10 Types of Posts to Use on Facebook

You asked for it, so here it is…

I’ve received a lot of questions about what sort of things you should post on Facebook from a recent article I wrote – 5 Ways To Increase Your Organic Facebook Reach (if you haven’t read it yet you can find it by clicking here) 

So I’ve put together some ideas and examples of posts that will get you started but first I’d like to explain why it’s in your best interest to do this right. (If time is short and you’re not a why person scroll down to ‘here are 10 types of posts to use on Facebook’)

Facebook is a Social Networking Site

Facebook is a social networking site, a place where people connect, communicate and share with friends, family, and often business connections. The key word is ‘SOCIAL’, and Facebook have stringent guidelines in place to protect this – their commitment is to keep their users happy – and this is where most business owners go wrong. 

You are – or should be – using Facebook to grow your fans, grow your list and ultimately increase your bottom line. The normal – or dare I say it old – way to do this was to promote your products or services and encourage people to buy them. There was no what’s in it for the reader, it’s all about you and your product or service.

Guess what! This method doesn’t work on Facebook. With Facebook, and in fact with most of your marketing, you need to make it all about them. Think about why you use it. You are scrolling through the news feed to see what your friends and family are up to, you’re not there looking for anything in particular. 

This is the first key to understanding the best types of things to post – people are not actively looking for anything, they are not scrolling through the news feed looking for ways to solve their problems or make their dreams come true – they are scrolling through, often mindlessly because they’re multi-tasking, as a way of staying connected.

Start to pay attention to the types of posts that grab your attention, what was it about the post, was it the picture, the words, the flashing gif? This is the sort of content you need to be thinking about posting to grab other people’s attention.   

It’s all about getting engagement

The more engagement you generate on your page (likes, shares and comments) the more people see your posts, and the more people see your posts the more engagement you get. More engagement  tells Facebook your fans like what they see so they’ll show them more of what you post. This is a snowballing effect.

Engagement is one of the fundamental components of generating traffic. More traffic = more leads; more leads = more clients; more clients = more money; and more money = more people you are helping. 

Here are 10 types of posts to use on Facebook

Let’s begin with what might seem obvious. There are 3 basic mediums you can use – written, images and video. Images are still the most utilised however video is quickly gaining traction and closing the gap. Combining different mediums is where you’ll get best results, eg using an image with text on it, or using video with text overlay.   

1. Ask Questions

Questions are a great way to get your fans involved on your wall. We all love to answer questions and give our opinion, it makes us feel wanted and needed.

Here are examples of 2 types of questions you can use. 

1a. The Random Question

Ask a [RANDOM] question that requires a short answer. Finish the post with “I can’t wait to read your answer”. This makes the reader feel included and they are more likely to answer it.

An example of a RANDOM question

Some examples are:

What’s your favourite colour?

Do you delete all of your text messages daily or never?

I’m having my morning coffee, what’s in your cup?

It’s date night Friday, what would you recommend?

They can be as random as you like, just be mindful of your audience.

1b. The Strategic Question

This type of question is great if you are thinking of adding a new service to your business or want to know the biggest concerns facing your prospects and clients. Facebook is a great place to conduct mini surveys and ask questions.

Some examples are:

Example of a STRATEGIC Question

What’s your biggest hurdle when it comes to losing weight?

What one skill would you like, to be more productive each day?

What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to getting new clients?

What’s the worst piece of advise you have ever been given?

If I gave you a magic wand and gave you 2 wishes what would they be?

Questions can be either text (just typed in as a status update) or they can be an image with the question on it or if you wanted they could be a short video. Try them all and find what works best for your audience.

2. Themed Days.

Theme Days are one of my favourites. Once you’ve decided on your themes it makes it really easy to source material to post. I tend to share a lot of other peoples posts on theme days to supplement our content.

To make is obvious I also include the name of the Theme Day in square brackets at the beginning of the post, for example in the image below the post starts with [Thoughtful Thursday].

Some examples of themes you could use are:

Motivation Monday,

Tech Tuesday,

Hump Day Humour,

Flash Back Thursday,

Fun Friday,

Weekend Wisdom.

Public Holidays and Celebrations will always get great traction especially if your post is helpful and/or insightful (ie: Low Calorie Hot Cross Bun Recipes)

Don’t run theme days every single day of the week. If you’re organised, rotate the theme days throughout a month (maybe a couple a week), remember the key is to post consistently.

3. Use Images

Image posts are 80% more likely to create engagement than words alone. Use your imagination, and think outside the box. Pictures really do paint 1000 words. Add an emotional connection to the picture and you’ve got a far better chance of catching your prospects eye, and that’s what this is all about – getting them to look at your posts, you want to interrupt their scrolling by getting them to stop and look at your post. 

Many people use Facebook for their ‘feel good’ fix, they are searching for things that give them hope and make them smile. So take the time to get to know the type of people you want to attract to your page. What are their fears and frustrations, wants and aspirations, what pushes their buttons, what image or words will trigger an emotional reaction?

You may have heard the saying, people buy on emotion and justify with logic. The same logic can be applied to your Facebook posts, you’re not asking them to pay anything but you are asking them to invest their time. 

