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During a recent session at OMI Social, Mobile and Digital Marketing Boot Camp in Los Angeles, CA, instructor, Sundeep Kapur, shared Facebook marketing tips to help grow your fan base and engage your fans. Facebook is a great place to connect and build relationships with your customers. Here are 5 key takeaways from the Digital Marketing Boot Camp about Facebook marketing.

1. Specify the location in your Facebook posts. Have you ever posted something for your business like “We’re in Huntington Beach selling jewelry on the pier, stop by and check out our inventory,” and made it viewable to “Public?” This may seem like a great thing to do; however, if your brand is a national brand, it’s irrelevant to a lot of your fans that aren’t in that location. Next time you’re posting a status update that would only appeal to people in a particular area, specify the target location by selecting “Location” and typing in the location of the people you think would benefit from seeing the post. This keeps you from accidentally spamming your other fans who wouldn’t be interested in that piece of location-sensitive information.

2. Highlight your best posts. If you have a post that you think is particularly great content, click the star in the upper right corner of the post to “highlight” it. This makes the story double the width so it stands out among the other posts on your Timeline.

3. Ask your fans questions. Asking your fans for their opinion is a great way to encourage comments. The more comments on a post, the more likely it is to show up in your fans’ Newsfeeds. Try asking them to share a story about how their use your product, or to finish your sentence by filling in a blank (Ex: My favorite thing to eat at Sarah’s Pizza is ____”). You’ll find that you’ll get more responses to your posts when you encourage participation this way.

4. Use Facebook Sponsored Stories and Ads. According to the OMI session, it’s best to use Sponsored Stories in order to grow your fan base. Choose the “page like story” under sponsored stories. This is using friends’ endorsement which increases the story’s click-through rate (CTR). If you’re looking to grow your engagement, use Facebook Ads and choose “Ad from a page post.” This ad will display the post of your choice for friends and friends of friends to see.

5. Photos and videos get the most attention. The best posts on Facebook are those that include a photo or video. People love looking at this kind of content on Facebook and they are more likely to interact with a post if it includes an eye-catching photo or interesting video, so post this kind of content as often as possible.

In How to Create Posts Specifically for Facebook and Twitter Part 1, we discussed how often you should post on both Facebook and Twitter as well as how to engage each network’s individual audience. It’s important to understand that although you can post about the same topics and use the same content for both Facebook and Twitter, you must word it a different way for each in order for it to be effective. Here are more ways you can customize your posts for Facebook and Twitter.

How long should a post be?

Facebook: Keep your post about 2-3 lines long. Although there isn’t a character limit on Facebook posts, people don’t want to read a paragraph-long status update. For this reason, you should limit your posts to be about 2-3 lines long and include a link or photo to catch your audience’s eye. That will help it stand out in their Newsfeed.

Twitter: Twitter has a length limit of 140 characters or less. However it is recommended that you keep your tweets at 120-130 characters (including a shortened URL) in order to make it easy for people to retweet. If you use all 140 characters, people who want to retweet your message won’t be able to without altering your message in some way, which is discouraging.

What kind of content should you share?

Facebook: On Facebook, it’s important to post a lot of photos or links with your content to catch peoples’ eyes. If you’re posting a link or a photo, ask a question to encourage participation or make a comment about the photo or link. The more people that comment on your posts the more exposure your company will receive in the future. Share information like your latest videos, news, blog posts, promotions, etc. People love deals, so giving your fans an exclusive deal will help ensure they’ll keep paying attention to your brand on Facebook. It’s also fun to engage your fans with contests that are exclusively for them.

Twitter: It’s important to keep Twitter posts short and to-the-point. There should be a shortened URL and the content with it should entice your audience to click it and retweet it. The shorter and more interesting the tweet, the more likely people are to click on your link and share it with their followers, gaining you more exposure. You can post the same kind of content that you would on Facebook; company announcements, promotions, news, blogs, videos, etc., just post them in short snippets.

Following these tips will help you to better customize your content for Facebook and Twitter. Remember when choosing content to post, put yourself in your audience’s shoes. What would they be interested in hearing about? Posting truly engaging content rather than sales-y messages will help make your followers into advocates for your brand.

If you’re like many brands, your company is on both Facebook and Twitter social networks. If you don’t understand the nature of both social networks, you may make the mistake of thinking it is okay to post the exact same content on both. However, although Facebook and Twitter are both social networks that allow you to engage and connect with your customers, they’re also very different. Writing specifically for each requires thought and if you’re posting the exact same thing on both, the people who follow you on both networks will get bored, frustrated and may unfollow you. It’s okay to post about the same topics, like a recent blog or company event but it’s not okay to say it in the exact same way. Follow these tips to customize your posts specifically for Facebook and Twitter as two separate social networks.

How often should you post?

Facebook: Post about 2-4 times a day on Facebook in order to help your chances of being in your fan’s newsfeeds without becoming a pest. Remember that Facebook takes into account how much interaction your fans have with your company. The more interaction, the more likely your post is to be seen.

Twitter: Twitter moves very fast. It can be very hard to make sure your tweet is seen by your followers because their feed is flooded with so many other recent updates. Posting often will help your tweets be seen, however don’t tweet just to tweet. Make sure you have something interesting to say, otherwise don’t say it at all.

How should you interact with your followers/fans?

Facebook: Ask open ended questions and encourage your fans to share their opinions. People love talking about themselves on social networks so encouraging participation in this way will help boost the interaction between you and your fans. Ask your fans to share stories or photos about their experience with your business or product. If they are bad experiences, address them publically so other users can see that you care and then resolve the issue privately with the customer.

Twitter: On Twitter, responding is very important. When users mention your brand, it’s important to acknowledge them with a response, even if it is just a simple “thank you.” Ask a question and encourage your followers to answer with their opinions. Always respond to these answers to keep the conversation going or at least thank them for their participation.

How should you share photos?

Facebook: Sharing photos on Facebook is easy and a great idea for marketers. Fans can preview a photo before clicking on it or browse through entire albums. The more photos uploaded on Facebook, the better. People love to view and comment on photos often so it’s a great way to engage your fans.

Twitter: Sharing photos on Twitter requires a little more effort than Facebook because you must click a link to see the photo. This extra step means that people will be expecting a great photo if they do decide to click. You must be choosey when deciding which photos to display on Twitter. Make sure you only tweet photos that highlight your product or service in the best way.

Want more ways to make sure your posts are customized specifically for Facebook and Twitter? Stay tuned for part 2!