Facebook basically allows you to post six different types of content. These are:

1. Images,
2. Text,
3. Videos,
4. Website or blog posts,
5. Podcasts and
6. Other people’s content reposted.

Obviously this allows for more than six types of post – what if I post an image that’s captioned by a text quote in video format? And of course, other people’s content can be any mixture of the categories I’ve indicated.

So, what types of posts generate the most likes and shares, from the list above? We’ve put together three ‘super-post’ styles, designed to generate maximum engagement.

1: Image posts
Facebook posts that include a single still image outperform the average post by 120% in terms of engagement. Photo albums outperform the average post by 180%. Image posts generate engagement. But it’s important to note the logic behind this. The internet is saturated with blocs of text, nowhere more so than on Facebook, so the reasoning goes. Therefore image posts stand out. Strongly coloured images stand out even better against Facebook’s white background, incidentally. However Facebook is also saturated with images of people taken on cameraphones and shared images found on the web, many of which are of cats. Images will generate engagement, but they need to be carefully selected to put across the right image of your company or brand. The images you choose should also be relevant to the content that goes with them: use the caption to post information or other textual content relevant to your company or current events from your company’s viewpoint.

It’s also worth giving the infographic an honourable mention. Perhaps best thought of as ‘a map of an idea,’ infographics combine images with text to give a clear description of events or ideas and can be a powerful teaching tool. Because of that, they are often a good choice for posts, especially if you want to introduce your Facebook fans to a new idea. They have many of the benefits of other images, combined with a strongly focussed content and the appearance of both accessibility and authority.

2: Text
Textual posts can run the risk of fading into the background. Handle them right, though, and they can be a great way to generate engagement.

Question or survey posts can be among the most effective text posts. Asking your fans multiple choice questions is usually more effective than asking them open-ended ones. By reminding them of the available choices you can stimulate both answers to the survey and encourage more open-ended expressions of opinion. Hopefully, a conversation amongst your fans will develop, with your post as its focus.

Quotes can make a difference to your engagement too: there’s a great cache of motivational quotes on the internet, ranging from the touchy-feely through the team-building, out past the militaristic to the frankly bizarre. People like a motivational quote and it’s a great opportunity to tie your brand to its core values by choosing a quote that reflects them. Sports equipment brands a re very good at this, and the TV advertisements for major sporting events can also be a good place to see it in action.

3: Video
Video can be an excellent marketing tool. Video illustrated by images and annotated by short textual pieces is fast becoming the internet’s standard format as the processing and streaming capacity to deal with it becomes ubiquitous. And one of the engines of that changeover is YouTube. To understand this, it’s essential to understand that Google owns YouTube. That means that content posted to YouTube has immense SEO benefits. Linking videos hosted on YouTube to your Facebook page through linked video posts can be a great way to tie the two together, accruing the benefits of both.

Four potential subjects for video posts include testimonials, teaching or how-to videos, stories about or related to your business, and promotions. Testimonials are of obvious benefit, but they carry the danger of reminding viewers of poor-quality TV commercials if they’re overused. You don’t want to come off like Crazy Bob’s Carpet Emporium, so use testimonials lightly. Teaching posts have two benefits to your business: they make you look authoritative and they can be a way to showcase your products, or your staff. A how-to or a video on how a certain class of products work can be a way to get your own contribution to the field some camera time, and to showcase the competency of your staff too. Stories make you look like you’re taking part in the conversation in your field, and give you the opportunity to set the agenda for accompanying discussions. The benefits of promotions are obvious, but if they’re tied into a stream of well-thought-out posts they’ll be more effective and generate more engagement.

All these suggestions are of no use at all if you don’t know your audience. The more you interact with your fans the more you can find out what they like, what they respond to, what makes them cringe and what makes them spread your posts across heir social media networks.


By Kunle Campbell, digital marketing eCommerce specialist and founder of Fuzz One Media, an Oxford, based agency that offers integrated digital marketing and specialist SEO, social media, pay-per-click, online PR, and content marketing services to eCommerce businesses.

 

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