Ever heard that old saying, ‘Fail to plan, plan to fail?’ In business, life, and yes, even with Facebook marketing, it’s the raw and honest truth. You really can’t hit a target if you never know what the target is. The caveat is that you won’t know what the target is if you don’t make a plan!
Really, why waste energy and resources doing anything of importance without a solid plan in place? There’s no rhyme or reason to such tom-foolery, in our humble opinion.
But, where to begin? We know that designing a killer Facebook content strategy can feel overwhelming, but it certainly doesn’t have to be. We decided to curate some of our top tips for those of you that are in it to win it!
Hit one tip out of the park or hit them all, and you’ll at least be a step closer to becoming that content strategy beast we know is hidden inside of you!
1. Determine Your Audience
The first step in any branding and content campaign is to determine your target audience. Once you know that target, you can find ways to reach hit it effectively, nearly every time.
Engage with Your Audience
Once you know who your ‘right people’ are, make sure to engage with them.
This can be done by replying to comments and mentions, or engaging them through posts that require them to give an opinion about something!
Engaging your audience on Facebook also includes making quality, relatable content they will take an interest in. Be sure to add a personal touch to your posts and mention the commenters’ names when making replies, so that your people feel seen and heard.
Grab Their Attention
Creating content that’s related to your brand, and then presenting it in an attractive and engaging probably should be labeled ‘Attention Garnering 101′.
You can also increase attention by incorporating current trends and events into your content strategy. Just be sure they are trends and events that hit home with your target demographic.
Most people typically don’t care about something happening 2,000 miles away in another state. Also, there’s really something to be said about not over-complicating things, including your content. Sometimes, simple is best.
Don’t Oversell Yourself
Yes, the whole purpose of promoting your business or brand on Facebook or any other social media platform is to increase exposure, which hopefully then translates into sales. However, you don’t have to be annoying about it!
If all of your posts end with the phrase ‘order now’, hate to break it to you, but you’re probably overselling.
Try a more subtle and refined approach and let your sales happen organically. When people are interested in your content and brand, they will eventually invest in your products and services. No need to be that smarmy sales guy or gal whose every post is riddled with ‘buy this’ or ‘order that’.
2. Set Those Goals!
In order to develop a marketing strategy that maximizes your exposure on Facebook, its imperative to set your goals.
Below are some common questions to help you determine what your goals might look like. Answering these questions can set some parameters for you to measure your progress against.
What Do You Want to Achieve Through Facebook?
Facebook is arguably one of the most popular platforms to post content and promote your brand or business. But you have to know what you want from it in order to learn how to use it as an effective tool in your content marketing strategies. Related questions to ask include:
- What do you want to achieve through Facebook content creation?
- How many followers do you hope to gain?
- Is that number achievable?
- What’s the time frame you’re working with?
- Are you willing to spend money to meet your goals?
- If so, how much?
- What other resources and manpower do you have to reach your goals?
- Are you creating posts simply to spread information?
- Or are you attempting earn money through your content?
What Do You Want to Achieve Through Branding?
Depending on your business model, your branding and content strategy may look different from another business, even within the same industry. Related questions you might ask yourself include:
- Is the goal to increase exposure and awareness of you brand?
- Do you simply want to sell products or services?
- How aggressive in your branding and promotion are you willing to be?
- Do you have a minimum profit margin to dub a campaign as successful?
What is Your Overall Company Goal?
Finally, and possibly most importantly, in order to define any micro goals, you need to know your company’s overall goal. All of your Facebook content, marketing, and branding strategies should point to the main goal, even if the finger is subtle.
This could be a financial goal, an expansion plan, an exposure goal, or it could even be related to a very personal ‘company mission.’ Whatever it is, try to tailor your Facebook content strategy to lead you to achieving it, and always remember to ‘keep the main thing, the main thing.’
3. Use Your Time, Manpower, & Resources Wisely
Regardless of how big or small your brand or company is, whether it’s newly established or has been around for decades, any and all resources you have at your disposal are ultimately finite.
Therefore, it is imperative to maximize those resources and use them where they are most effective.
