I asked a few of my Facebook friends in the industry to send me their most popular post for 2012 so I could dissect each one and find the common factors that make these posts so popular.
Let’s start by taking a look at each post.
From these samples, these are the three ingredients needed to craft a popular Facebook post:
1. A Photo
Photo posts are far more likely than other kinds of posts (plain status updates, polls, etc.) to create high engagement on Facebook. When it comes down to it, people just love photos and images. Think about your own Facebook habits. Do you tend to like, comment and share photos more often than just a simple status update? Each of these examples proves posting photos on Facebook is the way to go.
My friend, Blake Jamieson from PoolSupplyWorld, talked about his experience posting photos on the company’s Facebook page. “On Valentines day, I decided to post a picture of a heart-shaped swimming pool. I figured it was a nice break from the tutorials and product photos I had been sharing. No text — just a picture. The post got about 30 likes within the hour…and it hit me. People don’t want to see technical pool info on Facebook. People want to see pictures of awesome pools.”
In the world of Facebook, a picture is worth a thousand likes...or more!
2. A Call to Action
These posts also tell you what to do. For example, the first post from SwimmingPool.com asks a question and then gives people an action to perform: “LIKE this post if you’d like this in your backyard.” It’s simple and gives a specific action.
When crafting a post, I would avoid giving people a choice. I wouldn’t say, “LIKE, COMMENT, or SHARE this post if you’d like this in your backyard.” Give a clear and simple action that you want your fans to do.
Try It!
These two ingredients alone will make for a great Facebook post. Post a really cool or interesting photo and ask people to like it. Liking a post is easy because it just takes one click to do. Commenting and sharing have more steps, but also have more weight in Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm.
3. An Offer They Can’t Refuse
As we see in the post from The Spa Depot, they’ve completed the trifecta by posting a photo with a call to action that will generate an offer. Boom!
If you can combine all three ingredients, you may have an extremely popular post on your hands. Remember, a popular post is measured by the amount of people that interact with your post, not the amount of people who merely see it.
Give it a Shot!
Now that you have the simple formula, give it a try for yourself. If you’re new to Facebook marketing or would like to get some more information about it, you can read my blog post, The Definitive Guide to Facebook Marketing for Pool Businesses.