 There are plenty of great tools and apps available to help you create great looking images. To get you started we’ve created a list explaining 7 of these snazzy tools, click here to check them out. The best bit, these are all free.

4. Motivational Quote Images

There are many pages solely dedicated to motivational quotes, and if you frequent Facebook you’ll see how often they do the rounds. There are no exact figures but you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see motivational quotes are one of the most shared posts on the Wall. In the example image shown below of a Kim Garst post you can see just how much engagement this one post has generated for her page. 

5. What’s Hot in the News

Current Affairs can be a great source of content. Keep abreast of what’s hot and add to the conversation, especially when it ties into who you are and what you offer. For the greatest impact add your opinion or reason for sharing, don’t just regurgitate other site’s stuff.

One way to find this news is to check what’s trending on Facebook in the right hand sidebar. There is a ‘top trends’ list, ‘politics’, ‘science & technology’, ‘sport’ and ‘entertainment’. Another way is to sign up for Google Alerts based on keywords that match your products or services, you'll need a G-Mail account to do this. 

There are also paid services available as your needs grow, one we’re currently trialing is Buzzsumo.

Again moderation is the key, unless of course you’re a news site. Oh, and be prepared for the odd negative comment because not everybody will agree with you. 

6. Share A Bit About Yourself

Share behind the scene images and posts. Be authentic and genuine but also post mindfully. People love to know who you (and your team) are so share a little about yourself, your office, your pets, kids, how you relax, what you’re working on, celebrations, the wins and if appropriate the failures. If you know your clients well enough you’ll know what’s going to work and what’s not.

7. Promote Your Own Content, Products and Services

Facebook is a great place to share your content. Every time you write a blog, share the link; if you get a great testimonial, share the words; if you add a new service, share that too.

You most definitely should be promoting your product or service on your wall in a conversational way.

Your business page is where you need to start building your fan base and promoting your wares. There is no point building a social media presence if you are not showing off your products or services.

These could be posted on your personal profile if your friend list is client and business based. I have friends that only use a personal profile and don’t even have a business page but this is not what I’d recommend.

Be smart about it, for example use educational posts about results your clients get using your product or service rather than buy my stuff, buy my stuff, buy my other stuff…. include links back to your website, to your blogs and content, or to opt-ins and low cost products. Here's a great example from Jon Loomer Digital showing you exactly how you should share your content. Notice the wording he's used, how the image has the blog title on it and the author link at the bottom – all things you can do yourself that don't cost a cent. 

Remember what I wrote earlier, it’s all about them. Provide great content and they will keep coming back for more. Here’s a question I ask myself every time I produce something – “What’s in it for me?” or WIIFM. If I can answer this then I’m on the right track.

8. Hashtags

Use #hashtags. These can add to your visibility. Using a #hashtag is like adding a search filter to a word or phrase, so if you want to see what’s been written about it you click on the hashtag and all posts (not just your friends) show up.

What this means for you as a user is that if your hashtag word is searched your posts with that #hashtag will show up in the search list. There is a great article you can read on Mashable called The Beginner’s Guide to the Hashtag (it is a little old but the information is still relevant), click here to read it.

9. Share Other People’s Posts, Video’s and Links

A great way to build relationships with other people is to share their stuff and tag them in the post.  If there is someone you’d like to work with one day, or someone you’d like to do a JV with or speak on stage alongside, or just someone you really admire and their content is relevant to your fan base then share it regularly.

You will eventually hit their radar, they will be thankful for the extra free publicity and your fans will be thankful for the great content you are putting in front of them. In this image you’ll see I shared an Elizabeth Gilbert quote (she’s someone I really admire) which she happened to see and ‘like’. This like increased the visibility of our post, more people saw it, liked it and shared it.

10. Humour

Let’s face it, people love to laugh so using humour is a great way to increase engagement and shares. There are many different types of humour – stupid, fun, dark, dry, situational, satirical, juvenile, highbrow – but be mindful because not everyone will have or understand your sense of humour. Humour can be one of those things that polarises audiences, so choose wisely and always err on the side of caution. Video’s of animals, kids and people are great sources of giggles, here's a video I shared recently that got great traction.

Here are a couple of other image post examples of humour…

To Summarise

Facebook is a really effective way to stay top of mind and connected with your potential clients and paying customers. Treat it like the local store where people go to hang out or a networking event where you go to connect, you don’t want to be remembered as the pushy one who only ever talks about what you do and sell.

Facebook is a great business resource, when used correctly. Never before have we been able to deliver so much useful information on a single platform to so many people (There are over 1.49 Billion Users now!).

One of the greatest things about Facebook is when you’re ready to take your Business to the next level using paid advertising the targeting abilities they provide are the best there currently are (yes even better than Google at the time of writing). This means you can laser target a specific audience which keeps your advertising costs down and puts you in front of the right people – how to do this effectively is a post for another day.

I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled next time I’m flicking through the news feed, hopefully I’ll see some of your posts using some of the ideas above. Don’t be afraid to tag me, I’m always looking for inspiration and things to share myself.

Go forth and test, learn what works and what doesn’t and most of all have fun. I’m a firm believer that if you create it with a smile and love it shows. In the meantime if you’ve got any questions or would like some guidance with anything related to Facebook please ask in the comments below.