Monitor Your Time
Facebook can be like that proverbial rabbit hole that warps all sense of time. It’s important to monitor your time carefully. Keep browsing related pages and blogs on Facebook––cleverly disguised as ‘keeping an eye on the competition’––to the minimum you can realistically get away with and still know what they’re up to.
Focus the bulk of your time researching and gathering information for your own content, creating said content, posting said content, and then engaging with your followers on that content through comments and messages. Your most valuable time spent is that which is spent creating your own stuff.
Be Realistic About Your Abilities
It’s always best to be honest about the manpower you can dedicate to content strategies and social media marketing. Whether you’re managing your campaigns yourself or have dedicated staff for that kind of thing, you have to divvy up duties in a way that works. Don’t overload yourself or your people, because what you produce will only suffer in quality as a result.
Use the Best Tools You Can Find
Facebook has a wide range of tools that let you keep an eye on your post insights, giving valuable intel about your demographic and the likes and dislikes of your audience.
You can even schedule posts on Facebook to avoid daily disruptions to post them manually. This can be especially helpful if your target audience is active during odd times, like the wee hours of the morning. The takeaway is to find the best tools and software available to you, in order to make your job as easy and as straightforward as possible.
4. Manage Your Finances Carefully
Like any other resource, your financial budget may have limits or constraints. However, you’ll want to set aside at least a little something to get your feet wet with Facebook’s paid advertising options. Those options include:
Facebook Ads
The first and most commonly used way to advertise on Facebook is with their ad platform. In a nutshell, you pay Facebook a set amount of money every day to target a set number of people, of a specific age group and locality, among other parameters.
You choose the type of targeting that works best for your business and market. Facebook ads can help increase sales and/or contribute to the growth of your brand!
Related Reading : Facebook Ads Design Tips Every Marketers Should Know
Boosted Posts
Another option is to boost your posts. Just make sure they are stellar posts! Boosting a post increases your exposure by getting shown to people who don’t follow you, but may follow similar pages.
The method of using this service is much like using Facebook ads, with similar targeting options. Try boosting an already high-performing post. It’s already proven itself organically, so boosting it could amplify its power even more.
Partnerships
Some brands increase their page reach by partnering up with other brands or businesses in their area. This incentivizes those brands to give a shout out to yours. In exchange, you might offer them financial compensation, access to free products, or a promise to cross-promote their page too. Just make sure they are complementary businesses and not competing ones!
5. Determine Your Branding Style
Although it’s important to adjust your content according to your target audience, its also important not to stray too far from your brand messaging.
Post Brand-Specific Content
Many of the people that see your content on Facebook will not end up buying your products. However, for those that will, you need to make sure you post content that authentically reflects your brand. On-brand content will attract your right people who are truly interested in your products or services.
Fan-Centric Content
Always remember that to keep your page’s engagement up and increase the reach and exposure of your page and posts, it’s a good idea to post fan-centric content once in a while. This is the content that’s both fun and engaging for your audience, with little to no focus on ‘selling.’
6. Create a Content Schedule
Remember, successful strategies on Facebook are consistent strategies. Knowing what to post and when does require some elbow grease, but once you have that ‘what’ hammered out, you can focus on the ‘when.’ Why not start with making a simple schedule? The reality is that schedules make life easier and help to keep you organized, even if they aren’t exactly sexy!
Schedule Your Content Creation
Content creation is no easy task. From curating or capturing images to make your post more attractive, to finding the right words for that blog post, to shooting a video or captioning it for better engagement, content creation is a time-consuming activity. It requires your full creative juices.
That means you need to schedule your content creation activities during your most productive hours, and leave everything else for after it’s done. Maybe your best times are early morning, maybe they are late at night. There’s no wrong time, only the right time for you.
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Schedule Your Content Posting
Before scheduling your content, use your ‘Insights’ tool on Facebook to figure out what times your target audience is most active online and when they are most engaged with your posts.
Once you pinpoint that time range, schedule out your content to publish during those times––using those handy tools we know you’ve found by now––and create a weekly post schedule. You can create content well in advance and set it up to go out once or twice a week, like clockwork, no extra brain power on your part.
If we had to boil down a winning Facebook content strategy into three, itty bitty words, they would be:
Quality, targeted, and consistent!
What’s included in your Facebook content strategy? Tell us below!
