by 
Have you noticed a drop in your Facebook engagement?
Wondering how you can better engage with your fans?
Making small changes to what and how you post can help your Facebook updates generate clicks, likes, and comments.
In this article, you'll discover 26 tips for boosting Facebook engagement.
#1: Pose a Question
One of the simplest and most effective ways to kickstart a dialogue with your Facebook fans is to ask them a question. Basically, you're inviting a response. If fans can relate to the question and you find a way to leverage people's interests or needs, they'll find it hard not to answer.
Here are some questions to ask:
- Specific: What's your favorite…?
- Tips: How do you…?
- Experiences: What's your favorite moment from experience/memory…?
- Edgy: Do you think…? (controversial question)
- Direct: Why do you…?
- Events: Who is going/Who attended…?
- Timely: Today is…, so what are you…?
#2: Ask Fans to Make a Choice
A fun way to get your fans to engage with you is to publish a “this or that” post. Ask people to choose a side, pick a favorite, or make a choice between two things. An added benefit is that it can create a division among your fans, which can spark a dialogue in the comments.
Most of the time, those debates are good fun but be mindful of trolls. If you want to spark even more debate, you can always mix in a little controversy but avoid politics.
#3: Post When Your Fans Are Online
People use Facebook at different times of the day. Some are on Facebook throughout the day, while others may only check it in the early morning or evening. If you're randomly publishing a few posts each day, there's a good chance some of your audience will miss them. By the time they check their feed, your content could be buried.
A better tactic is to post when your audience is most active. Check your Facebook Insights to find that data. To access it, click the Insights tab and then click Posts in the left menu.
By default, the dashboard shows data for when your fans are online. You can adjust the date range to compare blocks of time so you can see what times of the day your fans are most active.
Tip: Posting late at night (when your fans are less active) isn't necessarily a bad thing. There's less competition in their feed, so the people who are active on the site are more likely to see and engage with your content. If that engagement jumps a bit, there's a better chance your audience will see it when they come online in the morning.
Try posting at different times to see what works best for you.
Ready to Supercharge Your Marketing Strategy?
Get expert training and an unbeatable conference experience when you attend Social Media Marketing World—from your friends at Social Media Examiner.
Broaden your reach, skyrocket your engagement, and grow your sales. Become the marketing hero your company or clients need!
#4: Share Relevant Images
A picture can say a lot more than a text post. A visually striking image can bring the rapid thumb-scroller to a halt. Images have proven time and again to improve engagement, especially when they tell a story or connect with the audience on a personal or emotional level.
According to BuzzSumo, Facebook posts with images see more than double the engagement of basic text posts.
Use relevant, colorful, and high-quality images. If you want to spice up your photos but don't have Photoshop-level skills, try free tools like Canva and Adobe Express (formerly Adobe Spark).
#5: Engage With Other Brands
There's no rule that says you need to limit your Facebook efforts to your own page. Wander the social landscape, post to other pages, and engage with brands when there's synergy and a shared audience.
However, you need to be tactful. The other business and their fans know what you're up to, so don't post spam. Treat it just like you would audience engagement: build the relationship, share content, and engage with people.
If you can work out an agreement to share someone else's content, it will help provide a mutually beneficial boost in organic reach, as both sides are exposed to a wider audience.
#6: Crowdsource Feedback
People love giving feedback. When you ask for input the right way, your audience will jump on board and be quick to respond. The added benefit is you can uncover opportunities to improve your business and delight your customers.
Imagine the potential boost to customer loyalty (and future engagement) if you make changes to your business based on the input you receive? Give this tactic a try. It's a much more personal approach than surveys and you can respond to people directly to address their feedback.
#7: Include a Call to Action
The standing rule for any kind of marketing is that if you want your audience to do something, you have to tell them to do it. Use a call to action in every post, whether it's to prompt a comment, share, opt in, like, RSVP, or any other action.
Always tell your audience what you want them to do to encourage engagement.
#8: Boost Your Best Posts
If you have a blog post or other website content that has seen tremendous traffic, post it to your Facebook page and boost that post. You don't need to throw hundreds of dollars at it; give it a modest boost of $25 and target the people who like your page and their friends.
You won't necessarily see thousands of shares, but a boosted post can help get your best content in front of your target audience and spark some engagement. The more people engage, the greater the organic reach to their networks. This tactic can be especially effective if you're sharing high-value content with a lot of great takeaways, such as a solution to a problem or an answer to a question.
