Try Something Different With Your Posts on Your Facebook Business Fan Page

Have you looked at your newsfeed hide rate on Facebook lately? If your hide rate is much over 2%, chances are that it’s your own fault. You’re boring your fans. There’s nothing worse than reading a stale, you’re-making-me-slowly-yawn, Facebook status update from a brand you “Like” on Facebook.  With Facebook marketing quickly becoming one of the best marketing tools for building and maintaining brand awareness, Facebook business marketers need to start providing the kind of creative content consumers want, desire and feed off of on Facebook. . . or pay the price by watching their hard-earned fans hide them in their newsfeeds.

For the creatively challenged, we’ve perused through the Facebook galaxy, identifying 50 different posting categories popular brands have successfully used to Promote brands on Facebook, interact with their fans and create real buzz, excitement and interaction–no more yawns, we swear.

STATUS UPDATES THAT SELL

These are the most obvious types of posts for businesses on Facebook.  Would you like it if some crazy sap cornered you on the street every day on the way home and tried to sell you Amway.  Nope.  It’s the same way on Facebook.  Keep the selling to a minimum, and if you have to sell, realize that, when it comes to selling on Facebook, there are a lot of different approaches you can use.

1. Hard-Sell
Insert aggressive, straightforward messaging about your products to persuade consumers to make a quick purchase decision.
2. Soft- Sell
Promote with subtle, friendly or creative sales language to push a product by positioning it more about the customers’ needs, wants and desires. This tactic is used by brands to convince the consumer to buy without being too forceful.
3. Holiday-Themed
Tie in a popular holiday with posts that resonate with audiences’ emotions, memories and excitement about the holiday, in an effort to encourage product interaction.
4. Brand Features/Attributes
Divulge fun facts and information about your company that makes consumers feel like an insider. This ultimately creates fans who are loyal to the brands they know the history of and feel most connected to.
5. Brand Benefits
Highlight a specific benefit of your brand that addresses key need states of the consumer to encourage action.
6. New
Introduce and evangelize new products, initiatives or events to excite fans.
7. Gift Ideas
Dream up fun gift ideas based on consumer needs, and capitalize on high purchase seasons like holidays (last minute ideas), ultimately prompting users to buy.

DEALS

Everyone likes a deal, just keep them to a minimum to maximize the news effect and whatever you do, avoid training customers to just look for the next deal.

8. Deals
Emphasize ongoing or limited-time deals by featuring special details, incentives and benefits to generate quick sales.
9. Exclusive/Special Discounts
Target a specific demographic of people by occupation, state, status, membership, etc. for special discounts to give feeling of exclusivity to consumers.
10. In-Store Events
Promote events that are only happening in-store to drive online customers to offline locations.
11. One-Day Specials
Create a one-day deal or a limited-time only deal to incentivize people to act immediately.
12. Charity Fundraisers
Offer special discounts or events with a certain % of sales going to a charity of choice. This helps the charity while also showing consumers you’re involved in the local community and support causes other than your own.

PROMOTIONS

Promotions can be really fun.  They build interest for your brand and can even be great email address generators.

13. Mini-Contests
Build a contest that offers a small prize and causes people to act quickly in order to enter. This creates short-term buzz and excitement, and rewards fans for participating.
14. Sweepstakes
Design a promotion which requires people to enter and provide their information in order to win a prize. Sweepstakes are used to increase fans and create excitement, as well as highlight products and/or brand mission/experience.
15. First To Comment Wins
Think outside the box to create interesting trivia or personal questions and reward the first person who comments correctly, or just comments, with a prize. This rewards fans for engaging with your page.
16.  Giveaways
Reward fans with products and prizes in return for instant participation. This gives incentive for fans to interact, while also promoting products in a more exciting way.

TIPS

One of the reasons consumers “like” a brand is to get more information.  By sharing helpful tips, you’re addressing a key consumer need on Facebook.

17. Usage Tips & Tricks
Share tips with consumers on how to use products in creative, useful and new ways. This shows fans that you can provide valuable resources for them they may not be able to get elsewhere.
18. Guest Expert Tips
Reveal special tips and insider views from a “neutral”  third party to establish “expert” status in your field with consumers.

BRANDING

It’s important to think of your brand on Facebook almost like a person.  People aren’t all business all the time.  In fact, we believe that the best brands on Facebook act more like good friends– they share, they make you laugh.

