5 Types of Content to Post on Facebook
What kind of content are you posting on your Facebook page?
More importantly, is it getting any engagement?
If you’re using Facebook for your business, you may or may not be having much luck with post engagement. That’s because organic reach for Facebook business pages is pretty low.
Obviously, Facebook is a business. And they’d prefer that you spend money on ads within the platform to advertise your business. They’re not about to make it easy for you to advertise for free.
That’s why I suggest using the platform to build a community around your business—and promote that community as much as you can by making sure your website and other social channels have a link to your Facebook business page.
You should also link your business page to your personal Facebook page (which gets a much better organic reach). Share some of your posts from your business page to your personal Facebook page. It helps people get familiar with your business.
But here’s where I’ll give you a word of caution: Facebook prohibits you from using your personal profile solely for business purposes.
That means if your personal Facebook page has nothing but promos for your business, that’s a no-no—and you’re running the risk of getting shut down.
But you can use your personal Facebook page to speak to your friends AND clients. You can use your page to share client stories, blog previews, and business tips—if you’re doing it from the position of a private individual and not as a business.
Set Your Intent
If you’re using Facebook as a marketing tool (and I really hope you are), you have to know what you expect to get from your effort. What are you trying to accomplish?
Personally, I like to use social media to be…well…social. I like to share photos of my life and funny things my kids say on Instagram. Sometimes those photos and stories end up on my Facebook page, too. For me, that’s part of building my brand awareness. I want my clients to know who I am and what I’m about. I want them to know I’m someone they can relate to.
They can also see the quality of my work from reading the posts on my Facebook page.
Have you identified the goal of your Facebook page yet?
According to one survey by software company Sprout Social, marketers’ social media goals were as different as the types of businesses surveyed. Some said they wanted to increase brand awareness or boost community engagement, while others wanted to grow their brand’s audience or drive web traffic.
Without knowing what you want your Facebook page to do, it’s hard to plan content for it.
Then you end up where I was a couple of years ago: just not posting anything.
Share Content Worth Reading
Once you know what you’re using Facebook for, it’s time to come up with good content to help you reach that goal.
For most of my clients, they want to use Facebook to boost their brand awareness. They want people to know them for what they do, and they want to be seen as a leader in their industry.
For that reason, I create content for them that focuses on education and engagement.
Here’s what’s tricky about creating engaging content: It’s not the same across the board.
For one of my clients, the posts I create that ask a question are the ones that always see a higher engagement. For another, it’s the videos I post that get the best response.
That means you’re going to have to try out different types of content and do some detective work. Post several kinds of content for a couple of weeks and see how they perform. Which posts get the most likes? Which ones moved people to comment?
Let the data dictate where you go from there.
5 Types of Content
Have you ever come across a Facebook page where every post is a promotion post? Or a quote? I have. And I always wonder if it’s intentional, or if the person behind the page suddenly realized one day that they hadn’t posted in a while and just threw anything up on the page to make it look active.
I’m not gonna lie: I’ve done it. I’ve opened up my business page and noticed that the most recent post was from 4 months ago.
In a panic, I threw a quote into a design on Canva and whipped it up on my Facebook page—only to realize the 4 posts beneath it were also quotes I’d posted out of desperation over the last year. Oy!
Last winter I decided my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants posting schedule was definitely not working. I was terribly inconsistent with my social media, which didn’t look good to anyone who stumbled across my page looking for help with their own.
Plus, a stagnant Facebook page leaves people scratching their heads. If the last post I see on someone’s Facebook page is from 2019, are they even still in business?
That’s not so great for brand awareness.
So, I started using the system I’d been using for my clients for a number of years: a post rotation.
It’s evolved quite a bit since the early days of my business when I was offering social media management. Back then I only cycled through 4 types of content, and to be honest, it wasn’t all that good.
Now I cycle through 5 types of content: blogs, promotional posts, value posts, photos (or videos), and engagement posts. With this format, all of my posts achieve my goal of building brand awareness.
More importantly, this system has kept me way more consistent. In fact, I don’t think I’ve missed a Facebook post in about a year. If anyone comes upon my page, there’s always recent content. There’s no doubt I’m still in business.
Think this system might work for you, too? Here’s how I do it:
Blogs
If you have a blog for your business (or your business is a blog), coming up with this type of content for your Facebook page is going to be really easy. This type of Facebook content will also inadvertently double as a promotional post, since you’re linking to a blog on your own website.
