4 Ways to Ramp Up Your Company Facebook Page

Written By : Clifford Blodgett

If you’re already using Facebook as part of your social media marketing strategy, you’ve probably noticed that it’s a convenient and inexpensive way to reach your target audience. But you may also have noticed lately that you’re getting fewer “likes”, “shares” or comments than you would like. This is partly because Facebook has revamped its news feed algorithm, meaning your posts aren’t always showing up in the news feed of everyone who likes your page.

Luckily, advisors can still successfully market themselves on Facebook. You just have to change with the times, and find new ways to reach your audience.

1. Try targeted posts. As we’ve mentioned, the new algorithm means that everyone in your audience won’t be receiving your posts in their news feeds. But Facebook does offer you the opportunity to target your posts toward a particular demographic, much in the same way that you would run a targeted ad on the site. You can use this feature to select a group of people who will then see your targeted post in their news feed. The cost is actually quite low when compared to other methods of marketing.

2. Create a video, and post it. One long-standing rule holds that images receive more visual attention that text, which is why we recommend including a picture with your posts. But you can take this concept one step further by posting a video! Facebook recently unveiled an auto-play feature which causes videos to automatically play as users scroll through their news feed. Take advantage of this opportunity to grab their attention by creating a short video introducing yourself or explaining your financial advisory practice.

Naturally, there are some guidelines that you should follow in order to achieve maximum impact from your video posts. Post the video directly on your wall, rather than linking from Youtube. And take advantage of some new features to optimize your business page. Choose one video to be featured prominently on your page at all times, and check out Facebook’s new playlist feature. Now you can group related videos together, and offer more valuable content to your audience.

3. Get creative. You’re not the only financial advisor in your area, and probably not the only one on Facebook, either. So how do you post content that will steal attention away from the competition? Often it means you have to understand how Facebook works, learn why certain posts receive more views than others, and then get creative to take advantage of the rules.

Check out the upper right-hand corner of your news feed, and you should see a box labeled, “trending topics”. Click on one of those topics, just as your audience members often do, and you will see other posts which include those key words.

If you include those same keywords in your own post, guess what happens? You’re now part of that trending topic, and your post will be seen by more Facebook users! So for example, if “Duke basketball” is a trending topic for the day, you might post a link to your blog with a header saying: “Duke basketball sure displayed a winning strategy last night! For your own winning strategy, check out today’s stock market tips”. Now more people in your network will see that post. Thanks, Duke!

4. Post more often. It can be frustrating to see that your posts aren’t reaching your entire audience. But one very simple way to remedy this situation is to simply post updates more frequently. There is one caveat to this strategy, though: Don’t try it unless you have time to monitor your Facebook Insights. This is the part of your page that gives statistics on the reach and response for each of your posts. The last thing you want to do is annoy your audience with your posting frequency, so increase your updates gradually while keeping an eye on Insights for negative feedback.

Filed under: Social Media for Financial Advisors