How to Figure Out Your Facebook Strategy

Analyze! - The Anti-Social MediaYou don’t give your Facebook fans what they want.

Seriously. Most Facebook fans want exclusive discounts and free stuff.

I don’t know about you, but I’m too cheap to give discounts. I don’t have any free stuff to give out either. So for the vast majority of marketers who run a Facebook page, there goes the best Facebook strategy possible.

Instead, marketers offer a bunch of crappy posts to foster “engagement.”  Then they try to pass that off as ROI because engagement is entirely a sustainable business model.

Yeah, right.

Here’s an idea that you can use today to figure out your Facebook strategy.

Take an hour and review the Facebook insights for your brand page. Go to your Facebook page and see what exactly works. Ask questions about the posts like:

  • Which kinds of posts receive the most engagement?
  • Which posts are commented on, liked or shared?
  • What topic was the post about?
  • When was it posted?

It’s hard. It takes time and thinking. You may even have to write something down in a spreadsheet.

Ugh.

If you’re bored already, maybe you can make the intern do it. Then again, they’re probably running your Facebook strategy anyway.

But one way or another, you’ve got to take the time to analyze your Facebook page. Maybe your Twitter account and Pinterest account to. Research and analysis lead to the insights necessary to develop a real social media strategy.

Anything else is just posting in the dark.

3 Responses to How to Figure Out Your Facebook Strategy

  1. Claire Wagner December 5, 2012 at 1:19 pm #

    I started to do this yesterday for the first time and it does take some effort, especially finding the exact time of the posts, which I’m very interested in knowing. And I’m not sure I like the answers I’m getting. The devil is in the interpretation. You can’t just get the data and make snap decisions sometimes. You still have to think it over carefully and then experiment. Thanks for another kick in the pants. Social media for brands is just plain work.

    • Jay December 5, 2012 at 1:35 pm #

      It is work. One thing that I’ve done is to aggregate and find trends. Which kinds of posts get what kind of interaction? It’s not fun, and it’s time consuming, but the data is invaluable.

  2. Kate December 6, 2012 at 10:43 pm #

    That stuff is hard. I need an intern…