The Definitive Guide On How to Get More Likes and Shares on Facebook

 Do you use Facebook for your business?

If you do, chances are you have probably found yourself wondering how you can go about getting more shares and more likes.

Getting shares and likes is one of the quickest ways to build a fan base, establish your brand credibility and get traffic to your website.

Having a presence on Facebook is also a great way to get to know your demographic better, which as all marketers know, is key to driving sales and constructing campaigns.

There are many social networks out there but Facebook is one of the largest and is growing in huge volume everyday. In fact, from 2004 to 2012, Facebook's monthly active users shot up from 1 million to a whopping 1,056 million.

Today, the platform has around 1.55 billion monthly active users and this number is only expected to increase.

Along with having a huge user base, Facebook is also the most popular social network for consuming content. This means that users are more likely to read and click on content that engages them more than any other network.

This right here should be enough to convince you that promoting your blogs, products and updates on Facebook could return you huge rewards, that is if you know what you are doing.

Due to the sheer volume of content being posted every second of every day, Facebook's algorithm is very picky and selective. In fact, to get your posts seen by your fans they must instantly engage your followers and get likes and shares almost immediately.

Getting likes and shares all starts with having good quality content however, that is definitely not enough. With a billion people using the site each month, your brand needs to fight tooth and nail in order to be seen.

How?

We will take you step by step on some actionable ways that will help you to improve the visibility and the number of shares and likes your posts receive.

Understanding Facebook's Algorithm 

 The only way that you can truly decipher how to get more likes and shares is by understanding the back end of Facebook and how it all fits together.

This includes having an understanding Facebook's algorithm which is commonly referred to in the industry as"EdgeRank".

EdgeRank determines what a user is going to see and not see on their feed which includes the visibility of your brands posts and content.

As expected, the details of Facebook's algorithm are kept secret and highly guarded, in fact Facebook doesn't even refer to EdgeRank as an algorithm at all, but here is what we know to be fact:

• EdgeRank determines what a user will see on their news feed
• Your posts EdgeRank is determined upon the level of relationship between the user and the content provider and how recently you have posted
• If a post is determined as having a high EdgeRank more of the people who have liked your page will see it
• If a post is determined as having a low EdgeRank, less of the people who have liked your page will see it
• Your post ranking is also determined on your past engagement history

With this basic understanding of EdgeRank we can determine that in order for your posts to be seen by your followers they must be highly shareable, engaging and attract lots of comments and likes.

This means that you may need to consider sharing a picture of a fluffy cat or an inspirational quote along with your blog links in order to boost engagement.

If the posts you are sharing are not getting high engagement rates, you may have to reconsider what you are posting for a while in order to boost your overall EdgeRank.

It all Starts With You 

Social networks like Facebook are all about the user. Everything they see on their news feed are things that they have 'liked', people that they have followed and updates from friends Everything on their feed is about them in some way, shape or form.

This means that your posts need to feel like part of that equation. Your posts and updates need to feel that they have been written exclusively for your fans.

To do this, think about what type of content you share on your feed. Here at King Kong we share:

• Links to the content on our blog
• Inspirational videos or messages
• Reviews and client testimonials

Once you have highlighted what your brand shares on Facebook, it is time to start thinking about ways to personalise it.

Often this could be something as simple as using the word "YOU" in order to get the readers attention.

For example, when sharing our article- "9 Ways to Grow Your Business Online" our blurb read-

"Are you ready for your business to be the king of the internet?...Here are the top 9 things that you need to pay attention to."

Using "you" instead of "we" makes your posts appear far more personal and helps to draw in a crowd of interested readers.

Sharing inspirational quotes that use the word "You" are also a great way to get instant likes and shares.

Set Your Intention with Call to Actions (CTA's)

Call to actions are a powerful way to influence your readers to take an specific action or direction, but why just save them for landing pages?

Sometimes in order for your readers to take a desired action you need to point them in the right direction by letting them know what you need both in your Facebook headline and in your post itself.

For example:

• Please share
• Please like
• Please help
• Sharing is caring
• Please pass this on to your friends
• We need likes

Dan Zarella, a social media scientist from Hubspot conducted some research that found when CTA's were used in posts shared on Facebook that the number of shares and likes increased.

In fact, posts that included the word "share" or "like" received twice as many shares or likes than posts without it.

