6 Common Facebook Post Mistakes and Tips
When you think about it – how hard can posting on Facebook be? Any kid from middle school can do it and probably even your grandma. But it’s not about posting on your personal page; it’s about posting on the business page. Unfortunately, many Facebook users make lots of mistakes when posting content on their public pages, sometimes without even realizing it. They think little things like an unnecessary link or an additional phrase won’t make a different. Boy, are they wrong!
In this article we will cover 6 common mistakes that can ruin even the most entertaining posts on Facebook. Make sure you follow this advice if you don’t want to waste your precious time on posting content and promoting your page, only to realize it was done incorrectly.
Mistake #1: Too Much Text
Do NOT forget about the fact that Facebook is a social network and not a blog. This means that your posts should be relatively short and to the point. Their aim is to inspire the readers to do one of the following steps: press like, share, comment or follow the link. However, if your followers will be presented with a huge chunk of text, most likely they’ll just skip it without even looking at it.
Limit the size of your posts on Facebook. The most ideal length shouldn’t exceed 140-200 characters. If you follow this rule you’ll learn to express your ideas short and straight to the point, making them more accessible to your followers.
Mistake #2: Several Links in One Post
Every post that’s published on Facebook should only have one call to action, that’s followed with a link. If there will be a few of them, the readers will lose their concentration and won’t be able to get the important information from the post. This in turn will lower the rate of conversions on that link.
Look at every post on Facebook as an online ad. It has to talk about one main point at a time, whether it’s an image, a video, an e-book or some information about a product. It has to push the readers to act on that post.
Mistake #3: Obvious Product Promotion
Usually this mistake is made by businessmen who have registered their company on Facebook relatively not long ago. They look at this social network as one of the traditional marketing tools, similar to posters and printed ads and then they get surprised when they don’t generate any results.
The truth is – there is nothing bad in advertising your products or services with the use of Facebook. However, when doing so you have to be a little more creative. Your posts should not only promote your company, but they should provide value for the readers in a form of a bonus or some useful information.
When you’re promoting your products or services on Facebook, you can also offer your followers special deals. For instance, if they subscribe to your page, they will receive a 50% discount on your products. With the help of this deal, your followers will feel as if they belong and are a part of your company, because the discount is only offered to them. In this way, they’ll have bigger motivation to be loyal customers and show more activity on your public page.
Mistake #4: Ignoring Negative Comments
When you use Facebook or any other social network you should always remember one important factor: your work is not limited to publishing posts only. You have to always analyze them to understand which ones are the most popular, you should reply to the comments of your subscribers and optimize your future marketing events.
Make sure you reply to every comment your subscribers leave that contains a question, a proposal or a negative feedback. Comments in a form of simple praises can be ignored e.g. “Great post” or “I totally agree”. However, if you leave any of the other comments without notice, your followers might think that you don’t pay attention to their opinion.
Negative comments should be taken care of right away, in order not to provoke the person who commented and anyone else reading it. You should always present your arguments right below that comment. You shouldn’t wait till the angry customer takes his complaints somewhere else.
Quite often one negative comment creates a chain reaction. This is why it’s absolutely crucial to catch it at the start and resolve the issue as fast as possible. This will show all the present and potential customers that the business is responsible and wants to maintain its high quality.
How to Reply to Negative Comments
- Do NOT argue with the client. If the customer is complaining, it means that there is a reason for it. So try to apologize and solve the problem. It is advisable to offer some sort of a discount or a bonus, to substitute for the moral or material damage caused.
- 2. Stick with an informal form of communication. If your response to a negative comment will be in a corporate style or in a form of a press release, your customers might think that you’re just trying to get rid of their complaints fast. So try to stay away from overly formal phrases.
- Do NOT delete negative comments. Of course, you might want to delete them, so that your company would have a clean reputation. However, getting rid of negative comments is not the best decision. It might raise an even higher suspicion and dislike from your customers and they might stop using your services all together.
- Negative comments are not that bad after all. If the customer had a negative experience dealing with your service or product, you still have a chance to fix it and show the customer that their opinion matters to your business. Now imagine, if the customer wouldn’t leave the negative comment and just simply stop using your services. It would be much worse, wouldn’t it?
Mistake #5: Begging for Likes and Shares
Try not to be too needy by begging your followers to like or share your content. You’ll damage your reputation with these actions. If you actually want to increase the number of likes and shares on your posts, then it would be better to offer your followers some sort of a bonus, so they would have motivation to respond to your request.
Quite often when someone tries to call the followers to action they do it in a form of an order or a demand. This way of communication won’t generate much response. Instead a much more appropriate way would be to kindly ask your followers or offer them something in return for liking and sharing your post.
Make sure you ask your subscribers to share your post only when you have something to give back. You have to provide them with a convincing reason to like and share your post. For instance you can use a similar form as shown below:
- Press Like and you’ll receive a 10% discount! The offer is valid only for our followers.
- Press Like and you’ll receive access to exclusive photos and videos of our products!
- First thing we do is, publish information about the new products in stock on our Facebook page. Press Like so you’d always be up to date with our new arrivals.
Mistake #6: Long URL Addresses
Long URL addresses that you include in your posts take up too much space and make the post look unattractive. The mess of a long chain of letters and numbers that your reader sees does not attract any positive attention.
Making links short and presentable gives you more space for useful information and makes the post look overall professional. If you’d like to shorten the URL address you can easily do it using free services such as Bitly.com
The website is extremely easy to use. All you have to do is simply paste your URL address in the empty field and press the button “Shorten”. The result will be a unique short and accurate URL address, that won’t annoy your followers anymore.
Quick Tips on How to Promote Your Posts
- Offer Quality Deals
On any important events or holidays make sure to have a high quality image to go with a great deal that shows your business’s aims. When posting, always ensure that the picture shows your product in the best possible way. You can even post a few different images to see which ones work better and what the audience responds to more.
- Target Important Posts
If there are any posts you want a certain demographic to see, target it. Facebook doesn’t have statuses, ages and locations for nothing. You can pick a specific area, field of interests etc. and target that market. It’s a very useful tool when you have a deal that doesn’t apply to all of your target audience. For instance, a cinema offering a deal to teenagers only, in their post they can target age. That would make the offer more direct and at the same time won’t bother anyone else who it’ not offered for.
- Boost Posts that are Important
Business pages have a special tool of promoting the products or services by boosting them. Any event that’s important or a deal that you want everyone to see, you can always click on the Boost button. This option allows you to use very narrow target. You can even choose only those who like your page and their friends. You can also choose a completely new audience choosing by their location, age, gender and interests.
- Analyze Page Insights
If you want to improve and understand the engagement of your audience, you have to analyze your Page Insights. There you’ll be able to see the number of people who saw your posts, liked them, commented, shared etc.
You will get to see everyone that liked your page and their personal details such as age, gender and location. When you analyze what audience engages the most you can target their specific group according to age, location and other factors. Not only that but if you use any other Facebook promotional tools you can use this analysis to help you reach out more.
To Conclude: Be Mindful When Posting on Your Business Page
As you can see from all the mistakes highlighted and a few tips given, it’s very important to make sure you are in sync with your audience. Always try to put yourself in their shoes and do everything you can to keep them entertained and engaged with your product or services. The customer is always right, applies in this case as well. So make sure you represent your business well online, because it matters just as much as the physical world.
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