Are you worried that your Facebook marketing tactics need a complete refresh? Perhaps you’re concerned that the tactics you used a year or two ago just aren’t cutting it anymore. Or maybe you’re new to Facebook marketing and you’re not sure where best to concentrate your efforts.
We’re going to take a look at 10 Facebook marketing tactics that have already stood the test of time – and that are set to work just as well throughout 2022 and beyond.
1. Publishing a range of different types of content
It’s easy to fall into a bit of a rut with Facebook posts. Perhaps you find yourself constantly posting funny memes because they’ve gotten a good reaction from your audience in the past. Or maybe you put up a Facebook post every time you add a new product to your store or publish a new blog post – but you rarely post anything else.
It’s important to publish a range of different types of content on Facebook, or your audience will end up scrolling straight past. You might want to think about a mix of:
- Short videos. For example, you might post short videos sharing news, highlighting one of your products, or offering a quick tip or idea for your audience.
- Nice comments or reviews from customers. Share these prominently on your page to show people what’s being said about your product or service.
- Useful tips, ideas, or hacks that are relevant to your audience. Don’t necessarily have to relate directly to one of your products or services.
- Memes, gifs, cartoons, or other content that’s going to raise a smile.
- News or announcements (e.g., about product changes or new features).
- Questions or polls to connect with your audience and find out what they really want.
- … or almost anything else you can think of.
How often should you publish posts? You might think that the more, the better, but posting too often can impact your posts’ engagement. Around once a day is fine, and ideally no more than twice per day.
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2. Avoiding being too self-promotional
When you think about “Facebook marketing” you might assume it’s all about promoting your company’s products or services. But if every update on your company’s Facebook page is self-promotional, most people aren’t going to bother reading or interacting with your posts.
Of course, you don’t want to go so far the other way that you never even mention that you have anything for sale, or you’ll miss out on customers.
So, what’s the right balance? Many social media experts suggest aiming for around 20% of your content to be self-promotional. While that’s not a hard-and-fast rule, it’s a good starting point. You can experiment with having a bit more (or a bit less!) self-promotional content and see whether that ends up having a better effect on your bottom line.
3. Encouraging website visitors to share content on Facebook
Facebook marketing isn’t just about what you do … it’s about what other people do as well. You might think this is outside your control, but it’s important that you do what you can to encourage your website visitors to share links to your content on Facebook.
One simple and unobtrusive way to do this is through a Facebook share button. This is a button that appears on your blog post (usually at the top, bottom, or as a “sticky” button in the header or sidebar) so that visitors can easily share your content with a click.
4. Creating short, effective videos
Video content is just as popular as ever – if not more so, in the age of TikTok. When you’re creating videos for Facebook, remember that a lot of your audience will be watching on mobile devices, so make sure your videos look good on a small screen.
Keep your videos short, well-edited, and to the point: definitely under 2 minutes, and ideally more like 30 seconds maximum. That way, there’s a much higher chance that users will actually watch the whole thing.
Add subtitles, too. This isn’t just good practice for accessibility, but it also makes it easier for people to view your content at times when they might not be able to play a video out loud.
5. Getting back to Facebook messages promptly
It’s easy to forget about Messenger when it comes to Facebook marketing – but whatever type of company you have, you’re likely to get customer messages on Facebook.
Don’t simply set up an autoreply telling people to contact you by phone or email instead. It’s not very friendly, and you might well lose a potential customer. Instead, make sure your team regularly checks and responds to Facebook messages. The quicker the better. 76% of the US customers expect a response within 24 hours. But in some cases, even a delay of a few hours might mean they take their business elsewhere.
If it’s not practical to get back to customers that quickly, how about using a Messenger chatbot? This can answer common questions like “What are your opening hours?” or “How much is delivery?” – saving you time and getting your potential customer the help they need instantly. Chatbots can even handle more complex tasks like scheduling appointments and providing purchase options.
