Did you know there are over 15 million Facebook users in Australia? And 1 in 2 are logging in daily? That’s 60% of the country sharing memes, watching videos, and liking inspirational quotes

With so many of us on Facebook and a huge range of content to enjoy, the question for us marketers is how do we stand out from the rest and create engaging Facebook content?

Here are our top 8 Ways to boost Facebook Engagement

1. High-Quality Content

When trying to increase your brand’s engagement on Facebook, building an audience is key and one of the best ways to nurture an audience is through delivering high-end content they will be drawn to.

Creating meaningful content that connects with people and adds value to people’s lives is an ideal way to engage with your audience. A simple principle to follow to help create quality content is the EDIE principle. The objective of your content should always fall into one or more of the following buckets – Educate, Demonstrate, Inspire or Entertain.

Most importantly when creating content, it’s best to know what your target audience is looking for, what they want and what they need. This will help you to serve up meaningful content on a silver platter.

How to discover what they need and want? Ask, Listen and Test!

Ask what they want to see more of on your page. Use Facebook polls, questionnaires, or even direct message users if it suits.

Listen to your brand’s sentiment on Facebook posts to see how your followers are responding to content and where you should be pushing your content efforts to get the most engagement. This will also identify what isn’t engaging people and why not.

Test out a range of different media types and writing styles to determine what content best engages your audience.

2. Timing it Right

It’s important to understand when your audience is online in order to attract the highest possible level of engagement. Are they online during their morning and afternoon commute from work, are the parents of young children who tend to get online later in the evening? Finding the best time of day as well as the best day of the week will help to boost your engagement.

According to Buzzsumo’s Facebook report, the best time to post is 9-11 pm EST and the best day of the week is Sundays, followed closely by Saturdays. Having said this, it’s important to remember that every audience is different and to get the most engagement you’ll need to carry out some testing to see what works best for you.

3. Video & Facebook Live

In 2018 video content dominated the way we consume content, with numbers set to rise again in 2019. Facebook’s love for video is no secret with video content being the highest engaging format on the platform.

The optimal length for video is approximately 3-4 minutes with 80% of consumers preferring live video over reading a blog post There are ways in which you can transform existing content such as an article or blog into something more engaging like a video. With video being so popular amongst Facebook users, it’s definitely a medium you’ll want to explore.

4. Facebook Stories

Following the popularity of Snapchat and Instagram stories, Facebook stories are starting to follow in their footsteps. They produce great results for engagement and are an effective way to get in front of your audience. Stories last for 24 hours and feature at the top of a users screen, above their feed which means your brand is front of mind for as long as the story is live.

Stories give you the opportunity to be more genuine and personal with your content, which your audience is more likely to engage with.

5. What’s Already Working?

If it’s not broken, don’t fix it… Yes, you’re looking for ways to increase your Facebook engagement, although sometimes fine-tuning your current efforts is all that needs to be done.

Analyse your Facebook analytics to determine what is working and what you can continue to leverage. Similarly, it’s also important to recognise what isn’t working and what needs to be excluded from your strategy moving forward.

Running a ‘top performing’ report will allow you to see which posts are more successful than others and what your audience is engaging with – it may surprise you!

All of this information is readily available in Facebook audience insights, with an ocean full of options to dive into. So take a deeper look, analyse your top posts, and your worst, find out what is it that’s making them succeed or fail. Adjust your plan where required and try to replicate those best practices that will increase your engagement.

6. Talk on Trending Topics

There’s a lot going on in the world today and Facebook has become one of the main news sources for many people. Users are searching for news stories and current events on Facebook and are becoming more and more interested in the opinions of others.

Why not toss your hat into the mix and leverage the buzz around trending topics.

Decide on the topics that best suit your brand and the ones that would provide the greatest relevance to your audience. There is no need to make hard opinions on certain topics, but you can come at them from your own unique viewpoint. You might have a humorous take on a trending topic that will help to engage with a broader audience.

Using Google Alerts to set up notifications with Google Trends to spark content, you’ll be halfway there to creating trending content that is more likely to engage your audience. So keep an eye on what’s topical and tap into it.

7. Keep it Short

Get to the point with your content and get there quickly. The optimal number of characters on Facebook posts are 0-50.

Keep it short. That is all.

8. Scroll-Stopping Media

People have short attention spans. You only have a few seconds to grab a user’s attention before they’re off swimming down the newsfeed stream never to come across your post again. Scroll-stopping media refers to the engaging content that stops users thumbs from continually scrolling past your post and down their newsfeed.

This may be achieved with brighter colours, more engaging imagery or an interactive video. When creating content keep in mind that the objective is to get your audience to stop scrolling and engage.