5 Things Not To Do With Your Facebook Page
These are my five tips for what not to do with your Facebook Page. These aren’t concrete rules as much as they are my personal recommendations. They come from an understanding of how Facebook works and how users often interact with content on Facebook.
Lets get started:
1. Screenshot other peoples content.
Don’t screenshot someone else's content. To me, a content creator, that is stealing. You might even be violating copyright laws and it is just bad form on your part. Regardless if the name of the original creator is on the screenshot. In a fast paced age of social media, no one is going to spend the time to look up the name on the screenshot. You have instantly taken something from that original creator. There are better ways to share someone else content on your Facebook Page.
If you are a manager of a page and find something on Facebook you want to share, just click the share button or link underneath the content. It is that simple. You can then choose to share it from one of the pages you manage and enter a status along with it of your own.
2. Make your personal profile your corporate page.
Look, we know you work for so-and-so and you like it there, and you want to promote them, or it, any chance you get, but I’m not your friend because of that organizations. I’m your friend because I like you. I might also support that organization but I don’t need you personally cramming it down my throat everyday. Keep it to the Facebook Page.
The people who like the Facebook Page actually want to know about your organization, its story, what is new and how to get involved. If you really think your friends will benefit from your organization occasionally remind them to like the Facebook Page. Heck, once and awhile share the content of the page on your personal profile, but not all the time, not everyday.
This probably contradicts an earlier article I wrote but I don’t post on Facebook everyday.
3. Post multiple photos at once or have a good reason.
I see this all the time from people just starting a Facebook Pages and often they are the same people that tell me they just don’t have time to always make new content. The blunt answer is because you post 7 days worth of content in one update. Stop that. Stop posting multiple photos at once.
This will not only help you spread out your content so that you have more of it to share with your community but it will also help you engage with them. A single photo is much more engaging than an album. An entire album of photos is quickly consumed and quickly forgotten.
Quote me here or tweet this: “One photo with a great caption that tells a story is instantly more engaging than an entire album with a single line title."
If you take all those photos and write different captions for each, captions, which are actually interesting, you will create longevity in your content. You might also see that the engagement, the likes, the comments and the shares, increase because of it.
4. Rant about sensitive topics
We all have beliefs, which are part of what makes us human. The organizations we represent, however, might be neutral or you may not be sure if your beliefs are inline with your community. Therefore I encourage you to keep your opinions and rants to your own personal account and not on your organizations Facebook page.
If you know your community well, then by all means, but be sure you understand the repercussions if not everyone agrees with your statement. Facebook is an open forum and just as quickly as you share your opinion, others will do the same back at you, and you might not like what you read. I look at this from a business stand point, you want to engage with your community but on a level that will encourage them to buy your product, use your service or participate in your organization, so don’t give them a reason not to. Unless you really don’t want those type of people.
5. Be a promotional jackass.
Chances are we know what you sell. We know what you offer. And we know what you want us to use. So don't tell us over and over and over. Stop being the promotional machine you once were. I know you are better than that. Facebook, and Social Media as a whole, is not a one-way communication tool. It is all two-way. And to to be honest, you have to work for your community’s attention, so sending out a little note saying you have this or that in stock means squat to us.
Tell us why we should use your product. Tell us why we should use your service. Tell us why we should participate in your organization. If you aren't telling us why then you're using social media just like you would use the newspaper.
Tell us the story of why we should use your product or why you're passionate about your product. Tell us how it can affect our lives or make it better. Engage with us and find out how we would use the product if we were to have it. Ask us what our struggles are and why we don't already have or use the product.
If you stop doing these five things I promise you, you will start to see some positive changes to your Facebook Page. You will make stronger connection with other content creators, you will have an easier time creating content, you will see a stronger community developing and you will start to see brand ambassadors arise who will share your messages for you.
Now go.