6. Running a competition on Facebook
Another great way to boost your engagement on Facebook is to run a competition or contest. You’ll need to be careful to abide by Facebook’s rules: for instance, you can’t ask people to like or share your post in order to enter the contest. You could, however, ask people to leave a comment.
Many businesses use competitions to give away a product or service – such as a free meal at your restaurant, a free place on your online course, or a free consulting session. This can build buzz and help make your product or service more visible to Facebook users.
The simplest way to run a competition is to randomly draw a winner. For example, you ask people to comment with their name in order to enter, then you assign each comment a number and use a random number generator to pick the winner. You can also use an app if you’re running a competition across multiple platforms.
You could also run a contest where a judge picks the winner. For instance, if you run a photography blog and you’re giving away a free spot in your flagship photography course, you might ask everyone to submit their best nature photo, then have a professional photographer select the winner.
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7. Replying to comments on Facebook
We’ve already looked at why it’s important to respond to Facebook messages promptly, but what about Facebook comments? Some brands don’t seem to respond to these at all, even if comments ask direct questions or involve customer complaints.
While it can be tricky to keep up with lots of comments, it’s really important to reply when customers (and potential customers) need a response from you. Not only does this create a good impression on those people, but it also shows everyone else reading the comments that you’re responsive.
You don’t need to respond to comments instantly – but ideally, you’ll want to respond within a couple of working hours. If someone has raised a complaint or issue that’s not relevant to the post they’re commenting on, try to redirect them to messages instead. You don’t want to derail your own comments thread with a long customer service discussion.
8. Using your Facebook cover image effectively
Did you upload your Facebook cover photo months ago – or even years ago? Many businesses don’t use their cover image as effectively as they should. Remember, the cover photo is one of the most prominent things that people will see when they visit your Facebook page.
You’ll want your cover photo to be high-quality and – crucially – you need to see it as a marketing tool. A luxury holiday resort might show a photo of its beautiful swimming pool; a restaurant might have some of its best dishes attractively displayed in the cover photo. You could also add text: the name of your business, for instance, or a key qualification you or your business has (e.g., “New York Times bestselling author”).
9. Promoting a special offer in a pinned post
Did you know that you can pin posts on Facebook? You might already be using this feature – but when did you last revisit your pinned post to make sure it’s still as relevant and useful as possible?
Your pinned post will appear right at the top of the feed on your page, above the most recent posts. This means it’s instantly visible to everyone who visits your page, so it’s a great opportunity to promote a product or service.
If you’re running a special offer, use your pinned post for that. You could even have an offer that’s exclusive to Facebook, perhaps linking to a special page on your website where they can get a discount. If you don’t want to run an offer, then you could use your pinned post to briefly share what your business does or to promote your most popular service or product.
10. Creating a Facebook group
Most brands have a Facebook page, but not many use Facebook groups for their customers or prospective customers.
A Facebook group, whether public or private, can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. You could use a Facebook group in lots of different ways, but a couple of common options are:
- As a place to test out new business ideas, get customers’ feedback on what they’d like you to change or add to your products/services, run polls, and so on.
- As a way to support other products (e.g., a course that you run). The addition of a Facebook group could help encourage people to buy, as they’ll know they can easily get help and support with the course.
The great thing about Facebook groups is that members can post content. Of course, you can moderate this before letting anything go out to the group if you want. This takes the pressure off you, as you won’t be the only one publishing new content. It helps encourage a two-way conversation and gives your customers and prospects a chance to feel more invested in your business.
You may also like: Best Tips to Use Persuasion Techniques in Social Media Marketing.
Final words
Instead of always trying to find the newest Facebook marketing tactics or hacks, look for tried and true tactics that will continue to work for months and years to come. The 10 ideas above are a great place to start. Pick one of them to put into practice in your marketing this week.
Web developer and SEO specialist with 20+ years of experience in open-source web development, digital marketing, and search engine optimization. He is also the moderator of this blog "RS Web Solutions (RSWEBSOLS)".
