How to build a solid social media strategy: A deep-dive in Facebook

This is the second post in our social media series. For the introduction, go here.

Facebook is the largest social network with more than a billion monthly active users worldwide, and still growing. Because this community is the most established of the different social channels, Facebook is the best place to start establishing your social following.

Pros and Cons of Facebook

Pros

• Easy to construct posts with your commentary, a headline, a photo and a link or video
• Massive audience with all targeting demographic options
• Easy to tailor your posts to attract people with different interests through tagging and targeting. Hashtags on Facebook categorize posts, so discovery is easy!
• The most basic posts don’t require much time to create, so it’s easy to maintain a steady presence
• Paid advertisements are cheap, easy to target and measurable

Cons

• Facebook is a saturated market. There are already thousands of brands here vying for consumers’ attention which sometimes makes it harder to stand out from the rest. To gain traction on Facebook, you’ll have to put a solid strategy in place to gain your first followers and attract new people to your page.
• Facebook is a constantly evolving platform. While this creates a steady stream of new opportunities, it can be had to stay on top of the frequent changes and updates. Be prepared to invest an hour or two each month to learn about Facebook’s new features.

Cost of paid engagements (advertisements)

You can expect to pay around $0.50 per “Like,” but this is after you’ve become established on Facebook with a semi-engaged followring. Starting out, you can expect to pay closer to $1 per like. If you’re paying more than that, your ads likely aren’t optimized for performance and you should double check that your ads are set up correctly and consider changing your creative (art and copy).

Frequency of posts

Medium, compared to other social channels. Facebook creates results at all different frequencies of posting. Whether you want to post daily or weekly, all will provide scaled return on your investment.

Lowest Frequency

If you don’t have time to post more than once every two weeks, it’s probably not worth your while to create an account.

Highest Frequency

It’s not wise to post more than once per day until you have more than 5000 followers. This is because Facebook uses algorithms to determine who will see each of your posts. Beginners frequently assume that each post you publish will be shown in the feed of each of your followers, but that’s not the case. Instead, Facebook shows your post more frequently if it seems to be performing (high clicks/likes) well.

If you post more than once per day, Facebook puts more filters on who will see your post to protect users from becoming overloaded with branded posts. So, if you have two posts that you predict will resonate strongly with your audience, it makes more sense to hold one of the posts for 24 hours and post one per day. The exception to this rule is if both of your posts are very timely.

Once you gain more than around 5000 followers, it’s time to consider posting more frequently.

Pro Tips

1. If you’re posting an article or a blog post, change your comment to something different than the headline. The user will already see the original article headline in the linked section of your post, so your comment should be additive to the article, a secondary title, or a question to start a dialogue with your followers.
2. Delete the URL from your post after you paste it in. When you paste a link into the text field on Facebook, Facebook pulls the link and creates a preview block of the link in your post. After the link is pulled, it’s safe to delete the original URL. The link will stay in the link area of your post.

3. Use images! This is key to attracting your audiences attention. When picking an image, follow these tips:

• Use high-quality photography. If you don’t have a great photo to match your post, consider downloading one from a stock image site like iStock, or a free version like Pexels.
• Layer typography over your image to add interest. Match your copy to the post headline to reinforce the topic of your post. Graphic tools like Illustrator make adding typography easily, and free apps like A Beautiful Mess to create your images. For inspiration, look at designs on Pinterest.

• When overlaying type on your image, don’t cover more than 20% of your image with type. When advertising on Facebook, Facebook has a rule that no advertisement image should have more than 20% covered by type. You may not be planning on paying to boost your post now, but you may want to later. This is a good rule of thumb to abide by

Video on Facebook

Video is especially effective on Facebook because Facebook has optimized video posts for high engagement. The platform has been slowly making changes to ensure the return on investment for videos is high. When using video on Facebook:

• It’s best to upload the video directly to Facebook (as opposed to uploading to YouTube, Vimeo or another hosting platform) because Facebook gives preference to Videos uploaded on Facebook.
• Use the autoplay feature to receive more video views. When your video starts playing automatically, there’s a good chance a user scrolling by will see a couple seconds of content and stay for more.
• Use subtitles on your video. Most videos on Facebook start playing without sound because of the autoplay feature. Your user likely won’t have sound on, and is much more likely to continue to watch the video if they quickly understand what’s happening. This adds extra video production time, but is worth it!
• A video play is counted after the user watches 3 seconds of the video, not the whole thing.
• Other video options include Facebook Live, which allows you to livestream video content to your page.

Time Commitment

Minimum 1 hour per week. This includes a post, page maintenance and interaction with users.

Page Setup

Minimal

Good for Contests

Yes. Comments, likes, shares and hashtags make Facebook a great option for contests. Instagram may be a slightly stronger option, but only if you have a high Instagram following.

Facebook Tools

It’s best to use Facebook itself for actual posts and ad management so you can control what the actual post looks like.

Conclusion

Facebook is a great first choice for brands interested in investing in social media. With its low barrier to entry and broad community, you’re sure to find engaged followers on Facebook.

Contact UPPERCASE for more information on developing your social media strategy.