• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Social Media Examiner

Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

  • 🔥 Free Newsletter
  • ⭐ FREE Web3 Course
  • 🗓️ Our Events
    • Social Media Marketing World (Mar 13-15)
    • Other Industry Events
  • 💡 Society
  • ⚙️ Tools
  • 🎙️ Podcasts
    • Social Media Marketing Podcast
    • Social Media Marketing Talk Show
    • Web3 Business Podcast
    • Our YouTube Channel
  • 🎯 Partner With Us
    • Podcast Sponsorship
    • Email Sponsorship
      • Email Newsletter
      • Dedicated Email Blast
    • Event Sponsorship
      • Social Media Marketing World
    • Tools Sponsorship
  • 👋 About Us
    • Our Story
    • Articles
      • Web3
      • Instagram Marketing
      • Facebook Marketing
      • YouTube Marketing
      • LinkedIn Marketing
      • TikTok Marketing
      • Expert Interviews
  • Search
  • Social Media Marketing World10th annual. Biggest industry event. Get the recordings!IMPROVE YOUR MARKETING

    5 Ways to Increase Your Facebook Fan Engagement

    by Jim Belosic / February 14, 2012

    social media how toWant to increase your Facebook fan engagement?

    Keep reading for some simple techniques to get your fans more involved.

    Even if you're active on your Facebook page's wall by posting regular status updates, interacting with fans and answering questions, you're still missing out if you aren't using calls to action.

    A call to action encourages or even incentivizes fans' responses to your content, and it can be as basic as a simple status update.

    Your fans will enjoy interacting with your Facebook page and your page will benefit the most with increased visibility, traffic and marketing opportunities.

    Many Facebook page admins aren't quite sure how to foster an active fanbase, so here are five effective ways to call your fans to action.

    #1: Post Fan-Centered Status Updates

    You want to get your business in front of your fans. But how do you do that? Too many page admins resort to posting the same status updates over and over as a solution. But in the long run, that technique becomes annoying to fans and it doesn't play to the power of EdgeRank.

    EdgeRank is the algorithm Facebook uses to determine the importance of a status update. The more comments a status update receives, the higher its EdgeRank. The higher the EdgeRank, the higher that update is placed in news feeds. In addition, Facebook will display that update to more people. This means getting comments should be your goal with your status updates.

    To get more comments, tailor your status updates to ask for your fans' opinions, stories and even advice. The comments will float your post to the top of your fans' news feeds, giving more fans the opportunity to interact.

    lonely planet
    Lonely Planet's fan-centered status update asked fans for their input. The 171 comments vaulted the update to the top of news feeds.

    #2: Start Conversation With Relevant Content

    If you've tried asking your fans for input but you're still hearing crickets, it's time to look back over your status updates and evaluate your posts. Are you posting more about your company or your community?

    Facebook users want—and will respond to—relevant content. A car company that posts nothing but advertisements in their status updates won't get nearly the response they would if they posted information about tire recalls, car seat safety test results and tips to improve gas mileage. Give your fans a reason to chime in by creating status updates that discuss issues they care about.

    rosetta stone
    Fans interact with Rosetta Stone's community-focused status update because it poses a question that resonates with the fans' interests.

    #3: Enable Sharing and Get Traffic to Your Custom Content

    Too often, Facebook page admins create these gorgeous, highly functional tabs, but fail to include a call to action. It's not just your status updates that are important; every bit of content on your page is important, and you need to get that content spread around Facebook. That's why all of your content must be sharable.

    Tools Resource Guide

    Looking for something to make your life easier?

    Discover the tools we recommend to drive engagement, save you time, and boost sales across your entire marketing funnel or business.

    Whether you need help planning content, organizing social posts, or developing your strategy, you’ll find something for every situation.

    FIND YOUR NEXT FAVORITE TOOL
    omaha steaks
    Omaha Steaks' share button allows subscribers to post the newsletter—and the exclusive deal—to their walls.

