The yardstick by which all social content is measured, regardless of what channel you’re referencing, is whether or not that content is shared. In this piece, we’ll stick with an examination of Facebook, based on the fact that it is the largest of all the social media platforms, but the lessons here can be made to apply to any social media channel. It may need a few tweaks, but the information below is sound for any social media network.
So What Makes Great Facebook Content?
The short answer is anything that makes that content share worthy, but there are some particulars we can dive into. Creating share worthy content is half art, half science. You need both halves working in tandem to consistently create content that your viewers and readers will want to share with their own networks.
Think Visual
You’ve got to think visual. Walls of text are seldom shared. You need an image component to your message, and it’s got to be something compelling.
Relevant
If your message isn’t relevant to your business, then it doesn’t really matter if it gets shared or not. If you’re selling handheld accessories and posting cute kitten videos, unless you can find a clever way to tie those two concepts together, it’s probably not helping you.
Bite-Sized
For better or worse, the internet is shortening attention spans. Nobody wants to read the Facebook equivalent of “War and Peace.” Keep it brief, keep your message concise, and make it interesting.
Staged
This means that you need to stage or stagger your postings. If you post something at 6pm Eastern time, everybody on the west coast is still at work. You’ll need to post it again then so that it shows up high on their news feed. In order to properly stage your posts, you’ve got to have an ironclad understanding of the demographics of your fans. Figure out where they are and when they’re on Facebook; then plan your posting schedule accordingly. The bottom line is it doesn’t matter how good or how shareable your message is, if your fans never see it, they can’t share it.
Invitational
Finally, in addition to all of the above, the content needs to be invitational. To do this you don’t necessarily have to have an in-your-face call to action, though you can do that once in a while if it suits you, but you do need to leave the door open for a conversation to grow out of your content. Part of that means responding to comments left by your fans of the content in question.
People use social media because of the social aspect, not the media aspect. They want a connection, they want a conversation, and frankly, they want to be entertained. If you give them what they want, they’ll give you want you want by spreading your content far and wide and bringing more customers to your door.
