As brands complain that their Facebook engagement has gone south, various re-engagement strategies have cropped up. Unfortunately, many of these are expensive. So how can entrepreneurs tight on funds continue utilizing the power of social? To find out, we asked 10 successful founders from YEC how they were managing to boost Facebook engagement without having to pay for it. These were their suggestions:
Remember That Image is Everything
We believe your image is everything. You want to stay relevant to your audience, and we’ve found that showing our decadent food images often gets the most likes and retweets. Also, running contests is a great way to increase followers and engagement. Announce the contest on all social media outlets, but run it through one of you weaker channels. It’s a great way to see a spike in followers. – Alex Lorton, Cater2.me
Align With Viral Trends
Search for breaking viral content within your industry — using Reddit, YouTube etc. — and pull it into Facebook, creating your own unique post. This way the content has already been proven effective and you can simply repurpose it within your community and align it to reinforce your brand’s story. – Alexander Mendeluk, SpiritHoods
Post Engaging Content
It sounds obvious, but it’s key: Post great content. There’s really no other answer. The more people engage, share and interact, the more likely your posts are to appear in their feeds. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. We keep it fun, fresh and engaging — a great mix of stuff that keeps people engaged. – Kuba Jewgieniew, Realty ONE Group
Listen and Engage
One of the main reasons fans are not engaged is because posts are too often only about the brand. Companies sometimes forget that social media’s intent is not to lead to direct sales, but to make an impression and engage with the audience. So, by making Facebook posts more relatable and shareable, though still substantive, a company will begin to see more engagement. – Joe Apfelbaum, Ajax Union
Post Interesting Photos
Photos that stir up a positive emotion get 39 percent or more engagement over a regular post. I like to put emotional pictures with quotes; these seem to get a lot more interaction. Photos posted after 10 p.m. seem to get the most interaction, but it really depends on your demographics. Ours is women over 30, so most of them are winding down and browsing Facebook before bed. – John Rampton, Adogy
Seek Out People Who Care
I find that the best way to get engagement is to focus on meeting new people who want to talk about your topic. If you’re a health product, why not go out and find people who love to talk health and work out a deal to interact with people on your posts? What if you had five people who liked talking about your brand on each of your posts? It’s a great way to keep engagement high. – Rob Fulton, Matikis
Collaborate for Traffic Sharing
We have found a ton of success partnering with brands that cater to similar demographics. We’re able to tap into their audience — a new audience for us — while also sharing something cool with our fans. Collaborations provide the best of both worlds: engaging content and a larger audience. – Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches
Be Interesting or Entertaining
Post things that people will be interested in. Posts that are non-informative or non-entertaining will be sure to discourage engagement through Facebook. – Phil Laboon, Eyeflow Internet Marketing
Host Giveaways
Doing creative giveaways or service-based giveaways based on a photo or new promotion will greatly increase your Facebook engagement. People and followers like to be incentivized by a brand or event. They like free stuff or a great deal. Engage with them by asking a question, or asking them to do something in order to have access to the giveaway. This can also help boost client loyalty. – Jason Grill, JGrill Media | Sock 101
Provide Value
Providing value to your followers can come in many forms, such as interesting content, discounts, giveaways, etc. As long as you are providing something your followers find value in, the engagement will be there. – Josh Weiss, Bluegala
Featured Image: Twin Design via Shutterstock
