5 Tips to Improve Your Facebook Marketing

Marketing on Facebook can be a moving target between feature changes and social media trends. However, there are some tactics you can use when posting to your Facebook Page that can help you optimize your reach organically with no fees involved. Here are some things to consider and to implement to up your Facebook Marketing efforts.

1. Research the best days and times to post

Trusted social media marketing companies such as Sprout Social, Hootsuite and Later often update articles about the optimal days and times you should post to different social networks based on thousands of posts that have been processed through their software.

For example, according to Hootsuite, the best time to post to social media overall is 8:00 AM PST on Wednesdays, but each social network has its own ideal day and time. Try posting to Facebook at 7:00 AM and see if it impacts views or engagement.

According to Mailchimp, avoid updating on a Saturday since most people are doing something other than scrolling Facebook on that day. While these trends are important to note, check your Page’s Insights to dial in on when your particular audience is interacting.

2. Vary your post styles

On Facebook, you can post in several styles including text posts, photo posts, video posts, and link posts. Varying your posting style can break up an otherwise repetitive feed.

Text posts use nothing but text, without links or visuals. While it might seem counterintuitive to leave off a visual file, sometimes a different yet simple post can catch the eye.

Photo and video posts have become the standard, with video posts often faring better than a static image. Photo posts also include graphics and video posts also include animation.

Link posts can either feature a photo or video or you can opt to select the preview view that comes up based on the page where the link leads. Using the preview view, the post will have a different appearance, usually a more compact layout with a thumbnail image.

3. Try Livestreaming

Most popular social networks allow you to stream live video, and Facebook is no exception. Livestreaming to your Facebook Page can draw more attention and views than regular posts. You can either schedule livestreams - and even use Facebook Event Pages to promote them - or spontaneously live stream from an event such as a trade show or a behind-the-scenes tour.

Any smartphone or tablet can be used to livestream or even a laptop with a built-in camera or a computer with a webcam. The key is to make sure you have adequate lighting, good audio, and a way to keep the recording device stable. A tripod or monopod can be helpful, even if you’re filming action such as a sporting event or performance.

Once your livestream is complete, you can archive it on your Page and receive additional views. Include a call-to-action in the archived video caption to leverage the views.

4. Use Stories and Reels

With the addition of Instagram to the Meta family of apps and platforms, Stories and Reels have become a more common format for posts on Facebook. You can post both Stories - short multi-media posts that disappear in 24 hours - and Reels - short-form vertical videos - directly to your Facebook Page or post them to your Instagram account and set them to automatically cross-post to Facebook.

Incorporating both of these different types of posts can add interest to your Facebook Page as well as attract new followers and engage your current ones. Stories are typically seen mostly by your current followers while Reels may get seen by people not yet following your Page so working with both can help enhance your Facebook marketing.

5. Incorporate Facebook Chatbots for customer service

With the advent of AI-powered apps in social media, using a chatbot can help you respond more quickly to inquiries on your Facebook Page. A Facebook chatbot is an automated computer program that interacts with users through the Messenger feature. A chatbot can serve up pre-programmed replies to the most commonly asked questions. You can find tutorials on installing and configuring a chatbot on Messenger on your Facebook Page by searching Facebook’s help section or Googling.

While paying for advertising is the most direct way to target and reach the right audience for your content, using best practices and staying on top of the latest trends and tactics can help you get the most out of your unpaid posts.