3 tips for captivating Facebook audiences 

1. Use business page best practices  — Facebook might not be as visual as Instagram, but it is still ruled by the same principles. Posts that are engaging, appealing, or evocative perform better. Asking questions provokes meaningful interactions. The clearer your message, the easier it is to communicate. To satisfy these principles, make sure your Facebook business page features:

• Brand-aligned, accurate copy

• Clear contract information — and location if applicable

• Appropriate business categories

• Prominent visuals — e.g. profile picture, cover photo, pinned post — that attract the eye, communicate a message, or invite conversation

To further enhance your business page, turn on Recommendations, and if possible, enable Chatbot.  

2. Access your audience with ads — Once you’ve optimized your Facebook business page, it’s time to start reaching people. Content marketing and grassroots campaigns are a great way to gradually build your Facebook following, but the fastest, most effective way to reach targeted audiences is undoubtedly Facebook ads. For a nominal fee — on average, $7.19 per 1,000 impressions — Facebook allows to you filter target audiences by location, demographics, interests, behavior, and connections, or create a custom set based on contact lists, app users, or site visitors. To help determine the right audience for your ad campaign, Facebook offers extensive Audience Insights and identifies Lookalike Audiences.   

3. Take advantage of groups — If you can’t afford an ad spend but have the time, Facebook groups are also a great place to engage with customers, share information, and connect with new audiences. Hootsuite recommends creating a group for your business to build relationships with followers, make new network connections, provide customer support, and collect feedback. But we also recommend exploring other groups on Facebook. We often plug our book podcast, MID LIT, in groups for literature lovers and podcast junkies — you just have to make sure you’re contributing relevant information to the conversation and not shilling too hard.  

*Bonus Tip: If you’re running ads on Facebook, make sure the creative contains less than 20% text. Facebook no longer restricts ads with lots of text, but their data shows ads with less text perform better. Other best practices for Facebook ad creatives include using high-resolution images and the right aspect ratio.