An engaged community begins with an engaged brand. Engaged brands care about the social media communities in which they’ve built. With the current Facebook algorithm, brands must get a little creative with their content, and really think about what will excite and engage the reader.

Earlier, we wrote about using Facebook check-ins to increase organic reach, since organic Facebook reach is at an all-time low. Here are 5 additional ways to increase organic engagement (which also helps boost organic reach) on Facebook.

countdown

1) Ask an irresistible question

Because Thin Pig Media has many clients within the hospitality industry, many of our client’s fans love to talk about their upcoming vacations. In particular, many fans LOVE counting down to their vacation. When asked “How long until your next visit to our property?” every post has a comment where a fan responds with their countdown number. To encourage keeping the hotel at the forefront of the fans’ minds, we ASK for their number in a post.

girl-scouts1

2) Combine interests in a post and tag appropriately

One of our clients, located in Cincinnati, is just across the river from Kentucky, home of bourbon. Our client took advantage of this fact by targeting bourbon lovers in the region and sharing a useful link about Girl Scout cookies, appropriately tagged, of course, in order to help drive reach. The post drove 19 shares.

macaroons

3) Take advantage of another business’ fans

Give back to the local business community by tagging a business page. No one understands more about Facebook’s lack of organic reach more than a fellow business page. Be the first to share an article about the business and hopefully, they will thank you by re-sharing from your link.

In this example, our client was the first to share this article about Macaron Bar, a very popular macaron business. Macaron Bar reshared the article to their engaged fan base and the article spiraled on to 125 shares.

cake

4) Respond to criticism

Don’t be afraid to respond to a critique! When someone takes the time to write a comment (and you ruled out troll behavior), respond as if the person was sitting in front of you. When you engage with a person on Facebook, that person’s friends are all watching the conversation. Do it correctly and the fan will become a longtime fan that will be reached organically.

roadtohana

5) Share a stunning fact

Give a factoid about your location that holds memories for your fans. The Road to Hana in Maui is short, but accompanied with crazy turns and beautiful sights. The post has a dual purpose: it helps past travelers recall memories & future ones to plan for their trip.

 

 

 

This post was originally published on Thin Pig Media’s blog in March 2015, while I was a social media manager at the agency.