You’d probably have to look pretty hard to find a brand that isn’t using Facebook as part of its marketing strategy. As of 2020, Facebook has continued to maintain the top spot with the most users globally and it has certain become a hub for brand content marketing. It’s likely a critical player in your distribution strategy. It is a go-to social network to not only communicate with friends and family, but also to learn and find information. For these reasons, it’s vital to have a Facebook content strategy.
If you don’t have one, consider this a solid guide to learn how to get the most out of Facebook in your content marketing.
What Does a Facebook Content Strategy Include?
A Facebook content strategy outlines how you’ll use the channel in your content marketing efforts. It also includes all the components that influence what you post on the channel and the copy you use. These include your voice and tone, audience, formats, publishing schedule, keywords and ad budgets.
The Strategy Behind Amplification
Facebook posts amplify your content marketing. Your content now appears in the feeds of your followers and the audiences you target through paid campaigns. Interactions are happening as well. People like, share, and comment on it. It becomes a key referral source to your website. Its design is intrinsic to expanding reach.
For Facebook to act as this conduit, you need to include several areas in your strategy.
Organic publishing schedules
- How often to post? Commit to being consistent on the platform.
- What times and days are best (base this on content analytics)?
Paid advertising schedules
- How often will you have ad campaigns running?
- One campaign at a time, or multiple running concurrently?
- How much budget will you dedicate to this?
Target Audiences
- Are you just focused on organic followers?
- Will you leverage Facebook’s audience targeting features to segment?
- Will you leverage re-targeted audiences based on existing website visitors or existing customer lists?
What type of content to post
- A good rule of thumb is the 70/20/10 rule.
- Post original content 70 percent of the time.
- Post third-party content 20 percent of the time.
- Post promotional content 10 percent of the time.
Third-party sources should be relevant to your industry and considered thought leaders.
Content Formats
As Facebook has grown, so has the number of formats available to users. In most cases, your strategy and the type of content you wish to promote will dictate the format.
- Organic posts – regular (text & images) or story posts
- Paid ads – organic boosts or display campaigns
- Video – pre-produced or live
- Facebook Messenger – much like SMS campaigns (opt-in only), but content can’t be promotional in nature
Responding
- Develop a plan around how you’ll handle comments, questions, or direct messages.
- Keep in mind Facebook Messenger is a popular spot for customer communications.
Measuring results
- Define the metrics that matter (engagement, share of voice, referral traffic, etc.).
- Regularly review Facebook Insights (or leverage your content analytics platform of choice)
- Document which post and topics are performing the best based on your most important metrics
The Strategy Behind What You Will Post
Beyond defining the source of content for Facebook, you need to determine formats. Any type of media is acceptable, so it comes down to a few things. First, it depends on what formats you use most, including blogs, videos, ebooks, and infographics.
The other part of the question is, “What does your audience like?” Study the type of content with high engagement. It will let you know what’s most impactful to them. Take that information and plan accordingly.
The Strategy Behind What You Say
Your brand’s voice should be consistent from channel to channel. It’s originally you. However, tone can shift based on the channel. Most would consider Facebook a casual social media platform. It’s more conversational in nature than, for example, LinkedIn.
Whatever tone you’ll represent on Facebook should be part of your strategy. It should influence your post captions and hashtags. Having a tone for your Facebook voice is also very helpful when you have more than one content creator.
Keywords are a subset of the voice and tone conversation. The prevalence of hashtags on Facebook is increasing. Following and searching by hashtag are available on the platform. If you choose to use hashtags, treat them like keywords.
Use any that apply to your customers. For example, a healthcare data company might use hashtags like #healthcaredata, #healthcare, #PHI, and #EHR. These are all industry-specific and known to the market.
As an addendum to your voice and tone document, add relevant hashtags for writers to use.
The Strategy for Knowing Your Audience
One of the biggest questions to ask in your Facebook content strategy is, “Who is my audience?” What portion or segment of your buyer personas seeks information on Facebook? Answering these questions is critical to how you position your content on Facebook.
Here are some ways to answer the question.
Do professional organizations and groups for my industry have a strong presence?
If the associations have large followings, their members are likely active on Facebook.
What content topics are most popular?
If content geared toward one persona or industry performs well, you can assume they seek information on Facebook.
What is the audience makeup when I create ads to target my audiences?
Using Facebook ads to promote or boost content allows you to target buyers. You can target by geographical location, job title, industry interest, and more. You can specifically define based on your buyer personas.
This is helpful for two reasons. First, it shows the possible reach on Facebook for your persona. This information may complement other data you collected on your audience.
Second, when you run ads, you’ll gather data on the clickability of the content. It can inform your engagement hypotheses on Facebook.
The Strategy Behind Your Facebook Content Calendar
Using a content calendar to manage your publishing schedule provides full visibility. Any user can view it and be aware of published and scheduled posts. It’s good to see it presented on a calendar because you can spot any gaps.
As you gather data on day and time, you can highlight the days and times with the most engagement. Label the posts with the type of content as well. Doing this could help you spot things out of balance. For example, you wouldn’t want to post two videos on the same day if you only have two to post for the entire week.
Closing Tips
In discussing your Facebook content strategy, here are a few extra tips:
- If you’re promoting web content (blog posts, news articles, etc.), make sure they include good feature images and the correct metadata. This impacts the quality of link previews on Facebook and looks matter.
- Brand your images and graphics within your posts. If you post tips, ideas, or opinions visually, make sure they have your logo. If someone shares it, it expands your reach.
- Take advantage of relevant national days that matter to your audience.
- Inspire interaction by asking questions or going live for a segment to answer industry questions.
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