7 Ways to Increase Facebook Engagement in 2017

There's no question about the hold Facebook has in our lives, as more than 2 billion people use it monthly. Businesses had successfully used this social media giant to boost the public's engagement with their brand. Unfortunately, that all changed around two years ago when Facebook changed its algorithm so that only content relevant to the user will appear in their News Feed.

User engagement is one of the factors that determine whether your brand or content will show up in a user's News Feed. This means that the more likes, comments, and shares a post gets, the more likely it will be seen by a larger audience. The trick now is to know how to get your audience engaged.

Luckily, there are some tips and tricks you can do to increase Facebook engagement. Here are 7 of them:

1. Post When the Timing is Right

The enormous amount of posts being published on Facebook means there's a lot of competition. The trick is to know the right time to post. Surprisingly, this doesn't mean the time when most people are logged in to the site. Studies have shown that it's more effective to post content sometime between 10pm and midnight (local time) as this receives the most engagement.

Posting at 11 am is also a good, but engagement during this time is minimal, as people are just skimming through their News Feed. This is in direct contrast to night time, when fewer posts are made but users have more time to really go through each post.

2. Share Content Your Audience Wants, Not What You Want

To get people engaged with your post, share content that they want. Most of the time, businesses think that since they're in a certain niche, that all their content should be related to that field. For example, an online book shop might post content about their book prices, company news, and best sellers. But that's not what audiences want to keep reading about daily. To keep things interesting, expand the type of content that you share. In our example, the bookshop could post recipes on how to recreate dishes that were mentioned in a popular book series or share a beloved writer's top 10 favorite characters. Some tips on writing or reading would also be appreciated. The trick is to post something different, but not so different that it would seem out of place.

3. Use Real and Personal Photos

Pictures are undoubtedly one of the most engaging content that a business can share, especially when they're real and not just some generic photo. Users would rather see original and personal photos than stock images. This is why we keep looking at photos of what our friends ate than those sleek images a famous burger brand might put out.

4. Reply to Your Audience and Build Relationships

Since you're making a lot of effort to get people engaged Image result for reply on Facebook with your post, it makes sense that you should also take the time to reply to their comments. Don't just post content and forget. Check the comments and reply as soon as you can. Engage your audience in a conversation. Yes, you need to deal with the usual troll but remember that people who leave comments did so because the post connected with them. Reply and make them feel appreciated. They will be more inclined to engage with your other posts as well.

5. Make Blog Posts That Fits Facebook Perfectly

Links will go a long way to keep your audience engaged on Facebook. To ensure this happens, create a company blog and start making content that's tailored specifically to Facebook. List posts and content that tickles people's curiosity are the ones that perform well on the social media site. You can even look at content that you previously shared and create similar content or search for keywords that are engaging and interesting.

6. Make Your Posts Sweet and Short

Blog posts are well and good, but remember that your Facebook page is not the company blog. People on Facebook are not there to read long content. Posts that are between 1 to 50 characters long garnered the most engagement. The more characters or words used in the post, the less engaged the audience is. So take out the unnecessary details and just treat your posts like headlines that will pull people in and get them to click on your link.

7. Ask the Audience to Get Engaged

If you want your audience to be engaged, then give them clear Image result for call to action Facebook instructions on what you want them to do. A Call to Action is something that a lot of businesses or marketers forget but it's what consumers respond to. Do you want your audience to share your post or to comment? Give them instructions on what they should do next. After all, if they took the time to read the whole post, they're already interested in the content and are willing to take the next step.

Facebook's billions of monthly users give you billions of opportunities to reach out to them. Plan your strategy well and make sure you have the right management tools to increase your Facebook engagement.  

Two Effective Ways to Grow Your Audience on Snapchat in 2017

Snapchat has been on quite a roll. In 2016,  the image and multimedia messaging app become the fastest growing social media company in the US. But this might not be so surprising considering that over 10 billion videos are watched on Snapchat daily. A Nielsen study even revealed that the app reaches 41% of the country's 18 to 34-year-olds. More importantly, millions of its users are creating their own content.

Snapchat still hasn't oversthrown Instagram, but it is nipping at its heels. The intense engagement of the app's users and followers can only mean good things to companies as they can have greater access to various demographics, even those seemingly hard-to-reach groups.

The question now is how to tap into this goldmine and grow your audience with Snapchat. Here are two effective ways to do it:

Arrange a Takeover

Arrange for an influencer to take over your Snapchat account. This means an influencer would literally take over your account for a period of time and create content for you. Takeovers are proving to be a very effective way of growing your Snapchat audience.

One reason for this is that it gives your brand a humanizing element. Seeing a favorite influencer using your product and your Snap account creates a sort of relationship, as the follower gets an honest look at another person's perspective. Aside from the established connection, it also introduces your account to new followers.

However, influencers don't usually come cheap. In some cases, this type of marketing might cost a hefty sum. Bear in mind that most influencers work with a limited amount of brands as too many deals might leave their followers disgruntled. They are also very careful with the companies they work with as they only choose brands that reflect their image or message.

Use Other Social Media to Cross-Promote

Snapchat is still a baby when compared to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. So if you have existing accounts on these platforms, it's logical to assume that you have more followers there as these accounts are older. Take advantage of those followers and cross-promote your Snapchat account in these channels.

A prime example is YouTube personality Shane Dawson, who has shown an aptitude for cross-promoting his brand. The author and sketch comedian tends to promote his Snapchat account to his more than 8 million viewers on YouTube by keeping his Snap handle up in most of his videos. He does the same thing on his Snap account by posting updates there whenever he has a new video up.

There's no shame in indulging in some self-promotion on your own channels, as long as you're providing decent content most of the time. To ensure that your audience doesn't tire of too much self-promotion, try to keep it at 80/20 – 80% entertaining content and 20% self-promotion.

Now would be the best time to create a Snapchat account and start building followers. If you already have an existing account, try incorporating it with your other social media accounts or find someone to do a shout out or takeover. You might have to shell out some cash or offer a sweet deal in return, but it will be worth it.