Many small business struggle when trying to develop a Facebook strategy when it comes to growing their audience and increasing their reach.
Facebook has become one of the most impactful social media platforms for all businesses regardless of size or industry.
It is a great environment to connect with new audiences that you may not otherwise. One of the major appeals for businesses is that Facebook advertising is extremely affordable and makes it easier to reach targeted audiences.
Just a few stats that reinforce the potential impact this social media platform can have. Facebook has 2.375 billion active users each month. With 74% of those users reporting visiting on a daily basis. And more than half of those claim that they check their page several times a day. Bottomline: With access to so many active users who can be converted into buyers, you should consider strengthening your marketing efforts on Facebook.
One important factor that fuels online marketing for all businesses: Traffic. If there is no traffic, businesses simply can’t make it in today’s digital world. And, while years ago getting traffic wasn’t such a difficult task, in today’s digital era, the competition has reached enormous sizes. Search traffic is now more competitive than ever before.
If you are publishing content but don’t seem to be succeeding in engagement and growth of your audience, here are 5 tactics that can help you attract and retain more followers than ever before.
1. Aim For Good Quality Audience
Great content isn’t enough to grow your Facebook audience. Attracting and growing your Facebook audience requires targeting right from the beginning. What does this mean? Know your target audience. Before you begin any efforts you need to consider who is going to read or watch your content, what type of content engages them, and how to keep them hooked and wanting more.
While it can be considered a measurement of ROI, the number of followers on your Facebook account is not the most important thing. If you want to see your engagement rates growing at a rapid pace, the quality of the audience is what truly matters.
The number of followers means nothing if it is only conceived from fake or inactive users. Those users will never engage with your posts no matter how good they are. So, your priority when attracting and targeting your audience is users that will engage with your posts.
2. Start Sharing More Videos
Facebook videos are massively popular and have a larger appeal to users compared to written content. We all know that images can speak a thousand words. But videos can do a lot more than that when it comes to engaging and attracting your target audience. According to data from TechCrunch 75 million people use the Watch feature of the social media platform to watch videos at least one minute per day.
62% of Facebook users are more interested in a product after seeing it in on a video in their feed. So it comes as no surprise that one of the most effective ways to attract and grow your audience is to strengthen your video marketing efforts in your social media strategy.
Another effective trick is to add captions to your videos. According to a report from Instapage, caption videos have a 16% higher reach than videos without subtitles. Why is that so? One reason is that many people don’t turn on audio when looking through their feed which makes them lose interest in a video really quickly. Captions improve comprehension, and viewers are far more engaged with the video when they can also read what the video is talking about.
3. Target Your Audience For Certain Posts
When it comes to a Facebook strategy for targeting and growing your audience, this is one tip that’s very overlooked.
Targeting people on Facebook isn’t limited to paid ads. You can also use this feature with your organic posts to ensure that the right people will see them. This feature has been available for some time and is very relevant and useful. So, if you are not using it, check it out. 
What can this feature help you do? It can help you target your potential and loyal customers by their personal details such as their age, gender, level of education, location, and interests. The feature also allows you to set a start and end date for your organic posts depending on how long you prefer them to appear in the news feed of your audience.
To get started, check out your “General Settings” on your Facebook business page and locate the settings for “Audience Optimization for Posts”. Once you allow that and save, you’ll notice options when posting for restricting and targeting your audience.
4. Create Contests
Social media contests, be it on Instagram, Facebook or YouTube, have proven to be the easiest and most effective way to increase your online presence quickly. Why? For two very good reasons:
- It makes your audience feel appreciated
- Everybody likes free stuff
If you are looking to spice up your social media presence and grow your audience, contests are the way to do it. They work great in engaging your audience to take further action with you. Should they comment on your contest post, share it with their friends or tag three of their friends in the comment section of the post? Chances are that most people will do it simply because it is easy and there is a prize.
You don’t have to be a math expert to realize that for every shared post or tagged friends in comments, your Facebook account is a thousand times more likely to get new followers.
Facebook contests can do wonders in helping you build brand awareness and grow your audience simply because free stuff makes potential customers feel appreciated by your brand.
Quick summary of best practices for a successful contest campaign:
- Choose a relevant and worthy prize
- Define your contest goals (reach, likes, follows, etc)
- Keep it simple for your audience – just a share/like/click – not too many ‘steps’ to follow
- Create your contest rules in advance
- Promote (with ads) on multiple Social Media Channels
- Monitoring: Make sure ONE person is in charge of engagement
- Mobile Friendly Contest? It better be. Check it out before you promote it.
- Measure the campaign performance. If you don’t measure it, you can’t improve it.
5. Use Other Social Media Platforms To Promote
Using your other social media accounts to direct your followers to your Facebook page is another great strategy for growing your audience. It can never hurt to ask your audiences on other social media platforms to like your Facebook page. For example, if you have a popular YouTube channel with many subscribers, all you need to do is ask your audience at the end of your videos to also like your Facebook page to get more of your posts.
Facebook has long been the leading social media platform. Why not harness this marketing platform to target and grow your audience. Remember any new follower can be converted into a potential customer, which means additional revenue.