He also found that posts that included the word "share' also got nearly double the number of likes.

We suggest if you want to use this strategy to start testing it out sparingly, as overuse may cause it to lose potency or appear too demanding or desperate.

Use Trending Topics As Early as Possible

No one wants to read yesterday's news, so if you are going to use trending topics to your advantage, it is important to get in as early and as quickly as possible.

This not only helps your brand to get more visibility and traffic but it also reduces the competition surrounding the trending posts.

Due to the sheer volume of those reading content on Facebook each day, the social network implemented a trending topic bar that is located on the right hand side of the screen.

This trending topic list highlights the most talked about and shared topics in the media that may be of interest to the user.

Trending news gets a lot of attention on Facebook which means it is a great way to get readers directed to your page.

To use this strategy effectively, all you need to do is write about a trending topic or relate it to one of your existing articles and include any necessary hashtags in your headline.

Usually however, Facebook's algorithm will pick up the main keywords in your title and register it under the trending topic.

The hardest part about using this strategy is finding trending topics that are relevant to your business or content, especially if you don't work in a field that is commonly reported on by the media.

What you could do however, is share certain trending articles in order to boost your engagement on you Facebook wall. This in turn will help your posts to gain more visibility in Facebook's algorithm.

Remember Share and Like Buttons in Posts 

It is quite simple really, if you want people to share and like your post you have to make it as easy as possible for them to do so!

One of the most common mistakes new bloggers make is not including a social share bar on the posts themselves.

Remember, readers are not just going to share and like your content from the Facebook platform, they are also going to want to do it when they click on your post as well.

No matter what social bar you choose to have, aim to keep it in a easy to see location and keep your social sharing options to a minimum.

Why?

• It reduces clutter on your blog post page
• It helps you to direct where your shares are occurring
• It reduces indecisiveness from readers
• It is more effective to have 20 shares on Facebook than 5 shares from 4 different platforms
• Limiting choice has been shown to increase output

Stand for Something 

Why do people share content in the first place?

Users share content to shape the way that others see them. They share content to make a point and show that they stand for something.

This means that in order for your posts to be shareable you have to ensure that they stand for something that your readers are going to align with.

To use this strategy, think about the type of posts your company has and where you can make a stand for something. Think about controversial topics or topics that will stir discussion and then work on constructing a stance around it as part of  your headline.

For example, say you have a post about the inhumane treatment of killer whales at Sea World. Your Facebook headline could read-

1. You won't believe what Sea World is doing to them...

2. Why I Will Never Go to Sea World again! 

While there is nothing wrong with the first option, the second option makes a stand. It instantly conveys your brands point of view and stance on the matter and also has the potential to create more of a discussion.

Declaring your point of view also helps your brand to establish a connection between your readers and fans.

Create an Obligation for Users to Share

Another main reason that people share posts is that they want to bring awareness to a situation or issue. In fact, some of the most commonly shared posts are for charities and organisations supporting a powerful cause.

This just goes to show the power of emotion and the clout it has in determining the actions of your audience.

Because of this, creating a post that highlights an important issue relating to your followers or brand, or creating a post that stirs emotion is more likely to get shared.

While this may be tricky to achieve if your brand is not aligned with a charity or cause in some way, you could find a clever way to integrate it in with part of what you do.

Types of Posts You Choose to Share

Could it be possible that particular post types can dominate in terms of likes, comments and shares?

Research has found that videos earn the most shares, photos earn the most likes and status updates earn the most comments, proving that visual content really is key.

Shares are considered to be more valuable than likes and comments, so focusing your attention onto video content may be the most effective strategy.

Posting a video is also great way to get a message across and a great way to also engage your followers to take an action.

Facebook has also realised the potential of videos on the platform and is now offering advertisers the opportunity to post video ads.

One thing that you may want to keep in mind when sharing a video on Facebook is to also include subtitles. This is because videos that users scroll past on their feed often start playing without sound. Having subtitles however, may help readers to understand quickly and easily what your video is about.

Optimise Your Posts for Sharing

Social optimisation and SEO have a few things in common. For one, they both rely on using keywords and meta tags.

Keywords are important when you are writing a post on a trending topic whereas meta tags are important for all post types.

With Facebook, you need to include specific meta tags in your content in order for it to be optimised. To do this, you can log into Open Graph and update your meta description in there or install Yoast's WordPress SEO plugin.