    All of your content can include a share button that encourages your fans to post that content to their walls. If you're holding a sweepstakes, provide fans with a share prompt upon entry submission so that they can let their friends know they've entered your contest. When one person watches your video or enters your contest, that's great. But if that fan tells their 200-plus friends about your content, that's more clicks, more traffic and potentially more business.

    It doesn't matter what the content is. If it isn't sharable, it isn't benefiting your page as much as it could be.

    3 Days of World-Class Training—Zero Travel!

    Social Media Marketing World

    Travel to Social Media Marketing World off the table? Get all of the great content at a fraction of the price with an On-Demand ticket.

    That’s full access to recordings of every keynote, workshop, and session—the ones people travel thousands of miles to see. Don't wait. Get your On-Demand ticket and enjoy actionable content that you can watch anytime, anywhere.

    GET YOUR ON-DEMAND TICKET NOW

    #4: Sign Up Now!  Create Action-Based Incentives

    Your custom Facebook tabs are a great place for your newsletter or customer relationship management sign-up form. If you aren't seeing the number of sign-ups you had hoped for, incentivize it.

    Remind your fans what is sent to subscribers (like coupons). It's a great way both to populate your list and get your fans excited about your product or service.

    80stees
    80sTees.com, Inc. drives newsletter subscriptions by incentivizing sign-ups on Facebook.

    #5: Like Us to Enter! Harness the Power of Simple but Effective Fan-Gates

    Want to drive up your fan count and increase engagement at the same time? Create a custom tab with a fan-gated contest. Serve non-fans a message that tells them about the prize, but inform them that they have to like the page to be eligible to enter. Once the non-fan clicks Like, present an entry submission form that collects your targeted user data, whether that's an email address or phone number.

    If you're giving away something good, you'll get the likes and you'll get the data. However, it's important to note that if your contest is on a welcome tab, don't gate the whole thing. You don't have to let non-fans be eligible for contests and promos, but you can't hide all of your content from them.

    neutrogena
    Neutrogena's welcome tab is perfect: it's fan-gated, incentivizes liking the page and includes lots of information for non-fans who may not want to click Like.

    The more content you gate—the more abandonment you'll see.

    Remember—Fans First!

    All of these steps revolve around fan-centric content. While this looks different from brand to brand, the first step in successfully creating a call to action is to put yourself in your fans' shoes. So ask yourself—Why do they like my brand? My page? What do they all have in common? What interests do they share? Answering these questions will help you find your starting point.

    What do you think? What are you doing to increase your fan engagement? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

    Get Your FREE Course: Web3 for Beginners

    Web 3 for Beginners

    Curious about Web3, but don't know where to start or who to trust?

    Introducing Web3 for Beginners, a course taught by Michael Stelzner, the founder of Social Media Examiner.

    Learn the basics of Web3 and apply it to your business with this FREE comprehensive course.


    CLICK HERE TO GET FREE ACCESS

    Tags: Facebook

    About the authorJim Belosic

    Jim Belosic is the CEO of ShortStack, a self-service software that allows businesses to create engaging campaigns for social, web and mobile.
    Other posts by Jim Belosic Âť

    Get Social Media Examiner’s Future Articles in Your Inbox!

    Get our latest articles delivered to your email inbox and get the FREE Social Media Marketing Industry Report (39 pages, 50+ charts)!

    Industry Report Cover

    Worth Exploring:

    Facebook

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Instagram

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    YouTube

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Linkedin

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Web3

    Marketing Help Explore More →

    Social Media Marketing Industry Report

    Get Free Report →

    Social Marketing Trends

    The data you've been missing!

    Need a new plan? Discover how marketers plan to change their social activities in the 14th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report. It reveals what marketers have planned for their social activities, content marketing, and more! Get this free report now and never miss another great article from us. Join more than 400,000 marketers!

    Enter your email to get
    our free report:


    Footer

    Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
    Copyright © 2023 Social Media ExaminerÂŽ
    All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy.

    Helpful Links

    • About us
    • Our content via email
    • Our podcasts
    • Our YouTube channel
    • Our live show
    • Our industry report
    • Sponsorship opportunities
    • RSS
    • Accessibility