5 Basic Ways to Engage Your Facebook Fans

With 800+ million users from more than 213 countries worldwide, Facebook has become the crownless king of social networking niche. It has become the no.1 weapon of mass engagement for almost every sort of activity ranging from charity to marketing.

Most of the brands and organizations are doing wonders with this weapon. By now, a larger portion of the entire Facebook population understands the way the engagement game is being played.

But engaging friends and fans on Facebook is not that simple as it looks. Big brands and mostly renowned organizations generally possess the power of a vast offline presence and as a by-product also carry a readymade reputation. And being in such a state, they can bank on their Facebook presence very easily . Well, this is just a possibility, not something solid. To make it certain, they still need to work hard on it.

According to a latest study from Ehrennberg-Bass Institute of Australia, only a mere 1% (or slightly more) of fans of the biggest brands on Facebook actually engage. Under such an influence, irrespective of the size of the organization, there rises the need to polish the engagement strategies being used so far.

With the rise of censorship issues, this so called ‘need’ takes a turn where we are required to adapt accordingly.

So, here are 5 interactive ways to engage your fans on Facebook:

1.  Ask Questions: The best way ever to engage your audience with  your Facebook presence or with any other online presence is to ask questions. While applying this , you should concentrate on the KISS formula. Yes, keep it simple and short. Ask direct and short questions. In Facebook, unless there is a monetarily incentive, nobody loves to answer long and serious questions. So,utilize the Facebook questions in the best possible way. And remember, your duty doesn’t end simply with asking a question, you should reply too. Have a policy of replying to each of the answers you get.

2.  Use Photos: Using a photograph on your (individual account or fan-page) wall would definitely favor you massively upon proper utilization. Choose a topic and use an interesting photo on that topic, target it as per the interest level of your audiences, and if necessary tag a few people from that target list selectively(not spam). You can also engage your Facebook fans by asking a simple question on/about that photo. But the main factor here is to hit the interest level. E.g. – The day Steve Jobs passed away Facebook experienced thousands of his pictures on FB walls. And most of them were highly clicked, viewed and praised. In other terms, that drove a sentimental engagement through those pictures.

3. Comments: It might sound awkward but comments on someone else's posts can increase the engagement level on your page or profile, it’s a fact. Try commenting in a clever way where you leave certain (enough) hint/s for the users to have a look at your (or your page’s) wall. Providing a link to your wall is not a good idea in this case. Try to connect/comment on the theme on which you want to engage your target audience from that page or profile.

4. Tagging: As I said above, you can tag a photo to get engagement. But FB tagging is not limited to only to pictures. You should also try tagging other pages when you have content or can bring something of that level to the table. You can also tag people whom you find suitable and frequently engage with your content. Again avoid tagging unnecessarily; you would become more of a spammer, do it right and do it tight.

5. Appreciation: It might sound like a term outside the FB dictionary, but it is the golden term that rules the world of engagement in Facebook for SMEs and lesser known brands. Have you noticed how skillfully most of successful fan pages appreciate their fan base! Most of these successful pages appreciate their fan’s activities on their page in a frequent manner. That way the users who engage with that page feel more connected. And making your fans comfortable and connected is the key to keep your engagement level soaring.

Try these 5 basic ways to engage your fan base, and you would be more than happy that you engaged here with my post. If you have any doubts or want to share your point(s), please do use the commenting section below or tweet out to me @SyedMRaza.

Have a great FB fan engagement experience ahead!

Images via SocialMediaClub.org