If you don't have meta tags in your content, Facebook will pull the best words it can which may work well sometimes but not all of the time.

When you have the right meta tags however, your readers are going to know instantly what your post is about and what they can expect when they click on your link.

Even though this may seem like a very finicky thing, Quick Sprout a marketing and growth hacking platform experienced a 174% increase in Facebook traffic after they spent the time to craft custom meta tags for their posts.

Include Share Buttons on Images

We have already covered that images seem to gain more attention and shares than just text, which means that including a share button on an image is just as important.

Sometimes, even though your content may be excellent, your readers may just want to share your image or a photo from your blog post. This could include an infographic, pie chart or even company logo.

In order to make this easy for your readers, consider adding a share button to each of your images featured on your blog. This way readers can freely post the parts of your content that they desire and your brand can still benefit.

To make this easier for yourself, consider installing an image sharer plugin like SumoMe that will instantly uploads a share button to your images.

Add Share Buttons to Emails

Your email list is some of your most engaged followers so it only makes sense that you would ask them to share or like your content on social media.

To make this as easy as possible for your email readers, simply include a social share button at the start or end of your email post.

Keep your social options to a minimum and perhaps test out different ways of reminding your readers to share your content.

If your email service doesn't offer social share buttons, consider using a free share link generator for Facebook.

Boosting Posts 

Facebook offers a simple and effective way for brands to advertise their posts to their fans and certain demographics.

If you are just starting out, or struggling to get your audience engaged, Boosting your posts may be somewhat mandatory. This is due to the EdgeRank algorithm which may phase out your posts altogether if they have not been performing well in the past.

The good news about Facebook's Boost program is that you can start promoting your posts for a little as $1 per day. Simply set your target audience, your date range and the amount and you are ready to go.

Boosting your posts also helps you to get more exposure which in turn, will help you to generate more likes and shares.

Over time, you can also use the statistics from your boosted posts to determine your main demographic, their interests and what topics they prefer to read.

Don't Ignore the Data 

We could sit here and share tactics all day, but the proof is really in the data.

What works for another brand or business may not work for you, which is why it is important to measure your own statistics and keep track of how your Facebook page is fairing.

In order to do this, we recommend keeping a spread sheet that includes-

• The Title of the post shared on Facebook
• The Total Number of Likes
• The Total Number of Shares
• The Total Number of Comments
• The Category of the Post eg. Marketing, Lifestyle, Cooking
• The Style of Post eg. video, infographic, status update
• Whether the Post was Boosted and the Budget

The purpose of this is to see what types of posts are receiving the most likes and shares and what your audience is really responding to and resonating with.

Over time you will also be able to determine which styles of posts are doing better and where you should focus in terms of content creation.

Boosting Posts 

Facebook offers a simple and effective way for brands to advertise their posts to their fans and certain demographics.

If you are just starting out, or struggling to get your audience engaged, Boosting your posts may be somewhat mandatory. This is due to the EdgeRank algorithm which may phase out your posts altogether if they have not been performing well in the past.

The good news about Facebook's Boost program is that you can start promoting your posts for a little as $1 per day. Simply set your target audience, your date range and your amount and you are ready to go.

Boosting your posts also helps you to get more exposure which in turn, will help you to generate more likes and shares.

Summary 

Facebook can be a major source of traffic for your brand and blog so it is important to learn how to use it effectively.

Our strategies include:

1. Understanding Facebook's algorithm and how it changes post visibility
2. Focusing on "You" rather than "We"
3. Using CTA's to remind readers to share and like
4. Using trending topics to your advantage
5. Installing a social share bar on your content page
6. Standing for something when writing your headlines
7. Creating posts that users feel obligated to share
8. Focusing on post types for more comments, likes and shares
9. Optimising your posts for sharing
10. Using social share buttons on images
11. Adding social share buttons to emails
12. Boosting posts to boost engagement and visibility
13. Using data and statistics to determine success

These strategies will not only help you to maximise your sharing on Facebook but they will also help you to understand the ins and outs of the social media platform so you can determine your own strategies.

For best results, test these strategies out one at a time so you can see which ones are most effective for your brand. From there you can start tweaking and updating them as you feel is necessary.

As time goes on, you will start to see how each strategy can help you to create a solid Facebook profile that is not only engaging and active but is also generating you thousands, if not millions of likes and shares.