Once you have begun the process of building your social media empire, you may find that followers and users are not responding as often as you would like. This is a very common issue when managing Facebook pages and other social media outlets: not every approach will be effective, as trial and error would suggest. Fortunately, those who are seeking a better way in which to engage with their Facebook followers can use some simple strategies to boost the effectiveness of their status updates. Below, we will outline five specific tips that can be utilized to increase the amount of engagement from your followers and successfully further your brand’s reach.

Always Post Facts

In many cases, Facebook page administrators will use “filler” as a way to keep their pages constantly active. Unfortunately, we often make the mistake of sharing content without adequately describing to what it pertains. If you are sharing any form of content from another blog or website (or your own content, for that matter), then be sure to include a brief snippet that details the most interesting elements of the content in question. If you do not do this, then you will find that users will not respond as often nor share the content as much. Nobody wants to be pinging links into the wild blue yonder, so be sure to include factual descriptions with each status update.

Share and Approve of Other Content

When you find Facebook status updates from other pages and users that vibe well with your brand’s theme and message, do not be afraid to share these with your fans and followers. You can gain additional traction with both your audience and the audience from which the content originated if you are sure to approve of the content by adding some descriptors to the shared message. By alerting your followers to the ‘great’, ‘fantastic’ or ‘excellent’ content being shared, you will alter the way people perceive said content. The social backlinks that are generated can also help augment your brand’s reach.

Call Your Users to Action

If you post tons of generic status updates, it can become easy for your users to simply ignore them. While pinging links as often as possible can be a great way to garner attention, they must be engaging and fun for your readers. If you wish to inspire additional interaction, then it is vital that calls to action be incorporated into your status updates. Common examples include signing petitions, making a contribution to a charity or sharing a promotional video. Whatever the case or cause, you will always benefit from requesting action from your followers – if you don’t do this, then it is understandable why no one is engaged with your brand.

Shorten Your Links

Rather than sharing those long, obtrusive URLs with your followers on Facebook, you should use a URL shortening service to embed any necessary links in status updates. While Facebook does offer the ability to post status updates with the displayed link without directly listing the URL, this is often left out when shared to other people’s walls and inboxes. It can also be a hassle when you need to share more than one link at a time. You can avoid overwhelming your readers and make sharing simpler by shrinking these URLs down beforehand and embedding them in each relevant status update.