unattended. For better or for worse, in this day and age, most of us have come to expected immediate results in the online world.

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Seth Lieberman is the CEO of Pangea Media/SnapApp and has 15 years of experience in online advertising, customer acquisition, lead generation and customer engagement.


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