To find your most popular content, check your Google Analytics. In the dashboard menu, click Behavior > Site Content > All Pages. Review the metrics for each post to determine what content to promote on Facebook. If you don't have any archived content to pull from, that's okay. You can always boost other post types from this list with a small budget to give them an extra nudge.
#9: Share Industry News and Hot Topics
Even your most loyal fans are interested in more than just your business. Sharing big news from your industry will show your fans that you're not focused solely on promoting your business; you want to keep them informed about current topics. They'll appreciate and respond to that.
Curate industry news from a trusted source and ask your fans what they think. Ask people to contribute their thoughts and share the post.
#10: Adjust Your Post Frequency
If your Facebook engagement is slipping, it might have something to do with your post frequency. Posting too little (say a few times a week) won't help you establish relevance with Facebook's algorithm and you'll be fighting for space in your audience's feed.
On the other hand, posting too often can hurt you, too. Facebook tries to show users the most interesting and relevant content from everyone they follow. If you're posting a half-dozen times each day over a short period, expect a lot of your content to be missed.
To find a sweet spot, try posting a few times each day at the times your fans are most likely to engage.
#11: Give People a Giggle
We all love a good laugh in our news feed. Lighten the mood for your fans and show them that you have some personality. Don't overthink it; just do something to give your fans a chuckle. Keep their interests in mind and make sure the humor is relevant to your audience.
#12: Respond to Everyone
If you receive comments from your fans but fail to respond or acknowledge them, they'll notice and stop engaging with you. It only takes a few minutes throughout the day to monitor your social activity and make a few quick or witty responses to fans who comment.
Consistent responses make fans feel valued and they'll be more likely to engage with future posts from your page.
#13: Solicit Fan Content
Encourage your fans to share photos on a given topic or photos of your products. This is a fun way to spark engagement and dialogue with fans. To go one step further, run a contest or offer a giveaway to encourage more shares and submissions.
Once engagement starts to climb, you'll begin seeing even more image posts from fans.
Curious About How to Use AI?
Our newest show, AI Explored, might be just what you're looking for. It's for marketers, creators, and entrepreneurs who want to understand how to use AI in their business.
It's hosted by Michael Stelzner and explores this exciting new frontier in easy-to-understand terms.
Pull up your favorite podcast app and search for AI Explored. Or click the button below for more information.
#14: Share Content From Other Channels
Unless you're publishing the same posts to all of your social channels, you probably have a goldmine of content that users on other channels have never seen. Don't let that content gather dust. Look over your content, videos, and images on other platforms (YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and so on) and share the best with your Facebook fans.
This is a great way to fill a few gaps in your weekly posting schedule if you come up short on content ideas.
#15: Go Behind the Scenes With Live Video
Visual content is much more likely to be shared on Facebook, and this is especially true for video. Facebook Live makes it easy to stream live video to your audience, anytime you like, to leverage that engagement.
Don't stress about the production value or not having a killer splash intro. Fans legitimately enjoy seeing the people behind a business just being…people. Give fans a glimpse into how your company operates, show your personality, and make a human connection.
Live video is also a great way to take your fans with you on company outings or to major events and trade shows they aren't able to attend. Once your live broadcast is finished, it's saved so others can view, share, and enjoy it at any time.
To broadcast a live video, open your Facebook page from your mobile device. In the status window, click the option to Go Live. Give Facebook access to your camera and microphone, describe your video, and click start.
#16: Make an Emotional Connection
If you want to elicit a big response from your fans, publish a post that appeals to your audience on an emotional level. Share content and tell stories that pull at people's interests, emotions, fears, and even their dislikes. Brand loyalty doesn't come from a product; it comes from a customer's joy at experiencing a shared sentiment or finding a solution that works.
Emotion drives loyalty and engagement. It's why millions of people couldn't help but share the “Thank You, Mama” P&G commercials, making them the most shared Olympics ad at the time.
#17: Provide Value
Anytime you share or post content to your Facebook page, ask yourself what kind of value you're providing to your fans. The best way to get their attention is to make sure there's a takeaway or something in it for them. At the very least, give them a good chuckle. At best, teach people how to do something, inspire them to take action, and add value to their life.
#18: Tap Into Trending Topics
There's a whole world of content revolving around us every second. Keep your ear to the ground for events and trends that might grab the attention of your audience. Work a relevant trending hashtag into a post to help boost organic visibility in social search.
Both Facebook and Twitter make it easy to see which topics are trending based on posts and discussions. Google Trends provides the same insight into trending topics based on search volume and published topics.
If you're a local business, keep up with city, county, and state event calendars and watch for local trends that could be used in the same fashion.
