How to use Facebook

With almost three billion monthly active users globally as of 2022, Facebook was one of the first social networks to connect billions of people across the world, and to this day still is one of the most popular social media platforms out there.

Demographics

As with most social media platforms, there are many different content types that can be used to drive brand engagement – this will usually depend on your main user base and target audience. Facebook is one of the platforms where many diverse age groups can enjoy various types of content. For example, as of March 2022, the 35-44 age group accounts for 19.1% usage of the platform, followed by 18–24-year-olds with 18.2%, and 45-54-year-olds with 14.2%.

Content type

With videos becoming more popular as social media usage grows, it comes as no surprise that more than four billion video views take place on Facebook every day. This means that no matter the age group, video content – be it educational, entertaining, or promotional – is guaranteed to increase engagement! If you prefer live videos rather than pre-recorded, edited ones, Facebook Live is a live video-streaming functionality that lets you connect with your users in an authentic way.

Other types of popular visual content are images – Facebook posts with images get 2.3 times more engagement than posts without images, so make sure that the images represent the right message you want to get across and that they are consistent with your brand strategy.

Many people also use Facebook for its text-based functionalities – make sure to keep it short and engaging! Regularly share updates with your followers, such as insights, facts and interesting thoughts that your brand has to offer. Consider adding asking questions to spark conversations – this makes things fun and interactive.

Top tips

Below are some more tips that can help you make the most of the Facebook platform and drive customer engagement:

• Make sure to post consistently. 70% of Facebook users visit the platform daily, with 49% checking the platform several times per day, so they need to see that you are regularly posting new content. However, you should only post if you have interesting content, and you should understand your user base to determine what times most of them are online and checking their news feeds.
• Promote your Facebook page on other social media accounts and on your website. Sharing the link to your page will increase its popularity, and the number of likes and reviews.
• Use Facebook Insights to learn more about your customers’ demographics and interests. This is an analytics dashboard that can track your performance by providing key metrics. This way you can also measure what type of content works best for your target audience.
• Not everything that you post needs to be self-promotional. Keep in touch with pop culture and current world events. Posting about these, especially if relevant for your target audience, will keep you on the right track.
• Consider posting funny content from time to time. Memes and light-hearted jokes usually do well on Facebook, so join the trend!
• Quickly respond and react to users’ comments. If users see that you take them seriously and answer their questions or observations in a timely manner, they will trust your brand more.
• Use Facebook stories. Just like Instagram, Facebook makes use of stories made up of images and short informal videos that disappear after 24 hours – this way you can post as often as you’d like and create a more personal connection with your followers.
• Use Facebook groups. Over 1.8 billion people use Facebook Groups every month. By selecting the groups effectively, you can gain access to a large target audience with interests that align closely with your brand!
• Be authentic. Recognise the efforts of the people working behind the scenes and volunteers. Introduce your team to your viewers to make your brand more relatable!

Ads

Another important aspect to remember is Facebook ads. Facebook marketing campaigns are one of the most popular on the internet – and ads have everything to do with this! As of 2021, Facebook was the most used social media platform among marketers worldwide.

• You can pay to boost your text or image posts to reach new potential customers who may be interested in your brand but are not currently following you.
• You could run video ads that show up in people’s news feeds or as in-stream ads in longer videos, or you could incorporate poll ads to let people choose their preferred options.
• Carousel ads are also very popular – you can use up to 10 images or videos to showcase your product(s) or service(s) with a link under each content type to redirect users to your website where they can make purchases. Collection ads are the alternative of Carousel ads for mobile phones, allowing for 5 images or videos.
• Lead ads allow you to collect subscriptions and user information via a pre-filled form where the users don’t have to manually fill in forms.
• Dynamic ads advertise the products that your users seem interested in from your website.
• Messenger ads are also useful – you could create a Messenger account for your brand so that your customer service team can answer your customers’ questions, and at the same time incorporate image ads with links in the conversation thread.

Have you ever made a purchase from a Facebook post or ad before? If yes, what was it that convinced you to purchase the product or trust the brand?