When submerged in a deep sea of social media, it’s easy to forget that while we’re concerned with engagement analytics and custom apps, the majority of brand page admins still need the nuts and bolts of its capabilities outlined.
It’s important to recap features for our social media 101 students, and it never hurts the “experts” to receive a refresher.
Here are a handful of amenities any Facebook page can implement to maximize its reach, engagement, and overall effectiveness:
- Pinning and highlighting: Facebook’s Timeline layout isn’t always the most practical for delivering essential call-to-action’s to your audience. Instead of posting to “watch your CEO on the news” or “check out our booth this weekend” multiple times at the risk of decreasing your content’s value, consider using the “Pin to Top” feature that will keep a specific post first in line on your page. Go a step further and “Highlight” the post to stretch across the entire page. These capabilities allow page managers to capitalize on the focal point of a page.
- Rearranging: For the OCD-freak in us all, two options are key to keep your page looking spiffy. You can reposition photos once they are posted to the Timeline. You know, in case they are crooked (that’s social media humor!).
If you’re a power organizer and want to draw attention to a new app, your events, or number of ‘likes’, you can also rearrange your favorites boxes (they’re underneath the cover photo). Clicking the “down” button to the right will give you the option to rearrange or add boxes. NOTE: The photos box stays in place. But I think that’s a good thing.
- Turn it off!: Pages come standard with features that many consider a nuisance. As mangers, we know the benefit but also the major downfall (pain is more like it) of allowing a page to receive messages. To do this, go to “Edit Page” (that’s on your admin panel). Select “Update Info” then “Manage Permissions” and you’ll see the “Messages” option. Simply un-check the box next to the brand to disable the function.
There’s more! You can also remove the box that publicly displays “Recent Posts by Others” to your wall. You’ll go to through the same process as described above, but look for “Post Visibility” to remove the feature. This is a great option to clear clutter, but if it’s a page for a product, we recommend keeping them up so potential customers can easily see positive feedback on your products, customer service, etc.
- Polls: Don’t make a SurveyMonkey for a quick crowdsource! Use the “Questions” option in the Status Update box (click Offer, Event+ to find it). This is a great way to get feedback, but because it posts to individuals activity feeds when they answer, it can also help garner more fans. Mo’ fans, Mo’ betta. Right?!
Facebook gives you a plethora of options to utilize your page, but many of them are either buried in the admin platform or easily forgotten. Hopefully this “refresher” gives you some built-in (that means FREE) tricks that will allow you to utilize the space and content of your page to best target your audience and accomplish your goals.
