5 Ways to Maximize Social Media Postings

Every morning millions of people wake up to their alarm, get ready for work, and check Facebook. They check Facebook during lunch, they check it in the evening, and they may even check it laying bed before going to sleep. So how can you leverage Facebook? I am sure your boss wants to see a quantitative analysis of what you can do with social media to boost sales, retention, and yield, but without the proper guidance you may not know. So in swoops this guy to provide some much needed advice.

1. Post a Status Update

There are a lot of factors that play into a successful post: timing, wording, and creativity. Think about when you most often check Facebook. It is probably before work, on your lunch, right before or after dinner, and maybe before going to bed. Some people are on Facebook a lot more, and some are on a lot less. This makes the timing of your status update very important. Not everyone is in the same time zone, nor does everyone have the same number of friends. Some people have a lot of friends which means that your status could easily be buried while others have very few friends. Posting once or twice a day will avoid you looking like spam to the people with less friends and should still give your the exposure / impressions of those with a large number if you post during the correct times. 10 AM is a safe posting time.

• If you are on the East Coast you get the pre-work Facebook checking on the West Coast and it should still show up in people's news feed by lunch time on the East Coast. 
• If you are on the West Coast, you will be hitting the lunch time on the East Coast and it should still be showing on people's news feed by lunch time on the West Coast.

2. Offer an incentive for people to “like” your page

Everyone likes to feel like they get something for their time. Now this might change based upon the new Timeline feature that Facebook is implementing, but in the past you could setup exclusive content for visitors that liked your page. You could utilize a call to action and draw them in with an offer they simply couldn't refuse: a whitepaper, a video, pictures, or discount code.

3. Find groups similar to your fan page

By searching out groups that are active, you can gain a number of likes in very little time. By participating in the group and at the same time promoting your Facebook fan page you are creating a level of interaction that makes people feel comfortable with you as well as want to know more about you. You need to only join groups that are relevant to your cause as you won't get nearly as many sign-ups and there is a greater chance of your status updates getting marked as spam.

4. Put your Facebook information on your website

This should be common sense, but older websites might not have their Facebook information on their website. You have already done a good job attracting business and more importantly a relevant audience to your website. Since you already have traffic to your website, you can direct them to your Facebook fan page and convert those current and potential customers into a personal relationship where you interact with them on a daily basis.

5. Get fans to upload photos

Whenever there is an event, or if you want to host a contest, get fans to upload pictures and tag themselves and their friends in these photos. By doing this, it shares it on their news feed and timeline which hits a much broader audience. If someone gets tagged in a photo all of their friends have the potential of seeing that message on their timeline: "Johnny and Susie were tagged on `The coolest Facebook fan page ever`." When their 500 friends see it, they might click through to see your page, like your page, post a picture of themselves, and tag that picture thus sharing with another 500 friends.

Now these five methods all work really well, but most importantly ASK people to like your page. You may think that is common sense, but the majority of your audience may not like your page unless you ask them. Start out with your current friends and ask them to like your page and share it with their friends. This can create a viral effect that chains into a mass amount of liking especially if you have precious puppy pictures begging them to like your page.