If you regularly advertise your business on Facebook, you may or may not be aware of the number of post type options available to you. If you hadn’t checked, now is the perfect time! Learn how to use the Facebook post types to boost engagement below…
Getting your followers to engage with your content can be a tricky task, and if you constantly just hit them with the same type of post, they could become bored.
Below are the ways you can use the different post types to reach more people…
1) Share A Photo
This is already a popular way to get your message out there, as people tend to respond more to visual material than plain text. Make sure to use an image that ties in with your message, and remains true to your brand image. It’s also important to make sure it’s clear in quality – I get a lot of clients asking me to resize photos to make each one suitable for different uses. An image optimised for a Facebook ad is different to that of a general Facebook post.
Just for reference, below are the most common sizes of images used in Facebook:
Facebook photo post: 1200 x 630
Facebook Ad Photo Dimensions: 1200 x 628
Facebook Link Image Dimensions: 1,200 x 627
Facebook MPA/Carosel Dimensions: 800 x 800
2) Post A Job Listing
Yep, you can indeed post a job listing on Facebook! I had to do one of these for a client this week and it returned a much higher response rate than a normal post. You can specify the salary, hours, and job details in the description, as well as include a photo. It stands out in the newsfeed, especially with a graphic which says boldly “We’re Hiring!”. Potential applicants can see a brief overview without having to even leave Facebook.
If you’re feeling creative, you could make it comical by asking people to tag others who need a new job or change of career… Or turn it into a paid advert and avoid paying the £000’s recruitment sites charge. The options are endless!
3) Create A Special Offer
Rather than posting in your text about an offer, use this option and benefit from the notifications feature which tell your followers when the offer expires. This is a great way to get yourself noticed, and reminds customers to use it before it expires.
Create the offer in your ecommerce store or keep it just to Facebook – the choice is yours. You have the option to let customers redeem in store or online, so you can use this for both online and offline businesses! You can redeem it straight from a mobile device too, so it can literally be used instantly!
4) Host An Event
Create an event direct here and set the cover photo, event details and description and get it in front of your audience. It makes for a much better post than just sharing the URL to the event page!
You can add ticket details, dates, as well as the guest list and co-hosts – pretty much most of the features you need to advertise an event! You can transform the post into an ad too, which makes it a lot easier for your audience to view all the details in one place, rather than reading through a chunk of ad text.
5) Get Messages Direct To Your Inbox
If you’re wanting people to get in touch, but you’re not wanting to spend money on a message ad, then use this post type! Your text will display next to a button which says ‘send message’ making it easier for your followers to get in touch instantly.
6) Create A Poll
If you’re lacking engagement on your page, then create a poll!
If you’re in retail, ask customers what they want to see more of, what their favourite product is, what they think of their purchases… It’s a great way of doing some market research too (which you should be doing regularly by the way!)
It’s a great conversation starter, and will encourage your followers to get involved and voice their thoughts, you can build personal relationships with them and get your profile in front of a wider audience.
If you have a brand or product page you also have some more options…
7) Write A Note
Fancy adding a blog/updates feature to your Facebook profile? With the notes feature you can add full length articles, posts and updates without facing the post limit of a normal post. You can format the text to be bold, italic etc and even add a header photo.
This is the perfect feature of you’re wanting to start blogging but you’re not wanting another website to run, or you dont have the time to develop it fully.
Your notes/posts will appear under your profile picture, and you can decide who views these notes and how/when they are published – if you wanted a personal diary documenting important details, contacts or notes to yourself, this is the perfect way to do so!
8) Support A NonProfit
If your business is involved in charity work, then tag them in your post by selecting the ‘Support A Nonprofit Option’ which will then appear in a box under the text of your post. It’s a great way to bring it to attention of your followers and to raise awareness of a certain cause or organisation – they are a great way to get donations!
9) Tag A Product
If you’ve linked your products to your Facebook page (if you haven’t, do it asap) then you can tag a specific product in a post which will pull through the photo, price, item descriptions and link. You can also add further information in the ad text above it too!
10) Record A Milestone
If someone has followed your page, then they are obviously interested in hearing all about you and your wonderful business.
If you’ve hit an anniversary, reached an important milestone or maybe you’ve even received a prestigious award… tell your followers! Show them all the amazing things you’ve been up to and shout about it! The milestone doesn’t have to be huge – you could have received your first order, or your 100th, or gained your first ever international customer – be proud of your achievements and tell the world!
11) Make A List
I’ve not seen ANYONE use this post feature on Facebook yet.
You can choose from a variety of pre-made lists from Facebook or you can create your own. This could be a great way to get personal – tell your followers some fun facts about your business, or even create a list of all the benefits of a specific product you sell, you really can get creative here!
So there you go! Hopefully I’ve brought to your attention some great new features which will help you to get a bit more creative with your Facebook posts. I know what it’s like to feel low on inspiration sometimes, so these post types should encourage you to mix things up!
As always, let me know if any of these posts works for you, and get in touch with any questions you have here, or by emailing me at hello@aliceroseandco.co.uk
