As a business owner maintaining a Facebook Page, one of the challenges is in keeping the Page active and interesting every day. I have talked about how one part of that is keeping a nice ratio between posts about yourself and posts about or from other people (the 80/20 rule). But finding all these other posts, and actually sharing them, is not as easy as it sounds, particularly for busy owners on the run. The solution is actually within Facebook itself.
If you don’t yet have a Facebook Page, here’s a great resource from MobileMonkey to help you get a Facebook Page started right.
How to Find Interesting Content on Facebook
The key is to make sure that you have a steady stream of interesting posts to share. The secret is to use your personal Facebook account to Like interesting Pages or friend interesting people.
I recommend that you begin to Like the Pages maintained by vendors, partners, experts in your industry, industry news sources, and other businesses that are related to yours and who are sharing interesting information to Facebook.
I also recommend that you place them all into one or more Facebook lists so that you can find them and their posts easily, rather than rely on posts appearing in your News Feed. You can then open your Facebook app and tap the News Feed bar and select which list you want to look at.
Decide on a schedule for sharing so that you will have a minimum amount of activity, like, three to four shares a day. If you’re sharing one post a day that’s from or about your business, you’ll be at the right ratio. You can then pop into your list a few times a day and share whatever’s there that you think is good and you think your fans will be interested in.
The Social Media Planner is a great resource to help you map out and plan your social media marketing activity, particularly if you’re leveraging multiple channels.
Additional Reading: The Facebook Hack That Will 10x Your Reach
How do you Share Posts to a Facebook Page from a Mobile Device?
Of course, the trick is figuring out how to share a post you’ve found to your Facebook Page. It’s a question I’m asked a lot by business clients so I wanted to provide more detailed instructions and screen shots.
First, when you’ve found a post you want to share, tap on that post so that you’re viewing the post on it’s own rather than in your news feed.
Second, scroll down to the bottom of the post and tap on Share.
Third, tap on Write Post. Do not tap on Share Now (Public) as that will only send the post immediately to your own profile as a personal share.
Fourth, add some commentary. Your cursor will show up in the new window within the Share this… field which is where you can add your own comments, and this is an important part of the technique. You don’t always have to add commentary, but you should try to add your thoughts whenever possible so that you’re always adding value to the content for your followers and fans.
Fifth, tap on the drop down box for the target audience. Located below the post to share, the default selection is On your own timeline. When you tap it, you can choose to share to a friend’s timeline, In a group, or On your Page.
Sixth, use the Type a page… field to begin typing the name if the Page that you manage. When it comes up, tap on it to select it.
Finally, make sure everything looks Ok and then tap on Post. The shared post will then appear on your Page wall as a share by your Page.
That’s an important distinction because you don’t want your posts to appear as though you posted them personally. They’ll get filed away within the Posts By Others area and may never be seen.
If you really don’t want to use your personal Facebook account to Like and monitor these other Pages, you can set up a username and password for your Facebook Page and then log into your Facebook app as that Page. That does require that you regularly log back and forth between your personal and your business accounts, which adds time to the experience and makes it less likely that you’ll do it. While Facebook does offer a Pages Manager app (link below), the app does not offer a News Feed for the other Pages that you’ve liked using your Facebook Page.
App Links:
How to Share Facebook Notes to Facebook Pages from Mobile
Now that Facebook has revamped the Notes feature, more and more people will be creating great content using Facebook Notes. Ans that means they’re going to want to share that content to their Facebook Pages.
While it’s easy to do on desktop, mobile requires that you (or someone else) has already shared the Note to a personal feed. So, to share one of your own notes, you must first go to that Note, tap the Share button, and share it to your personal stream. Next, go back to your personal profile within the Facebook app, look for the shared note in your stream, and share that.
You’re going to want to tap the Share button, choose Write Post, and then change “Your Timeline” in the top to be whatever Page you want to share to.
What Kinds of Posts Should I Share to my Facebook Page.
We already mentioned some general sources and kinds of Facebook Pages you might follow, but what, exactly, should you look for to share.
From an informational perspective, look for interesting images and helpful articles that you would be interested in yourself if you were one of your clients. While it’s OK to demonstrate and talk about some of your personal interests sometimes, don’t make that a habit. While I may love my St. Louis Cardinals, and I follow several Pages on Facebook that regularly share cool Cardinal images and articles, they’re not of interest to most of my Page followers, so constant sharing of that kind of story would be counter-productive.
When it comes to News stories, you will definitely want to share stories that would be of interest and potentially affect your followers, but don’t just spam posts from major news networks. Anyone can see what CNN is talking about without you sharing it to your Facebook Page. Instead, watch for stories from or about specific vendors or businesses in your industry. Local news, business press releases, and other kinds of stories that aren’t as mainstream are what I would look for. Also keep in mind that some of these stories might make for great Newsjacking blog posts, so don’t share a story that you’re going to write about yourself. I will often share stories and information from colleagues in the social media industry where they’ve written about a change or development and I don’t have time to do so myself, like when Twitter announced their IPO. Plenty of other people wrote about it and I simply shared one of those stories.
Generally, I look for content that will educate, entertain and/or engage my followers.
Influencer Marketing using your Facebook Page
Since we’re on the topic of sharing posts from other Facebook Pages, let’s talk about how you can use this technique for Influencer Marketing and therefore achieve multiple goals with each action.
Influencer Marketing begins much like we did earlier in this post, by identifying specific Facebook Pages or Profiles that you want to follow. But in this case, we want to follow people or Pages who are in a position to be an “influencer” for our own business in some way. Influencers might be:
- Potential Clients
- Potential Sources of Client Referrals
- Industry Leaders
- Media
- Academics
- Industry Analysts
- Professional Advisors
Once targeted, just like before, you would regularly refer to your Facebook list of Influencers and check out what they’re posting about. Because you are hoping to develop a long-term relationship with these businesses and individuals, you’re going to want to look for opportunities to Like and Comment on their posts, as well as Share.
Make sure that your comments and share commentary are insightful and genuine. Remember that your targeted influencer is going to see your posts and their impression of you will be based on what you say.
If done well, each time you take a moment to share one of their posts and add some interesting commentary of your own, you provide value to your followers AND make a positive impact on that influencer. Over time, you will foster a relationship with them that may result in stronger vendor relations, more customers, or perhaps that they’ll simply share more of your posts to their followers, increasing your reach.
What if I don’t have time to check Facebook 3 – 4 times a day?
Unfortunately, when writing a post from mobile, there is no option to Schedule that post, so this technique for generating Facebook Page activity and interest will take some time during the day. If your work schedule just doesn’t allow you to take the time to check Facebook during the day, you have a few options.
First, you can still use desktop Facebook or HootSuite to find posts and schedule them to be shared later on, allowing you to take care of your social media activity first thing in the morning or even the evening before. And you can still use the technique for mobile sharing on the rare occasion you have a moment to log in during the day and see something interesting.
Second, there are two workarounds that will enable you to schedule shares of other people’s Facebook posts to your Facebook Page that you can read about here.
Or, if your schedule really is that busy, it may be time to get some help. As a Social Media Manager, I can help you ensure that your Facebook Page is set up properly, active, and working to further relationships with other people and businesses that will grow your business. If you need help with Facebook or one or more other social networks, contact me for a free consultation.
