How To Use Social Media In 2017: Facebook

Having an active Facebook page and a LinkedIn profile is a question of a communication hygiene nowadays. Your organisation doesn’t need to become a social media mastermind and have it’s presence on every social network, starting from Youtube and ending in Snapchat. Of course, the more social networks you manage professionally, the more audiences you reach. But before you do that, you should focus on Facebook. Why? Because this is where the most of your target audience lurks!

So, what are the 3 main rules you need to follow on Facebook?

Don’t be unreliable – people need to trust you will provide content

The key mistake most businesses make on social media is fail to be consistent. If your last post was last week, you have a problem: most people already forgot you existed. Facebook is all about a delicate balance between intensive brand communication and being blocked for spam. Allocate 1-2 time slots per day for posting (usually around 10 am and 15 pm) and think at least a week in advance what kind of content will be there. Do you plan an event? A blog post? Maybe a new colleague will join your team? Think about all the upcoming events and schedule a post about them. If you lack content, you can cheat: post a quote, a titbit of your institution’s history (make sure you do it on Thursday). Just don’t forget – every day is a day for a post or two.

Ditch the didactic tone – you are not in the classroom anymore!

Make sure that your tone on social media reflects your institution’s values. You don’t need to post memes all day every day, but you need to find a unique voice to your organization that is yet non-formal and engaging. Mix various messages, inform and entertain, provide various forms of content (visuals, videos, charts, surveys). Make it fun to have your account around and don’t forget to engage with all the people that comment under your posts.

Pay the Zuckerberg

You have the most amazing social media strategy and tone. But your current posts still get only 30-40 engagements from thousands of people that like your page? It is because Facebook algorithms will not show your posts on people’s newsfeed unless you pay. It’s that simple: boost your page, boost your posts and you will do 2-3 times better than before. Have a boost strategy as well: choose posts that are the most valuable for your readers (i.e. your staff made some excellent insight or your researchers have amazing data visualised). Do not boost everything: the golden rule is 1+1: pay for the better reach of page and for one post at a time. Check the statistics after a couple of months to determine what types of content work best.

Which social network should we talk about next: LinkedIn, Youtube or Twitter? Let us know in the comments!