20 Tips To Increase Your Funeral Home’s Facebook Visibility
If you want to find out more about Edgerank you can read one of our previous blog posts here. But today we’re going to provide you with a few tips to Edgerank proof your posts and improve your visibility.
1. Don’t Post Too Often
It can be tempting to post multiple times throughout the day. After all, the more darts you throw, the more likely you are to hit bull’s-eye right? Wrong. In most cases less is more. People can forgive you for missing a post but they won’t forgive you for filling their News Feed with every little update.
Posting less often is also more likely to improve your Edgerank as you’re aiming to raise the average engagement on each post you make.
2. Listen to Your Audience
Pay attention to what people engage with. You are always seeking to create an engaging post, so make a point of checking back to see what posts people responded to.
3. Use Images and Videos
Photos still get more engagement on average than any other post and videos are a close second. Text posts can be nice and neat but sometimes they’re too easy to miss. Even if all you want to do is send a simple message, try to think of a good photo that would help you to get that message across.
4. Determine the Best Time to Post
You might be able to guess what time is best for your target audience but chances are this one’s going to involve some research of your own. Figuring out the best time to post (including which day of the week) is key to making sure your post is reaching as many of the right people as possible.
5. Ask your Community to Change their Settings
This one relies on having a faithful audience. Because of Edgerank your fans might not be seeing as many of your posts as they did do recently. However if you ask them (nicely) to change one of their settings, they can receive notifications whenever you make a post.
This is done by hovering over the Page’s Like button and clicking “Get Notifications.”
6. Promoted Posts
This next one might not be ideal for everyone as it involves spending a bit of money. But if you do choose to take this route it’s possible to extend your reach significantly. By Promoting Posts you are paying Facebook to reach more of you fans and (if you choose) your fan’s friends in their News Feeds.
7. Request Feedback
Kill two birds with one stone! Increase your engagement and receive important feedback by asking your fans questions. This could be their opinion on something new you’re thinking of doing or what they think about a certain topic.
A lot of us can’t resist telling people about ourselves (even the most humble of us can be an egotist on Facebook!). Comments are also more “valuable” when calculating Edgerank which means the more comments you get, the better your visibility.
8. Caption Contest or Fill in the Blank
Another way to get some extra comments is by sharing an amusing of interesting photo and make it into a “caption contest”. Alternatively you can write a sentence and ask your fans to “fill in the blank”. For example, “Fill in the blank: On Saturdays I love to_______”
9. Inspirational Images and Quotes
Quotes are a big deal in social media. We all love a bit of inspiration every now and then, so try finding inspiring or even funny quotes to use on your Page. Quotes laid out into the form of an image are the best as these are easily shared and are more likely to get you engagement.
10. Run Competitions
FREE STUFF! See? You’re paying attention already. Running a competition is an excellent way to promote your Facebook page. Make sure to take your time when setting out the rules and explain yourself clearly. Do you want people Liking the post, commenting or sharing to enter?
11. Ask People to Share
Just asking your fans to share something doesn’t actually work does it? Well actually, yes it does. Just try not to be too boring about it and give them an extra reason to share.
“We loved this and know you will too so share it with your friends!”
“Like this post if you can’t wait for the next Christopher Nolan movie.”
12. Be Funny
Entire websites survive and providing fans with something funny to laugh at. You don’t have to go over board but something that gets a giggle is definitely more likely to be shared.
13. Facebook Offers
Got a good deal you can share with your fans? Then you can use the Facebook Offers option. The great thing about this is when a fan claims the prize, a message is sent to their friends’ News Feeds.
14. Coupons and Sales
Coupons and coupon codes are great for sharing on Facebook because they’re so easy to use. Promote coupons with a post and you’re sure to get lots of engagement.
15. Encourage Photo Tagging
If you’ve been taking photos at an event or inside your business, then it’s a great idea to encourage fans to tag themselves on Facebook.
If you don’t have a photo that feature your customers than you could also ask them to tag themselves in another image as a way of sharing their excitement for a new product or event. Or it could be the way of entry for a competition.
16. Encourage User Check-ins
This one is really only for businesses with a physical location (unless you get really creative). Your Facebook Page has to be set as a Place Page, that way people can check-in to the business. Try running offers in-store that require them to do this. They get free stuff and you get free exposure. It’s win-win!
17. Target Friends of Fans
Sometimes it can be difficult to widen the audience beyond the loyal fan base. But targeting the friends of fans is a great way of reaching a potential audience. This reach can happen organically when their friends Like something of yours or you can target them directly through ads and promoted posts.
18. Surprise and Delight
How many times have you read an incredible story or seen an amazing photo of someone being heroic? And what’s your typical reaction? Well, if it’s really incredible there’s a good chance you’ll want to share it around.
This is even better if the story or image is personal to you. Donated to charity lately? Found some cute baby ducks n the garden? Tell the world about it and they’ll reply with “Wow” and “awwww”.
19. Keep it Short
Posts between 100 and 250 characters get 60% more engagement. Social Media certainly has given us short attention…
20. Be Targeted
It’s always good to post something that’s relevant to your audience. But sometimes it’s better to be more specific. Facebook now has a targeting feature for Pages with more than 100k fans.
Just like in Facebook ads it’s possible to narrow down who you are targeting a post at. What’s great about this is that you’re not wasting your time on an audience you know won’t respond and your Edgeranking is left intact.