19. Quotes
Shine light on famous, inspirational and funny quotes that relate to the brand essence and add content that may resonate personally and emotionally with fans.
20. Company History/Culture
Disclose important facts about the history of the company and the culture surrounding your brand. This helps position your company by providing special anecdotes related to your business only.
21. Brand Representative
Act as the face that represents your brand and speak in first person, using your brand personality/position/point of view to promote. This makes for a more personal approach showing fans there’s a real, authentic person behind a big brand.
22. Employee Spotlight
Introduce interesting employees in the company to acknowledge their hard work and most importantly, show fans the real people behind the brand.
23. Behind-The-Scenes
Reveal exclusive content that only employees have access to normally. This makes fans feel a part of something special and provides insight into the creation and execution of products, campaigns, etc.
24.  Favorites
Unveil employees favorite new products along with top picks and lists to provide a personal touch and window into daily office life and trends.
25. Brand Personality
Take on your brand’s unique tone, characteristics and values, described and experienced as human personality traits, eg: friendly, intelligent, silly, mischievous, etc. This is the expression of the relationship between the consumer and the brand.
26. Advertising From Other Media
Promote print, video and digital advertising campaigns on social platforms like Facebook to add more rich media and integrate all marketing activities into the page. This gives fans a first look at other marketing initiatives.

BRAND NEWS

You might not think the everyday news of the office is news, but come on, your fans love you.  They want to hear about your successes, as well as your failures.

27. Brand Pop-Culture News
Shine the spotlight on instances when your brand is seen in the news, media, on television, in a magazine, or on a top/best/editor list. This gives credibility & makes a brand current and relevant.
28. News Mentions
Place emphasis on what trusted experts say about your brand and the attention it’s getting in well-known media outlets. This also gives a brand credibility.
29. Store Openings
Announce new store openings in specific locations to show expansion of your brand and create excitement for fans in those areas.
30. In-Store Sightings
Reveal exciting happenings in-store, such as celebrities coming in to eat or shop, or people getting engaged at your restaurant, etc. This positions a company store as a unique, exciting place to be.
31. Trivia not Related to The Brand
Mix it up with trivia questions not related to the brand but tied to a larger idea, theme, holiday or event happening. This shows your brand is on top of pop culture and current events and not all about me, me, me.
32. Open-Ended Brand Related Questions
Share background about the brand and follow up with a general related question for fans to bring their opinions into the mix.

QUESTIONS
The most successful brands posting on Facebook focus on building interaction with their fans.  The more interaction, the more chances your brand will have to show up in your fans’ newsfeeds.

33. Brand Trivia
Interact with fun trivia questions about the brand that get people guessing and engaging. This helps bring brands to top of mind awareness through conversation with consumers.
34. Musical Question
Incorporate songs, music videos and questions about music in general. This allows brands to get to know consumers by engaging in a highly relatable topic.
35. Polls
Get to know your fans by asking specific questions and using this feedback to better understand your consumer base and make changes as needed.
36. Open Ended Market Research
Collect data about a particular target market, competition, and/or environment in order to better understand a particular matter and gain insight about consumers.
37. Fill in the Blank
Generate open-ended, interesting questions that end with “Fill in the blank” to give fans the freedom to express their personalities and opinions. This makes the page fun and interactive for fans.
38. Crowdsourcing
Outsource tasks traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to an undefined, large group of people or community through an open call for feedback and fresh ideas. This makes product users feel their input is valued and appreciated by companies.
39. Either or Questions
Find out the opinions of your fans by using an either or question to see which choice they would make. This is a quick, easy way to get feedback and spark interaction.
40. Brand Enthusiast Questions
Explore the passion and connection of loyal fans by asking specific brand questions they’ll enjoying answering. This promotes products while also engaging your most valuable fans in discussion.
41. Non-Brand Related Questions
Create questions that give fans a platform to share their stories, feelings and thoughts with the community. These are perfect for getting users to express themselves, instead of solely focusing on products and brand messaging.
42. Click “Like” if…
Take advantage of the “like” button and ask fans to click the “like” button if they agree with you, want something, are excited about something, etc. This helps brands measure sentiment.

ENABLE SOCIAL MEDIA INTERACTION
43. Cross Pollinate Other Social Media
Use 1 social media platform, Facebook, to promote other social media outlets like Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Blogs and more. This spreads your audience out further across your social networks.
44. New Fan Page Tabs
Introduce new fan page tabs with fun and/or useful functionality. This gets audiences to interact with your brand in new ways.
45. New Profile Photo
Upload a new profile photo that promotes a current campaign and aligns with strategy and time of year to maintain a cohesive, integrated page.
46. New Photo/Album
Set-up photo albums with new products, behind-the-scenes shots, in-store photos etc. into a photo album that fans can look through. Photo albums add visual content to a page and allow new and current fans to see your most up-to-date offerings.

PARTNER AND FAN APPRECIATION
47. Promote Key Partners
Send love back to key partners you work with by highlighting them in a post. This is another avenue for brands to commit to their partnerships and maintain a strong symbiotic relationship.
48. Blog Partners
Introduce influential bloggers and ambassadors of your brand to both promote the blogger as well as provide rich, new content to audience from a peer’s perspective.
49. Wall Posts on Other Partners’ Walls
By posting a message on your wall and on the wall of another partner at the same time, using the @username function of Facebook, you can spread the love.
50. Fan Features
Thank special fans publicly for their participation and excitement. This shows fans you recognize and appreciate them.