Aaron Lee is the social media manager at , a comprehensive platform for social media marketing through digital promotions and contests. He also writes social media tips on the . Follow him at .
When Mark Zuckerberg first built , the purpose of it was to keep people connected with their friends. That was its first purpose. And it worked well.
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As Facebook grew, its purpose grew to accommodate businesses. Hence the addition of . But many brand page admins make the mistake of thinking of Facebook users as “friends” who will look at company posts simply because a company posts them.
That's not true, and it's not true because not all posts are created equal. Think of it this way, your business is not automatically friends with your audience. That only changes if you engage with them. Engagement on Facebook is reflected in three forms: likes, shares, and comments. Here are six ways to create the right type of engagement via posts for your brand.
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1. Photos
We have all heard “A picture is worth a thousand words.” On Facebook, a picture could be worth a thousand likes. That's because a picture is one of the simplest ways to catch someone’s attention, as it is more visually appealing than the average post. Think of it this way, when you are scrolling your news feed, isn't it usually the large, colorful, images that get you to stop?
When it comes to brands, a familiar image is also key. Familiarity in an image is as simple as including your company logo or a face that's tied to your brand. Including a shortened link for readers to click on, is also useful when it comes to engagement.
fully utilizes this to their advantage, as their pictures often come with shortened links. This helps to keep the focus on the interesting art, while also providing a way for the audience to get more information, if they want.
2. Fill in the Blanks
Fill-in-the-blank posts are great at sparking engagement. The blanks are essentially 'platforms' for people to share their creativity. These types of posts often garner fun and short comments, which then encourage your audience to react and interact.
-- a gourmet cat food brand -- regularly creates these posts. The post in the image above received more than 170 likes, 407 comments, and twelve shares. Notice how the comments outnumber the likes.
3. Photo Captions
The above is an example from Facebook Page. They asked their audience to create a caption for this photo of a baby orangutan. It received more than 27,800 likes, 11,700 shares and 3,700 comments.
4. Questions
Most page admins make the mistake of updating their wall without putting much thought into adding a description or ending the description with a question. Asking questions is probably one of the easiest methods to get fans to comment and share their thoughts. Without asking a question, people might just read the article and move on.
Inc. Magazine posted an article with a question as its headline. In this case, the question requires that you give your feedback in the form of a personal story.
Alternatively, you can also ask simple questions. Questions that requires the audience to choose -- which would you prefer? Left or Right? -- are able to generate comments because its simplicity means that people would not need to spend much effort or time to comment.
Here is an example from Ideeli, a web retailer that specializes in flash sales.
5. Tips
Tips are ideas that fans are able to consume and implement easily. A tip is engaging because it gives value to your audience and therefore makes them more likely to react.
Here is an example from Mari Smith, a Facebook expert who shares great ideas and tips that add value to her community. Her tips are structured to help her community and are often written in a step-by-step process.
6. Quotes
Quotes are one of the easiest and most popular ways to get likes and shares on Facebook. They tend to get more shares and likes compared to comments because quotes are often inspirational, making it personal in nature.
Here's a great example from from Carolʼs Daughter, which received more than 7,910 shares and 22,141 likes. Inspired yet?
How are you currently engaging your audience on Facebook?
This story originally published on Mashable .