A Guide to Creating the Perfect Facebook Post

In today’s world, it’s safe to say nearly everyone you know is active on at least one social media platform. With nearly 2 billion people reported on Facebook alone, publishing a post should be a no-brainer (hey, if your 70-year-old grandma can figure it out you should be able to, right?) In reality, putting up a great post may require a little more TLC than you think. Here are a few best practices for creating your Facebook posts to ensure you’re getting the best organic performance possible!

Status Update:

First things first, what are you trying to say? Know the message you are trying to convey to your fans and execute it in a clear and concise way. The key is to keep your words short while still making them enticing enough that fans will want to engage with your company both on-and- offline.

-A study conducted by digital entrepreneur and marketing blogger, Jeff Bullas, found that Facebook posts with 80 characters or less received 88% more engagement than longer posts. It’s also important to remember Facebook posts that are too long will get cut off in people’s feeds, forcing them to expand the text to read more. The more “work” you ask your fans to do, the less they’ll want to engage with your post!

-If you’re going to provide a link in your status update, make sure to “Bit.ly” it. Bit.ly is a URL “shortening service” that allows you to condense long URLs. It also allows you to track the activity of your link so you know how well it’s performing.

-It’s important to make sure you properly tag any other company or brand mentioned in your post. This way, their fans will be more likely to see your content and that brand will be more likely to pay it forward in the future.

Images:

If possible, always include an eye catching and relevant image in your Facebook post. A study conducted by Buzzsumo, found that Facebook posts with images performed 2.3 times better than text only posts.

-Make your images mobile friendly. It is estimated that 80-85% of social media users will see content on their mobile devices. The ideal Facebook photo size is 1200 x 900 pixels. Choosing photos that are the correct size will ensure that the entire image is visible and will not require fans to click on it to enlarge.

Videos:

Take your post a step further and include a video instead of a photo. In March 2017, Facebook IQ performed a study in UK and UAE and “discovered that people gaze 5x longer at video than at static content”. 

-Similarly to photos, there is an ideal format for posting videos to attain the highest level of fan engagement. Facebook video size should reflect a 16:9 or 9:16 aspect ratio with a maximum length of 1 minute. 

-85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound, so it’s important to include an informative and catchy title for your video.

Now that you’ve compiled the perfect Facebook post with a short message, a link, a captivating photo/video, it’s time to publish your post! But don’t just set it and forget it. Make sure to continually interact with fans on your post after it’s live. Having a conversational dialogue through comments will help build relationships within your online community. Show fans you care about them by encouraging them to come back and interact with more great content in the future. Continue implementing these best practices into your Facebook posts and you’re guaranteed to set yourself up for success!