Want to Increase your business’s Facebook shares? Read this guest post from Jeff Cooper to find out how:
Facebook is, by far, the top social media platform in the world. This is why marketers and entrepreneurs spend so much time trying to build their brands on it. As increasing Facebook shares is a priority for many businesses, I thought I’d give you some tips on how to go about it.
Before we discuss the nitty-gritty on how to increase your Facebook shares, let me explain to you why you need to develop your social media brand recognition on this platform. In October 2012, Facebook announced that they are finally serving 1 billion monthly active users. There is one very good reason for this rise in the network: the concomitant rise of the smartphone since we’ve all started using the ubiquitous iPhone, Android phones, and tablets. So far, there are 543 million active Facebook users checking their profiles on their smartphones and tablets and there are 3.2 billion likes and comments across the world each day. So, one of the keys to Facebook success is to make sure your site and landing pages work properly on mobile phones and tablets through things like responsive web pages, which adapt to mobile users.
What else can you do?
Keep it short and appealing:
When posting content on Facebook, it’s best to keep your sentences short but catchy, just like a header title. People decide within 10-20 seconds if they want to stay or to leave a website, so make sure you bear this in mind when writing your copy. Internet users only read, at most, 28 percent of the words during an average page visit; therefore you must keep your content snappy and interesting. You can also encourage your fans to share a link by adding call-to-action phrases such as “Click this link…” or “Click Like or Share if…” You can also ask your fans open-ended questions to encourage them to share their insights about a particular topic.
Include visuals:
Although written content is still powerful in driving traffic to your page, and important for getting found by search engines, you can make your posts even more effective if you add visuals such as pictures, videos and infographics. In fact, 40 percent of people respond better to visual content over plain text, according to studies. That’s because 90 percent of the information that is perceived is visual. Images and videos are great visuals to break long amount of text.
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One important consideration is page load time. For those who will be editing their images in Adobe Photoshop CS5, check out this tutorial on how to reduce the file size of many pictures so you can upload them with the minimum of fuss and have them load quickly for your visitors.
As a special note, infographics are great way to a viral boost on the Web. Various organizations are using them to present and interpret data and statistics to their readers in a lively manner. You can create your own infographic for free using sites like Piktochart.
Understand the peak time of your page:
The best time to post content on your Facebook page will depend on the type of business you are in. Restaurants regularly receive the best fan engagement when people are having breakfast and lunch (7am to 12pm), while retailers usually get most customer engagement from morning until mid afternoon (8am to 2pm). For most businesses who want to optimize their Facebook posting times, however, publish your content when most of your fans are not at work, which is between 8pm to 7am, according to Buddy Media’s research. In addition, Wednesday is the peak day of the week for fans engaging on Facebook. In fact, sharing activity, including likes and comments, is 8 percent higher on Wednesdays than on the other days of the week.
Author’s Bio:
Jeffrey Cooper is a freelance UK-based writer who loves sports, graphic design, gadgets and tech. His other passions include cooking, deep sea fishing, and walks in the park.