Is your business finding it hard to acquire the Facebook Likes and Shares you need? Are you stuck in a Facebook posting whirlpool, spinning around and never really getting anywhere? Every 60 seconds 293,000 Facebook posts are made on Facebook. I’ve analyzed posts from some of the top Facebook pages to show you how to stand out from the crowd and create awesome Facebook posts - including tips on what to do, what to test, and what to avoid. My search resulted in 11 examples of post strategies you can implement to revamp your business' Facebook profile. I've broken these 11 strategies into three simple-to-remember Facebook posting rules of thumb: - Use product comparisons, opinion polls and sneak peeks to encourage Fan Participation - Remember your demographics to focus, or expand, your target audience - Use great images to catch the eye of your followers and inspire some casual likes and shares I also drop a couple top tips to keep in mind when using these strategies.

1. 11 Awesome (and 1
terrible) Facebook Post
Examples with Critiques
& Best Practices

3. Table of Contents
1
Use product comparisons, opinion polls and sneak
peeks to encourage fan participation
Remember your demographics to focus or expand your audience2
3
Use great images to catch the eye of your followers and inspire
some casual likes and shares
4
Check your links before you publish. Even the small things can
cost you

4. 1
Encourage Fan
Participation

5. How do you create a Facebook post that will maximize fan
participation?
1
Value their opinion
2
Simply ask for it
3 Give a sneak peek
4
Offer advice

6. Example Facebook post below with my critique:

7. Value their Opinion
Things I like:
1. Easy Engagement: The post has two simple
options that make it easy to engage.
2. Seasonal Relevance: Using ice cream in the
summer is a great example of tapping into what
your Fans are already thinking about.
How to make it work for you:
Either use your own products, or come up with
your own imaginary battle royale and
encourage your customer’s online involvement:
Han Solo or Luke? Batman or Spiderman?
Facebook or Twitter?

8. Use a Poll
How to make it work for you:
The online vote or opinion poll strategy is simpler for retailers, but it’s not
exclusively in their back pocket. Come up with your own competitions
from scratch. Remember to choose eye-catching and appealing subjects
for your competition.
Things I like:
1. Opinion polls: Facebook
users love to share their
opinion.
2. The Call-to-Action: They
use appealing language:
‘which flat is your favorite for
fall?’
Things I would change or
test:
The Picture: I’d test a more
exciting picture for this poll
post. How about the
traditional ‘lady‟s-night-out
shoe shot‟?

9. Ask for it
How to make it work for you:
Find a simple image that embodies your brand, whether that’s your logo
or a picture more complicated is up to you. Test the image and
remember this strategy does not have to be based around your brand as
a whole. Try something more ambiguous as well: ‘If you’re a Fan of high
heels on a Saturday night, like this post’.
Things I like:
1. Knowing their audience:
John Deere Fans are Fans
on more than just Facebook.
They recognizes their
audience and take
advantage of their passion.
2. The Infrequency: John
Deere does not use this
strategy often, so when they
do it’s new and bold again.

10. Offer Advice
Things I like:
1. The Photo: Photos of food, as the single most
popular pictures on social media, are an excellent
way of attracting attention to a particular post.
2. Providing „quick and easy‟ tips: Tips give
readers and Fans a reason to keep coming back to
your page.
3. Easy to like: Encouraging Fans to ‘like’ an easily
accepted assertion is a simple and painless way for
them to participate.
How to make it work for you:
Offering advice is effective for ‘how-to’ articles, ‘top-
10’s’ and webinars. It’s important, however, to find
an appealing tagline and picture for the ‘offer
something new’ strategy, so put some effort into
this one as it‟s not just gaining you likes, it‟s
also driving Fans to your website.

11. 2
Create Targeted
Posts

12. 3 Ways to Target your posts:
1
2
Images are superior to words: Your followers skim their newsfeeds. Be
sure to use an eye-grabbing image to target your market.
Use the right language: Once you’ve grabbed your targeted follower with
a catchy image, use demographic-based language to inspire their
involvement. This also creates the feeling of exclusivity.
Go universal: Universally appealing quotes, statements or advice are a
great way to achieve some straightforward Like and Shares.
3

13. Target your audience to get the most bang for your buck
Knowing your demographics is one of the most
important factors in marketing. Facebook posts
are no different.
The example from Intuit (left) is great. It quickly
and easily indicates its targeted audience
with an image of the Golden Gate Bridge.
They also rely on a demographically-focused
hashtag (#supportsmallbiz!) and geo-targeted
jargon.
In this way, the picture is easy to digest for a
person skimming their news feed, and the
content draws their geo-targeted audience
towards involvement.