#19: Recycle High-value Posts
You're not limited to posting only new content to your Facebook page. Occasionally dip into your archives for an engagement spike.
Look at your Facebook posts from a previous year and identify posts that created a substantial amount of engagement. Post that content again, but tweak it so it's fresh. Recycling posts allows you to spotlight popular content that some of your fans may never have seen.
#20: Upload Native Video
YouTube is a sizable social channel, but if you've been sharing your YouTube videos to your Facebook page, it's time to make a switch. Facebook's native video allows you to upload videos directly to your page, just like photos, and the algorithm works in your favor if you do.
If you compare YouTube shares to native videos on Facebook, native video receives more likes, shares, comments, and reach.
#21: Celebrate Holidays
If you factor in silly holidays, along with more serious awareness dates and traditional holidays, you'll never run out of ideas for your Facebook content schedule. If it's a more whimsical celebration, have a little fun with it.
Your fans might also appreciate knowing when they can get a good deal, like $1 hotdogs on National Hot Dog Day at Sonic. Find ways to add value to every post to spark engagement.
#22: Share Valuable Curated Content
Your audience knows when you're promoting your business, and if you do it too much, they'll start losing interest. To mix it up a bit, source high-value content relevant to their interests. Be a helpful resource for your fans.
Use a tool like Quuu to curate content for specific audiences. It's free and pulls relevant hand-curated content. Alltop and BuzzSumo are also recommended for finding popular content to share.
#23: Post a Quiz or Poll
While a survey can generate more serious engagement, a quiz or poll can be a little more lighthearted. Focus on current developments in your industry or topics that are relevant to your audience. This type of interactive content can drive substantial engagement, especially if it generates personalized results that can easily be shared.
A free tool like Qzzr makes it easy to create customized, engaging quizzes that you can post anywhere, including Facebook.
#24: Rethink Hashtag Use
BuzzSumo analyzed over 1 billion Facebook posts and discovered that posts without hashtags get more engagement than posts with hashtags.
While you should use hashtags for trending topics to boost visibility, use hashtags sparingly (or not at all) in all of your other types of posts. Don't make the mistake of using multiple hashtags in the hopes of increasing your content's visibility.
#25: Use Audience Targeting for Organic Posts
You can target a custom audience for your Facebook posts just like you target a specific audience with your ads.
Like ads, segmentation can potentially limit your reach, but the upside is your content is more likely to be seen by the people you want to get it in front of. It also costs nothing to set up a custom audience for your organic posts.
If this option isn't enabled on your page, here's how to turn it on. Go to your page and click the Settings tab. Under General Settings, you'll find Audience Optimization for Posts. Click Edit and make sure this feature is turned on. This custom audience option will now be available whenever you post a status update to your page.
#26: Host Contests and Giveaways
Not many types of posts can garner as much attention as a giveaway or sweepstakes. The greater the value and relevance of the reward, the greater the engagement and potential reach. The best part about giveaways is they could potentially cost very little.
Give away your own product or even a decent third-party prize, and your costs are limited. You're only paying out of pocket for the cost of the prize, fulfillment, and whatever service you use to host the promotion.
You can also reduce your costs by partnering with another brand for a giveaway. It's a good way to get the prize at a discounted rate or provided for free by the other brand. Once the giveaway is live, it can be promoted on your partner's social channels as well as your own for a significant boost in reach.
If you use an app like Woobox or Rafflecopter to manage the event, you can capture email addresses for continued marketing and engagement. Just make sure you follow state and federal guidelines and Facebook's requirements when hosting a contest or giveaway.
Over to You
This exhaustive list of ideas should help you fill your calendar with a good mix of content types that are likely to promote engagement among your Facebook followers. Keep your Facebook posts short for maximum effect. The ideal character count is about 50 or fewer.
Also keep in mind that if you want engagement, you need to post and respond to your fans every day. Don't automate your social presence. Go for the human connection and provide value, and you'll see your engagement rise.
What do you think? Have you used any of these tactics on your Facebook page? Which were most effective for you? Share your insights in the comments below!
Discover Proven Marketing Strategies and Tips
Want to go even deeper with your marketing? Check out the Social Media Marketing Podcast! Publishing weekly since 2012, the Social Media Marketing Podcast helps you navigate the constantly changing marketing jungle, with expert interviews from marketing pros.
But don’t let the name fool you. This show is about a lot more than just social media marketing. With over 600 episodes and millions of downloads each year, this show has been a trusted source for marketers for well over a decade.
