Guest Blog by Shannon Hollinger

Engaging Your Facebook Page Audience

In a perfect world, everything you posted on your Facebook author page would appeal to your audience, be presented to them at the exact right time, and inspire them to interact, further boosting the reach of your post to other viewers. Reality, however, is a little trickier. So how do you maintain an interactive fan page with engaging content without letting it become a fulltime job?

Know Your Audience

Under the Insights tab on your page, learn about your fan base by clicking on the people option. Facebook categorizes your audience into such helpful metrics as age ranges and gender. Use this to your advantage. If your audience is mainly women over 65, they probably won’t respond well to a post referencing current pop culture trends.

Engage Your Audience

As writers, we all want our fans to know that we have some great work for them to read, but constantly bombarding people with the same message (i.e. Buy my book!) will only result in them blocking your posts from their feed. As a writer, your job is to entertain your audience and this must apply to your social media pages. Your posts are like fishing lures – bait the hook with content that makes your viewers want more.

Asking questions through your posts is a great way to not only gain participation, but also learn more about your fans. Craft your content to appeal to the genre your readers prefer. Fun quizzes, cute videos, inspiring quotes, and amazing pictures can all be useful material for posts. In fact, posts with pictures and videos are more likely to find their way to your fan’s News Feeds. Also, don’t forget that people love free stuff, so if you have a few copies of your latest book lying around or some themed promotional materials, a giveaway contest is a great way to rev up excitement among your fans.

Finding & Timing Your Posts

Everything you look at online is a potential source for material – be creative. An article you read for research, pictures you use for inspiration, or a fun fact that caught your attention can all make great posts. You can even share someone else’s post that you enjoyed.

With a little research and some firsthand trial and error, you will discover the best time to post your content to achieve maximum views. On a Facebook page, when you click in the textbox to begin a post, a clock icon will appear underneath on the left hand side. This allows you to schedule the exact day and time your material will appear, enabling you to arrange all of your posts for the week (or longer) at one time. Other tools, such as Hootsuite, enable multi-channel management from a single account.

Developing a healthy balance of what you want your audience to know with fun content that keeps them engaged will reward both you and your fans and ensure that your posts get the attention they deserve with minimal effort.

About Shannon

Shannon Hollinger is a writer & adventurer who creates fiction and offers freelance writing and editing services. To find out more about her, her writing, her adventures, or services she offers, or to connect with her on various social media platforms, please visit her website at www.shannonhollinger.com.

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