3 Tips to Increase Engagement on Facebook

Do you wish your Facebook page had better engagement? Are you doing all you can to optimize your posts? The simple truth is that how and when you post on Facebook has a huge impact on how your fans will respond to your content. Today I will share with you three ways to better optimize your posts and thus increase engagement. 

1. Post at the right time for your audience.

I know. This sounds like a no-brainer. But if you are like me, you work on a blog post, and when it’s done you want to post it on all your social media platforms. Unfortunately, this is not a best practice. If you don’t post your updates when your specific audience is most likely to see them, then you can’t expect much engagement. I’ve posted content at 8:00 p.m. when I would have been better off to wait until 8:00 a.m. the following day. That’s because I’m on the west coast, and by 9:00 p.m., most of my audience has checked out for the day. By posting at 8:00 p.m., I lose the attention my post would have received if I had posted at a time when my fans were actively sharing, liking and commenting. Plus, when that engagement doesn’t happen until a full 12 hours after I’ve posted, I’ve missed the opportunity for a wider organic reach.

What about your fans? If your audience mostly consists of working moms, then lunch time and evening will be optimal. It all depends on your audience! 

How do you determine when your fans are most likely to engage? Facebook makes this feedback readily available in the Insights section of your page. Go to the tab entitled Posts, and you will find data for each day of the week. You can then base your posting schedule on when your fans are most engaged.

2. Post properly sized images.

We all know that posts that included images generate far more engagement than those with text alone. But it’s also important to make certain that your images look great once they are posted. 

Have you ever posted a link and found that your preview image was postage stamp sized? No need to settle for that! There is a sure-fire way to make sure your images are displayed as large as possible. Facebook says, “Use images that are at least 1200 x 630 pixels for the best display on high resolution devices. At the minimum, you should use images that are 600 x 315 pixels to display link page posts with larger images. If your image is smaller than 600 x 315 px, it will still display in the link page post, but the size will be much smaller.” 

Here’s the math behind it. To determine the proper width and height, your image should have a ratio of 1.91 wide to 1 tall. So to determine the proper width, take the height of your image and multiply it by 1.91.

3. Share links the way Facebook prefers.

Facebook definitely gives preferential treatment to posts that follow the guidelines Facebook prefers. So let’s do it and increase our engagement! When it comes to sharing links, there are two methods.

The first way is to upload an image directly to Facebook and then include the link in the caption. This method doesn’t offer your audience much context about the link — only what you supply.

The second way to share a link is to paste it into your Facebook post. It then populates with an image and description from the blog post you have linked. Facebook calls this the link format. Using this method, your audience will see the image, title, a snippet of the article and the URL of the website. In addition, your audience will see any information you include in your update. Readers then have a better idea of whether your link would interest them. 

Besides offering your audience more information, there is another important reason to choose the link format method. Facebook has found that users are more likely to click on link-format posts. As a result, Facebook prioritizes links in the link format and shows fewer links shared in captions or status updates.

I want to mention one last thing I always do, simply to make my posts look cleaner. Once the post has populated with the image and the description, I remove the URL from my comment area and rely on readers to click on the image or the description.

In conclusion.

Of course, there are many more ways to increase engagement, and I’ll share more another day. I like to provide information in a “snack size” instead of “meal size” so that the process isn’t overwhelming! What do you do to increase engagement? Please share your tips in the comments below!

xoxo,

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