• 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

  • đŸ”„ Free Newsletter
  • ⭐ FREE Web3 Course
  • đŸ—“ïž Our Events
    • Social Media Marketing World (Mar 13-15)
    • Other Industry Events
  • 💡 Society
  • ⚙ Tools
  • đŸŽ™ïž 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. Sale ends soon!IMPROVE YOUR MARKETING

    How to Create Highly Shareable Blog Content Using Facebook

    by John Haydon / June 18, 2014

    social media how toDo you want to create blog posts people can't help but share?

    Have you used Facebook to find content that's most appealing to your readers?

    You can write shareable blog posts by taking the time to understand what your audience really wants from you.

    In this article you’ll discover four ways to find the ideas your fans want to discuss and share.

    Why Shareable Blog Content Matters

    If people aren't compelled to share your blog content, it's just not going to happen–Like buttons alone won't cut it. Your content has to be remarkable enough to encourage sharing.

    whole foods facebook blog post update
    Whole Foods knows their audience values and shares blog posts that have recipes and shopping lists.

    Facebook can help you pinpoint and create remarkable content. No other social platform gives you the details Facebook can–personal tastes, interests and lifestyles are just a few.

    But how can marketers find and use all of this data and translate it into better blog articles that get more shares?

    Let's dive deeper into using Facebook to test out various topics, images and angles you're considering for your next blog post.

    Here are four ways you can use Facebook to find out what matters most to your audience so you can write the blog articles they're looking for and want to share.

    #1: Get Input and Review Engagement Metrics

    What blogger hasn't struggled to find new topic ideas? I know I have.

    You may be able to think of a few things, but the problem is that you don't want to write about just anything. You want a topic your fans crave.

    If you're already having writer's block, how are you supposed to figure out that can't-live-without-it topic? I suggest two things: asking and reviewing.

    Asking seems simple enough, but sometimes the simplest ideas are the easiest to overlook. The next time you need blog fodder, post a Facebook update with a multiple-choice question asking fans to choose which topics they prefer.

    The Conference You've Been Waiting For

    As a small business marketer, you can probably only pick one or two events to attend each year. Get back into the game with an unbeatable conference experience and expert training at Social Media Marketing World in sunny San Diego, California—from your friends at Social Media Examiner.

    đŸ”„đŸ”„ As a valued reader, you can save $350 if you act now! Sale Ends Tuesday!

    CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE
    multiple choice question on Facebook
    Give your Fans a multiple choice question to learn more about what they want to read from you.

    You can also do a little digging in your Insights to see which of your Facebook updates have been the most popular with your fans.

    When you have a handle on that, formulate five to seven different ideas you can blog about that also relate to your company, product or general niche.

    #2: Upload Images to Facebook Albums

    A must-have for every blog post is an image that people can't help but pin, tweet and share.

    Facebook can help you find just the right one. It's the perfect place for testing images and storing them for later use.

    Develop a regular practice to help you find images you can use in future blog posts and share them on Facebook. To stay organized, create a Facebook album for each of the major topics you blog about and house your pictures there.

    facebook photo albums
    Store images for future blog posts in Facebook Albums to track their popularity.

    As you continue to post images on Facebook, you'll be able to tell which ones you should use in your blog articles based on fan input and your engagement Insights. The photo with the highest engagement rate wins!

    For example, a boutique clothing store could have a Facebook album for shoes, dresses, jewelry and accessories. When they're ready to write about one of those topics, they know exactly where to find the most popular and shareable pictures!

    #3: Search Facebook Graph For Interests

    When you create content that's exclusively about your niche, you'll obviously engage people interested in that topic. But your fans and followers are people first. They have a lot of other interests outside your niche.

    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

    Find and use those interests to your advantage with Facebook Graph Search. When you know the right phrases to use, it's a goldmine of information.

    facebook graph search results
    Facebook Graph Search holds a lot of data about what your Fans like.

    Each of these six search strings will give you a glimpse into your fans' overall interests:

    • Pages liked by people who like [your page]
    • Pages liked by women who like [your page]
    • Pages liked by men who like [your page]
    • Fans of [your page] and [another page]
    • Restaurants in [your city] visited by people who like [your page]
    • Pages liked by people who live in [your city] and like [your page]

    When you have the results, tease out topics that overlap with your niche and create content around them to catch your audience's eye.

    Before jumping in whole-hog and writing a series of blog posts about these related interests, test a few out on your Facebook page (along with images) so you can better understand how they relate to your niche and how your audience responds.

    #4: Gauge Response With Custom Audiences

    The next time you're developing a campaign, find out which key points your audience is most interested in. For example, during breast cancer awareness month, what will people want to talk about? Breast cancer legislation? New research? How kids help their moms beat breast cancer?

    Finding that information will obviously take a little more effort than posting one or two Facebook updates or doing a quick search with Facebook Graph.

    To really get down to business, I suggest using Power Editor to create custom audiences.

    creating a facebook custom audience
    Target specific Fan segments by using Custom Audiences.

    Power Editor allows you to create Facebook updates you can hide or display based on a targeted (custom) audience (e.g., customers vs. subscribers).

    Essentially, you're creating Facebook page posts that some of your fans won't see. These unpublished (or dark) updates are primarily used for sponsored content in the news feed.

    Why would you want to do this?

    Let's say you have a promotion encouraging new customers to take advantage of an offer that's only available to them. With Power Editor and custom audiences, you can create a Facebook page post to promote to these first-time customers only.

    creating a dark facebook post
    Use Custom Audiences to create dark posts.

    You can exclude repeat customers to avoid confusion (since they can't use the offer). And you can exclude non-customers (who don't want to be sold anything). Neither of these audiences will see your promoted post.

    If you want to be really strict about your experiment, create an unpublished Facebook post targeted to each segment and compare the responses and engagement of each.

    You'll likely be able to see which topics and subtopics mean the most to your audience and you can continue to build out your blog posts and campaigns more effectively.

    Wrapping Up

    Facebook updates, Insights, Graph Search and custom audiences all help you do preliminary research around the likes and interests of your current Facebook fans so you can give them content they're looking for.

    As you try out each of the tactics listed here, make sure you use Facebook Insights to measure your engagement rate. It highlights how people talk about your posts and essentially reflects content quality.

    The more relevant and interesting an update is to your fans, the higher the engagement rate will be for that update—and you'll have a pretty good idea of what to write about next to encourage more shares.

    What do you think? How have you used Facebook to find bloggable content? Did you see a jump in shares or engagement? Let us know in the comments.

    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: Blogging, Facebook

    About the authorJohn Haydon

    John Haydon helps nonprofits change the world with smarter marketing. He can ride a bicycle backwards, and is the author of Facebook Marketing for Dummies.
    Other posts by John Haydon »

    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? Find out how thousands of marketers plan to change their social marketing activities in our 14th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report. This 39-page report reveals what marketers have planned for their organic social activities, video marketing, social ads, and more. Get this free report now and never miss another great article from Social Media Examiner.

    Enter your email to get
    our free report:


    Footer

    Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle
    Copyright © 2023 Social Media ExaminerÂź
    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