If your business doesn’t have a blog, though, be aware that curating this type of content can take quite a bit of time. And you should always make it clear to your audience why you’re sharing the blog with them. If you just throw a link up on your Facebook page with no context, no one’s going to read it.
Tell your followers what you liked about the blog, what they can learn from it, or why you think it would be valuable to them.
Promotional Posts
If you’re running a business, I’m going to venture a guess that you’d like people to know about your business—and spend their money on it.
Putting promotional posts on your Facebook page seems like a no-brainer.
But here’s my advice when it comes to creating promotional posts on your Facebook page:
Promote the end result (or transformation) of buying your product or service.
That means you should never post something like this: “My new book, ‘Manifesting the Life You Want’ is available on Amazon now!” Click the link to order your copy.
Would you click that link? I wouldn’t.
Even if I’m interested in learning how to manifest a life that I want, there’s no incentive for me to click and buy the book.
Do you know what would get me to click the link?
A post that talked about where I am and where I could be if I learned manifestation. A post that I could identify with. A post that gave me the feeling that I was missing out on something because I don’t manifest the things I want.
I don’t know the first thing about manifestation, but I sure do like the idea of manifesting a better life. And do you know where I could learn about it? From that book.
That’ll get me to click.
Think of a promotional post as a mini sales page within your Facebook page. It doesn’t have to be long, but it does have to reach the reader on a personal level. It has to promise the reader something that will change their life for the better.
Value Posts
I call these value posts, but I’ve seen them called educational posts, too. The purpose is the same no matter what you call them: to give the reader something they can use right now. It could be providing them with a tip on how to do something or explaining how something works.
I follow a virtual assistant who sometimes posts tips and shortcuts for Excel. And more than once those tips have taught me a simpler or quicker way of doing something that used to take me a long time. Saving time by knowing how to do something more easily is super valuable to me.
Value posts demonstrate your expertise without trying to make a sale. The whole purpose is to give your followers something without asking for anything in return. Then, when they do need to hire an expert, they’ll remember all the great free advice you gave. They’ll remember you.
What skill, technique or method can you teach your audience with a value post on your Facebook page?
If you’re stuck for ideas, think of questions you’re often asked or a skill or software you’re really good at. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that a lot of the things I do every day are things other people don’t know about (but would love to!)
Photos and Videos
Okay, I’m going to preface this by saying it’s good practice to include some sort of visual element with every Facebook post. That could be a photo, a video, or a gif.
But what I’m talking about here is when the photo or video is the post.
On my Facebook page, I don’t write a lot of text for these types of posts because I use the image or video to tell the story. This post is the perfect example.
Photos and videos are probably the easiest content to come up with. Think about it: How many pictures are on your phone’s camera roll right now? There’s a goldmine of content there!
But your best bet is videos.
There’s a reason more than 500 hours of YouTube videos are watched on the platform every day.
People. Love. Videos.
In fact, according to a study by growth consulting agency Insivia, mobile video consumption increases by 100% every year.
If you’re like me, the thought of stepping in front of the camera makes you a little weak in the stomach. That doesn’t mean I don’t post videos. I just don’t post videos of me (yet!). But I do share videos that I think my followers will enjoy or find useful. Sometimes I post them for pure entertainment, like this one.
One last thing about posting videos: Facebook doesn’t like it when you take people off their platform, so try to post natively to Facebook if you can.
Engagement Posts
Engagement will improve your reach, plain and simple. If you can boost your engagement, you’ll get more eyeballs on your business page.
When people engage with your Facebook posts, that engagement fuels Facebook’s algorithm. It identifies you as someone who has posts people like, so your posts show up more frequently in their feeds.
I like to use really simple engagement posts. Most of the time, I post easy questions people don’t have to think about much to come up with an answer. And the question has to be one practically anyone could answer:
“What’s your favorite movie?”
“How many masks do you own?”
“Would you rather go camping or take a cruise?”
These survey-type questions are fun and they’re inclusive, which is why they’re effective. Everyone has an opinion! The first time I posted one, I was floored by how many people answered the question.
Test and Tweak
Whatever you’re posting, it’s important to keep in mind when it’s most likely to be seen. If you know that your followers are online in the evenings, post in the evenings. When you post at a time people are more likely to see your content right away, you increase the chance they’ll interact with it.
Experiment with posting different types of content at different times of day. Think about when your audience is online, not when YOU’RE online. And remember that not everyone is in your time zone.
Give yourself time to test out different types of content and then post more of the content that gets the best engagement to use organic reach to your advantage.
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