Social Media Engagement Tips for Facebook Brands

Keep Posts Short

True, Facebook doesn’t have the same character limitations as Twitter, but according to social media consultant Jeff Bullas, it’s the shorter posts that rake in engagement. On average, he says, posts between one and 80 characters have a 27% higher engagement rate than posts with over 80 characters. And yet, those under 80 character posts only account for 19% of all brand posts on Facebook. No wonder so many brands are scratching their heads in bewilderment, trying to figure out how to better engage. If you’re one of those brands, try shortening your posts and see what happens.

Ditch the URL Shortener

Again, this is indicative of the differences between Twitter and Facebook. URL shorteners are great on Twitter, where character length counts for everything. But on Facebook, it appears that engagement rates are a whopping 300% higher for posts that used a full-length URL, as opposed to a URL shortener. Wow! So on Facebook, forgo Bitly and other URL shorteners. Just post a full length URL so your fans know they can trust the link you’re sharing with them.

Use Keywords

We tend to forget about keywords on social media, but Bullas cites a study that shows they do indeed matter. We’re not talking about using a long, awkward-sounding geo-targeted keyword (“Los Angeles bicycle shops” or “Orange County plastic surgery”); instead, this refers to short, simple social media keywords that provoke engagement from Facebook fans. Here are the top five keywords that generate the most “likes”:

• Like
• Take
• Submit
• Watch
• Post

Likewise, here are the top five social media keywords that generate the most comments:

• Post
• Comment
• Tell Us
• Check
• Like

Try using these keywords now, and watch your Facebook engagement increase. Your Facebook fans aren’t just impersonal “users”; they are people, and they respond to action words like those listed here.

These are just a few key tips that can help boost your brand’s fan engagement on Facebook. Take them seriously, give them your best effort and see if your social media engagement doesn’t increase in a relatively short amount of time. We believe it will!