To say that Facebook is m-a-s-s-i-v-e is like saying the Sun is hot or ice is cold. But just how big is it?
There are over 2.8 billion active monthly users as of February 2021.
That’s about double the population of China!
Looking at these numbers, it’s not hard to see why Facebook has become one of the pillars of a successful social media marketing strategy. The main challenge, however, is to cut through the content noise and make sure people actually engage with your brand.
It’s safe to assume that your brand already has an official business page on the site. In fact, you may also already have a Facebook content marketing strategy in full swing.
But let’s face it, not everyone is willing to listen to a brand they’ve never heard of before.
That’s why you need to learn how to leverage the power of your followers to maximize your content’s reach and build your authority.
In this post, we’ll discuss the tactics that will enable you to supercharge the share-worthiness factor of your content.
Let’s just jump into it with fellow marketer and copywriter, Richard Wilson of Outrank Digital Solutions.
Related: Why Social Media Marketers Are Broke
1. Observe Your Top Competitor’s Most-Shared Content
First and foremost, there’s no need to research content ideas from scratch when you can simply observe what already works for your competitors.
Any brand worth their salt already has a list of top competitors in hand. If not, it should be easy to find them either through social media or Google.
Once you find these competitors, you can proceed to spy on their feed and extract topics that garner high user engagement.
You can also use a social media listening tool to scoop up truckloads of trending content ideas from various competitors and platforms in one go. BuzzSumo is easily one of the most popular tools for this purpose.
The advantage of using a social media listening tool is that they usually come with engagement metrics that make it easy to spot lucrative content ideas. Some platforms like BuzzSumo also mention the domain where these posts are published—allowing you to contact those sites for possible guest posting opportunities.
2. Repurpose and Visualize
The number one rule when “borrowing” inspiration from your competitors’ content is to make sure your piece ends up being perceivably better.
There are several ways to repurpose old content and turn it into something fresh. You can update statistics, include more internal links, and expand it with new ideas.
Sidebar: Check out this interview with Ana Hoffman on The Sales Podcast for more ideas on how to repurpose your content for more qualified traffic.
For social media, one of the best repurposing strategies is to turn insightful information into easy-to-read infographics.
In simple terms, an infographic contains one or more data visualizations that make data-driven content much more digestible. Some examples of these visualizations are graphs, tables, charts, and illustrated lists.
Your initial reaction could be, “I don’t have the budget for a graphic designer for this.” The good news is, you can whip up your own infographics with a tool like Canva.
Other than infographics, you can also use Canva to create blog banners that appear whenever you share posts. This alone could increase the user engagement you can generate by 230 percent—pertaining to likes, comments, and shares.
3. Launch a Contest
Getting online users to perform the action you need is all about the value you offer.
It could be the long-term benefits of following your brand, the actual selling points of your products, and so on.
Fortunately for you, it’s not that hard to get the attention of social media users. You could even get them to share your content and promote your brand in exchange for a chance to win something.
That’s the beauty of social media contests, which are often used to increase brand awareness through giveaways.
Of course, it’s up to you to come up with the mechanics of your contest.
The usual route for Facebook contests is to require participants to like your page and share your post. If you want, you can spice things up by requiring participants to mention a specific hashtag.
In addition to the exposure, your content gets, social media contests will also help you acquire that much-needed social proof.
It’s not rocket science: the more likes and shares your Facebook post has, the more authoritative your brand is in the eyes of users. In turn, this will make them more willing to read your content and listen to your value propositions and calls to action.
4. Make Sharing Intuitive
Facebook users don’t have to be on the platform to share posts.
If you manage to make sharing as easy as possible, you can also encourage them to help spread your content on Facebook through social sharing buttons.
There are several ways to do this on your website without ever touching code.
If you use a content management system like WordPress, you should be able to find themes where social media buttons are included by default.
Alternatively, you can use plugins that allow you to insert customizable social sharing buttons anywhere on your site. Sumo Share, for example, lets you integrate a floating social media sidebar that can be presented to users in a non-intrusive way.
Also, HubSpot makes it easy to do all of this as well, which is why I moved this entire site after nearly 10 years on WordPress to the HubSpot CMS. Check out my HubSpot vs WordPress comparison for more info.
5. Mind Your On-Page Copy
Finally, you can’t overlook the elements within your content that can help you earn more Facebook shares.
There are plenty of bloggers who politely ask readers to share their posts by the conclusion, which is an honest and reliable approach if you have top-notch content. All you need to do is say something akin to “if you enjoyed this post, spread the love by sharing it on social media.”
Just remember to use your own, authentic voice when writing similar conclusions in your content. If you want a more professional tone, try a one-liner like “feel free to share this post on Facebook.”
Conclusion
Getting more shares on Facebook doesn’t always require a stacked team of marketers.
With the strategies above, even one-person marketing teams can accelerate growth through the power of social media. And if you’ve been paying attention, you should be able to guess what comes next…
Thanks for reading and do share this post if you found it useful. Also, feel free to leave a comment below in case you have questions, suggestions, or opinions regarding share-worthy content. Cheers!
Now go sell something.
P.S. Many years ago I had Jay Baer of Convince and Convert on The Sales Podcast. Even back then we both agreed that social media in general—and Facebook in particular—can be a tough place to generate new sales but it's a great place to deepen relationships with your current customers.
So keep that in mind as you map out your social media marketing approach.
P.P.S. Jay also said if you're not great at email marketing you have no business being on social media. How good are you at email marketing? Need some help?
