Facebook Best Practices To Remember As You Create Content
⌛ By Kaylin R. Staten ⌛
Like or not, Facebook is still part of our daily lives. As public relations, marketing, advertising, and other communications industries continue to converge, social media is always part of every strategy I hand over to clients. Plus, as a semi-public figure, I use it myself to showcase what is going on #behindthehourglass and to further Hourglass Media’s mission and global corporate responsibility.
With the seemingly daily changes to Facebook’s algorithm, you may find your content (especially on business pages) to fall victim to more “popular” or paid posts. With the social media arena becoming more vital to our digital footprints, how can you make sure you are creating and sharing quality content that your followers want to read and calls to action that actually work?
I give this sheet to clients who want to learn more about Facebook and handle social media accounts themselves. While it’s broad in scope, it’s a good reminder to all of us to keep the basics in mind as we craft posts for our companies and clients.
Download it here or continue reading to see our Facebook page best practices:
Post at least a few times per week to engage your followers. (Check Insights to see which days/times resonate the most with your followers.)
Schedule posts so they appear at different times throughout the week using Facebook’s internal scheduler on the Create Post section on the page’s main page or post section. You can also reach this on the Published Posts tabs on the top page menu.
Tag people, places, and things as much as possible. Use the @ symbol and start typing the person or page’s name.
Insights to pay particular attention to: Overview, Likes, Reach, Page Views, Actions on Page, Posts, People. The best method is to look over these in one-month increments to analyze comprehensive results. You can check them at any time, however, especially if you have an engaging post or want to conduct primary research on your audience.
Respond to the page’s messages ASAP to maintain an excellent response rate. Message templates can also help with this under the Messaging section in Settings. You can create a welcome message when someone visits the page or sends an initial message (these are already set up but can always be changed).
Page Verification: This is recommended because you get a checkmark on your page beside your name. This can be found under the General Settings page. (Can use your phone number or business license to verify.)
Templates and Tabs section in Settings: You can change the order of the tabs on the side of your page’s homepage. You can remove sections altogether or change the template to meet your needs. The current setting is Business.
Facebook Stories: This can only be done on mobile. You can click on the + on the profile photo and choose Create Story. These 20-second stories will appear on the top of your followers’ timelines with other people’s and pages’ stories. You can see them at the top of your personal account’s timeline.
Facebook Live: Videos and photos are the best content to post. Native Facebook content (versus just uploaded content) performs better. Live videos don’t have to be perfect. They can be interviews, behind-the-scenes looks, a presentation, etc.
Advertisements can also grow page likes, impressions, and other ROI measurements. Instagram is also good for cross-promotion and posts.
Stay tuned this month for more public relations strategies and tactics, which are Hourglass Media’s bread and butter. :)
A friendly note: We use some affiliate links in our blog posts.
Kaylin R. Staten, APR, is an award-winning public relations practitioner and writer based in Huntington, WV with nearly 16 years of professional communications experience. As CEO and founder of Hourglass Media, she uses her compassionate spirit and expertise to delve into the heart of clients’ stories. She is a recovering perfectionist, mental health advocate, wife, cat mom and Leia Organa aficionado. Connect with Kaylin on LinkedIn.