14. Use Universal Appeal
Things I like:
Quotes: Statements like this can be incredibly
effective, especially positive and thought-
provoking ones like this as people share the
thought on their own social media
outlets, occasionally citing where they found it.
How to Make it Work for you:
1. Simplicity: This is the simplest of all Facebook post strategies: a catchy, inspirational quote which
appeals to a select audience. Figure out what your target audience is, and choose your quotes
according to that group.
2. Balance: There has to be a balance between quotes and statements like this (which have no
bearing on the product itself) and more traditional advertisements, product releases, and CSR
notices. If you cover your profile in product-meaningless quotes you risk losing brand interest.

15. Showcase your Fans
Things I like:
1. Speaking to their market: By creating groups
and user-submitted contests focusing on
music, art and other subcultures, Converse
caters to their specific clientele and creates all-
important exclusivity.
2. Involving multiple social media outlets:
Converse encourages Fans to upload their own
artwork and designs to Converse’s Google+
group - a great way to spread the love.
How to make it work for you:
Converse’s newsfeed is a great example of
setting a tone and sticking with it. Make sure you
know your own target audience, and act
accordingly. You might be surprised at the
return you get when your tone matches your
audience.

16. 3
Let the Image Speak
for Itself

17. 3 Ways to Use Photos:
1
2
Go Adorable: Pets and babies (and baby pets…) are a great way to
attract the eye of your Fans to your brand’s Post.
Use real people: Human interest stories, with the appropriate images, are
fantastic opportunities to increase engagement with your brand.
Find the funny: Using a cartoon, a meme or a funny quote makes your
brand more approachable. Just make sure your social media tone
matches up.
3

18. Go Adorable
A great picture is worth a thousand words -
grabbing your attention and communicating so
much so fast.
Hewlett Packard’s post (left) takes advantage of an
adorable puppy, coupled with their brand logo, to
attract the eye of Facebook users.
They throw in a universally appealing and witty
statement (TGIF: been working like a dog), and the
easy Likes pour in.
It all works to catch your attention, encourage their
social media tone, and promote their brand.

19. Use Real People Things I like:
1. Human interest stories: Significant events like
birthdays and births are great for social media as
people love hearing about and promoting the
positive.
2. The Specifics: The personal story makes a
multi-national corporation seem approachable and
results in increased Fan participation.
How to make it work for you:
1. Take Advantage: Opportunities like this one
don’t come along very often. So when they
do, make sure you take advantage of them.
2. Take pictures of your events: Do you have a
weekend softball team or recent business
barbecue? Personalizing your Facebook page, and
posts, makes your business profile more
approachable.

20. Use Memes Things I like:
Humor: A humorous statement, quote, or image can
effectively communicate an organization’s social media
‘tone’ - something very much dependent on their target
audience.
Things I would change or test:
Playing with fire: Not every organization can ‘pull off’ a
meme Facebook post, or should try. Converse, an
organization whose target audience is young, hip and
irreverent, makes this ironic and funny tone work..
How to make it work for you:
Just because you don’t have an international celebrity or model on your payroll doesn’t mean you
can’t use great pictures to increase your social media following. Images are relatively easy to come
by. Perhaps ask your Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram followers to get involved: A contest for most
adorable “baby+your-product” picture?

21. Check your Links!4

22. Measure twice, cut once
By prioritizing the editorial process and double-checking
your work you can limit those little human errors that can
make all the difference. But no matter how hard we
try, the intricacies of social media can catch even the
best of us out sometimes.
Telus’ Facebook post looks great to begin with:
unfortunately, they’ve made a damning mistake, one that
not every Facebook user will catch, but could seriously
throw off their competition if left as it is:
The link they‟ve provided (#peak2peak), sends the
Facebook user to a 10-mile charity run in
Omaha, Nebraska (not Whistler BlackComb)…
This example really brings it home how important it is to
check your links, and your posts as a whole, before
making them live.

23. How do you use Facebook Posts to Drive Engagement?
Facebook is all about the conversation. Facebook posts are the ice-breaker. Whether
it’s by asking your followers their opinion, speaking to them as individuals, or attracting
them with a pretty face (or a puppy…), you might be surprised at the level of participation
you get from such a simple little thing.

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