The 7 deadly Facebook sins

Are you guilty?

Read about a few Facebook faux pas and evaluate your current practices. Is there anything you could improve? Pick one or two to focus on this month.

1) Including links outside of Facebook (especially YouTube)

Facebook is greedy for your attention. It will not show you posts that might take you off the platform to another website.

Try setting a timer for 1 minute and scrolling your Facebook feed – besides sponsored ads, do you come across any posts that have links in them? What do you notice about them?

Upload videos directly to Facebook for the best engagement. Never link to a YouTube video (YouTube is owned by Google – Facebook’s mortal enemy).

2) Writing too much text

Either in the caption or on the graphic – keep text to an absolute minimum. People don’t read. We’re all skimming on social media.

How much of this newsletter are you actually reading? Are you just reading this part because it sticks out visually?

3) Logging off after posting

Like and/or reply to your comments as immediately as you can. Comment on people’s posts when they share.

4) Forgetting about how magical Facebook Lives are

Go live with a short update video and watch it go crazy. Even if no one shows up to your live, the video will be pushed for hours onto people’s feeds.

5) Forgetting about the “optimal times” scheduling feature

When creating a post in the Business Suite, you can schedule it for a later time. It will show you a few of the best times to post, according to when your audience is online.

6) Posting just to post

Ask yourself – if I followed this page, would I stop scrolling for this? If not, skip it – and put your time into something else.

7) Treating Facebook like a bulletin board – AKA excessive self-promotion

I know you care about the people in your audience, so post like it! Whether or not you mean to, exclusively posting about your next event looks kinda spammy.

Have you discovered any of your own tips or tricks to get more engagement on Facebook? Please share!