5 Ways To Create Engaging Content On Facebook

Chris Ducker has recently launched his New Business Podcast, having Amy Porterfield, the Facebook and social media expert, as his first guest. I found myself franticly taking notes while listening to this episode, so I thought it’d be a good idea to share them with you.

It’s the first time I write this kind of post, so please do let me know if you’d like to see more of these in the future.

Why Should You Care?

Let’s face some facts:

• No matter who you are, your audience is on Facebook.
• No matter who you are, your competitors are on Facebook.
• Facebook is one of the first places where new audience will find you. Do you want to have a say in their first-time experience?

What’s This Thing About Fans Not Seeing My Status Updates?

Some time ago, Facebook admitted that any given post you make on your Facebook page will only appear in the Newsfeed of about 16% of your fans. There has been a lot of distress ever since — as most people (including me) expected that a 100% of their fans will see a 100% of the messages they send out. After all, these are hard earned fans!

But listening to Amy (and following a great article by Dan Raine on the Digital Marketing Magazine) , I suddenly realized something. Something that has eluded me, no matter how obvious it may be:

Facebook is not here to serve our business needs. Facebook is here to serve Jane and John Smith. The people.

“Wait a second,” I thought. “That sounds a lot like the way Ed Dale talks about Google!”.

You see, Google still lives and dies on its search engine product. We all know what happens if our website becomes irrelevant in the eyes of Google: _Its ranks drop_.

What Do Pandas Have To Do With Facebook?

Here are some news for you, sunshine: Facebook is exactly the same as Google in this way. Just like the Smiths want to see relevant results when they use Google, they want to see something interesting when they log on to Facebook.

Just like they do not want to see spammy websites on Google’s results, they do NOT want Facebook to serve them a massive shitload of self-promoting content from the tens or hundreds of pages that they follow — every single time they log in.

This is exactly what Chris has mentioned when I interviewed him for the magazine — you must switch your marketing from B2C (business to consumer/customer) to P2P – People to People.

What Do People Welcome On Their Newsfeed?

Amy explains that people want to see content that falls into (at least) one of the 3 E’s:

1. Entertaining
2. Educating
3. Empowering

That’s the kind of the content you need to produce on your Facebook page. But wait, it doesn’t end here (does it ever?).

“90% of the people that LIKE a Facebook Page will never visit it again” —Amy Porterfield

Read that again. 90% of your fans never enter your page for a 2nd time. There are two conclusions you must draw from this statistic:

1. You need to stop wasting so much energy on making your Facebook Page look drop-dead gorgeous.
   • Your cover and profile photos are your storefront. You need them to look professional. Help people want to enter and check out the goods.
   • Don’t go bananas with tabs and all that.

2. You must find a way to get your content into your fans’ Newsfeeds.

   • Right now, only 16% or less of them are seeing it.
   • You can bet your ass they’re not coming over to your page to look for it on their own.

How To Make Your Content Reach More Newsfeeds

Just like Google judges your website’s popularity and relevancy to determine search rankings, Facebook judges how engaging your content is to determine how many of your fans should see your posts in their Newsfeed.

Here are the factors that determine how engaging your content is considered to be, and therefore how many of your fans will see it (ordered in ascending importance):

1. Likes
2. Shares
3. Comments

Obviously, one question remains: How to make my content more engaging, so that it’ll get more likes, shares, and comments?

I’m happy to report that Amy delivered 5 key-points to help out:

5 Ways To Make Your Content More Engaging

1: The Three E’s

As mentioned earlier. Every single post you write must be either educating, empowering or entertaining. And you should mix them. Don’t focus just on one. This is true for any kind of content, not just Facebook.

2: Make It Count

Every post you make is seen by some of your fans. Make it count for them. Don’t waste their time. Make something they want to engage with (like, share, comment).

Remember that every engagement action that your fans make will improve the EdgeRank score – the Facebook ranking that determines which stories people see on their Newsfeed.

3: Use Photos In Your Posts

You MUST. USE. PHOTOS. And use them often.

How often? Amy suggests that 90% of your posts should have a photo attached. Why?

1. It’s the most engaging format of content on Facebook today — even more than video (read: it gets the most likes, shares and comments).
2. It gives your posts more space in your readers’ Newsfeeds, compared to text posts (read: you get noticed).
3. It’s much, much easier and faster to produce than video.

Now, don’t stress! Finding photos can be easy — if you make it that. You don’t need breath-taking photography; You need real life photography. Start using that iPhone camera of yours. Then, the next time you post something, take a quick look at your photo library. Find something nice and voila! Problem solved!

How far can you take this relieance on your smartphone’s camera? Pretty far:

If you don’t have a photo appropriate for your post, why not write the subject down on your whiteboard and take a snapshot of that? —Amy

4: Curate Content

It ain’t easy to create awesome posts every single day. This is where curation comes into play. Share some of the great stuff that your peers, idols, colleagues, market leaders and fans make. This is beneficial in more than one way:

1. It gives you great content to share without having you create it all.
2. It shows your community that you care (you spend time on finding them interesting stuff).
3. It shows you’re on the top of your game (you know what’s going on in the niche).
4. It creates relationships with the market leaders that you promote via curation.

Two caveats (making my humble addition to Amy’s tips) are:

1. You should always, ALWAYS, include your own opinion. It can be as short as 1-2 sentences, or even 2-5 words. But add something of your own.
2. Whatever you share has to be great. Don’t share “just becasue you need content and can’t be bothered with creating it today”. Share stuff because it’s great.

5: Contests and Giveaways

Amy points out that contests and giveaways are a fantastic tool for getting traction, engaging and getting to know your audience. But there are a bunch of pitfalls, so be sure to check out 6 Ways to Keep Your Facebook Contest on the Up and Up (so it Doesn’t Get Shut Down) on Amy’s blog for 3rd party tools, terms, conditions and tips.

Advanced Stuff

As you can see, Amy & Chris shared an amazing amount of great content. There’s more stuff that was covered on the episode that’s more advanced, like Facebook ads and (my favorite) “how to turn LIKEs into $$$” — but this post is already pretty long, so here’s what I’ll do:

If you liked this post, and want me to cover the more advanced subjects – let me know via the comments and I’ll make a “part 2” post soon enough.

More Info & Sources

1. New Business Podcast – Episode #1 Show Notes (ChrisDucker.Com)
2. Subscribe to the New Business Podcast on iTunes. I’m really excited to see more invaluable stuff coming from this podcast in the future.
3. Amy Porterfield – Facebook Page
4. Amy Porterfield – Homepage
5. Chris Ducker – Homepage

Please let me know if this post was beneficial to you, and if you’d like to see more of these in the future!