One thing that every business, small, medium or large, struggles with is finding engaging content to post to their fan pages. While marketing is largely a study in what works for your own business, and also what doesn’t, we can identify at least one thing that definitely does: an image worth a thousand words. Now , moving images are hot, and they might just be worth two thousand words.
The problem with getting image content is that many times we’re stealing it, or the equivalent of that, from the original source without asking for permission or giving credit where credit is due. This is terrible form, and too many companies engage in this practice. Don’t do it! It could get you into a lot of trouble, and cost you a small fortune. I’ve heard of companies having to pay upwards of $5000 for not sourcing images correctly on their web properties.
So, how can we avoid stealing content while still giving our fans and audience fun and engaging content that encourages them to click that Like button or comment on it?
Multimedia For Engagement
Images
Use images in your posts where applicable. We know they work and that they increase engagement on Facebook by 40%. Images work when you upload them directly to your fan page, and as an up, you can even use your own images. See my post on creating shareable content for more ideas on how you can enrich your images. According to Kissmetrics, photos will receive 53% more Likes, 104% more comments and a whopping 84% more click-throughs on links.
One reason that images work so well, and much better than text links, is because Facebook favors it in the newsfeed. You’ll notice that an image is a lot bigger than a text link. Rumor has it that in September, text link stories and photo stories will show up as the same size in News Feeds.
Video
There are a few ways to add video to your posts. One is by sharing a link directly from YouTube or another social video site. While this is a good way to share content that you don’t own, it’s always best to own the media you’re sharing. When you upload a video directly to your Facebook page you’ll see 40% higher engagement rates than that resulted from using YouTube links. Another benefit of using Facebook video is that fans can be tagged in the video, which widens the exposure of the video to your fan’s friends.
GIFs
GIFs are brand new to the Facebook game and have been wildly popular on other social networks and especially on Tumblr. GIFs are animated images, and unlike movies they usually play on a loop. While .gifs are relatively new for use on Facebook, we don’t have exact numbers on how they’ll perform. I’m currently testing them on a few fan pages and will be sure to report back on my findings. At Giphy.com there are a ton of images to choose from, and you can share directly to your fan page. Because you can edit the title and the description when you post it, you can alter it to display the message of your choosing.
If you’re interested in more engagement strategies for Facebook, join us for our Facebook Optimization Webinar, taking place on September 19th. Please visit here to register.
Have you played around with GIFs? What media performs best on your Facebook page?
