I know that often we think of Facebook Engagement as pay to play, where you have to buy ads in order to get seen. But, there are still some free ways to improve your engagement with Facebook and get your posts seen.
Recently, I got a nice surprise in my email. A campaign manager from one of my favorite influencer networks asked me personally how I got such good engagement when it came to the work I do for them. She said my engagement was always well above average and often times better than that.
It feels really validating to get an email like that. I told her my secrets for what works for Facebook for me, and I want to share those with you, too.
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I have found sharing is the key to engagement on Facebook. It doesn’t seem to matter if you have very few Facebook followers because if you can get people sharing your content, the engagement just goes up and up and up. The more you can get people to share your posts the better.
Join Facebook Groups
One way I do this is joining Facebook groups for the kind of things that I write about. For my main blog, thetiptoefairy.com, I write about parenting lifestyle, which means I write about recipes, crafts, parenting, and kid things. So, I look for recipe and food groups, craft and DIY groups, and kid related groups.
Then, I share my Facebooks that I’ve created about my blog posts to 2-3 different groups. I usually work one Facebook post at a time, so I share it to 2-3 groups. I do this once or twice a day max because if you do more, Facebook will see you as spam.
In regards to groups, I join general and specific groups. I join general groups such as just general recipe groups or craft groups as well as specific “niche” groups like “dessert recipes only” or “microwave cooking” or “wreath making” or even things like “dollar tree crafts.” If you’re a crafter, there are so many dollar tree groups to join.
Try to have engagement in those groups. Occasionally go in the group and like other people’s posts and share them, and answer questions. I often answer questions in my groups, and sometimes that lets me share a post from my blog right to that person’s question. Make sure you read the rules because some groups do not allow sharing of any kind.
When I look to join a group, I look at the number of members in a group. A recipe group with 100,000 members will get so many more eyes on your post as compared to just 1500 members. It’s just not worth sharing in a group with less than a few thousand people.
When to Post on Facebook
Go to your Facebook page and click Insights. You should see at the top “When Your Fans are Online” and look at the times. Mine are online the most from 3-9 pm at night. For me, the peak is about 8 pm. I’ve found if I share a post between 6-8 pm at night I get effortless reach, engagement and sharing.
A few days ago I posted a recipe at 8 pm and said something about “make this tomorrow for dinner” and I wondered if it would work. Then I checked on it about 15 minutes later and had several shares from my followers. I had not even shared to a recipe group at that point. It was just from my own followers.
These are just a few ways you can still get engagement on Facebook without having to spend a penny. Try them out and let me know if you see any improvement in your engagement.