Facebook engagement refers to the success of your Facebook post based on the interaction between your post and social media users, usually through a “call to action” link encouraging users to click through to a predetermined location.
The more people who engage with the post, the higher the chances of conversions being made. This engagement rate is especially important for hotels & restaurants who conduct any type of marketing or promotion on social media such as Facebook, as the more individuals who interact with the post the higher the likelihood of users clicking through your website to book.
The use of Facebook also acts as an effective and FREE marketing method for hotels looking to gain organic exposure as one share or like from one social media user can catapult engagement rates as it organically shows your content to a new audience. This makes Facebook advertising one of the most important parts of any marketing strategy, with the highest ROI potential.
Simple ways to increase organic Facebook reach
Are you factoring what time may be best to schedule your Facebook post?
This may seem simple, but the timings of a post can have a huge effect on the overall performance and engagement. This means to fully interact with your followers it is crucial to post the content at a time where they will be most likely be using Facebook for leisure.
The best solution would be to evaluate the majority of your followers and decide on a time where they would be most likely scrolling through there social media profiles. A bad example would be to schedule posts to go out at midnight on a Wednesday evening, where most followers (unless they have insomnia, then we hope they get better soon) will not be awake.
The most frequent timings are usually between 12-3pm on weekdays, as Facebook algorithms will place your content at the top of followers newsfeeds at the end of their working day.
To fully understand your followers, the team here at Umi would suggest examining your Facebook’s page analytics, which will give you an insight into your most popular engagement times.
Ensure the post length is not too long!
Although sad, we live in a world dictated by time meaning most people have not got enough spare time to click the “view more” button at the bottom of a Facebook post to find out more information.
Through our own experience, we have found that placing the link at the beginning of a Facebook post to be much more successful. Therefore we would suggest ensuring your “call to action” is in the first two lines of your post, ensuring you keep the message short and to the point, allowing your pictures (as mentioned below) to do the talking!
Use bold and compelling images!
A great way to help to increase engagement is through the use of images, as it is true that a picture can paint a thousand words, which is even more of the case when it comes to social media and Facebook posts. A good and bold picture can grab and captivate a users attention, ultimately leading to higher levels of engagement and more conversions being made.
A popular thing to do is to incorporate both the use of eye-catching images but also the use of questions to help increase Facebook engagement. An example could be to ask your followers a question through the use of pictures, perhaps showing two rooms and asking which one they would rather stay in.
One of the easiest and most responsive ways to increase engagement is through the use of competitions.
One of the most expensive methods, hosting competitions on social media platforms can be extremely successful as it both rewards existing followers but also attracts new users to your profile. The prize can often be small but can carry huge overall advantages as competitions can act as greater exposure, as most will require participants to share your page to their followers to enter, overall expanding your reach.
A competition will also ensure any customer who decides to enter your tournament will return on a frequent basis to check out if they have won, which will help to increase traffic entering your site.
Run Facebook Advertising campaigns
One of the most popular methods is through the use of Facebook advertising, where users can pay to boast a post to a new audience. These advertising campaigns can be targetted to reach certain individuals based on pre-chosen factors, such as location, age, hobbies, interests and much much more.
If you need any help or advice about setting up a Facebook campaign, feel free to get in touch with our marketing team for a FREE run through here.