How to Get More People “Talking” About Your Brand on Facebook

If you are a Facebook page administrator, you have seen the new insight, “talking about you,” on your fan page. It is a great new insight offered by Facebook that allows you to see how many people are actually talking about or interacting with your brand. This feature will be useful for tracking data and the success or failure of a promotion or event. Clearly the more people you have “talking about” your brand, the more engagement your Facebook page is seeing, which, in any social media campaign, is a GOOD thing. But what does “talking about you” mean?

Fans are considered to be talking when they carry out the following actions:

Like your page.
Post to your page’s wall.
Like, comment or share content on your page. This includes Liking or sharing photos and videos.
Answer a question you posted or a post from another fan.
Respond to an event.
Mention your page or tag a photo with your brand.
Like or share a check-in, and check-in to the brand location.
All in all, if anyone mentions or interacts with your company, they are “talking about you.” GREAT!

But wait… What if no one is talking about your brand? What can you do then?

Understand that just because no one is talking about your brand, doesn’t mean your campaign is a failure. It may be time to review what kind of content is being posted to your Facebook.

Engaging content. One of the biggest reasons someone will interact with your brand is due to content that merits an action. By asking a question to your fans that is easy to answer, you may see more people engaging your brand. Don’t make these questions mind-boggling or hard to answer, keep it simple. Ask them weekend plans, which product they prefer the best, etc. Anything to help you better understand what they like will help you create more content down the road. Facebook has an application that allows you to ask a simple question with an array of possible answers.

Offer insight. Your fan base is most likely interested in your product and company, so why not post content that will offer insight to your business? It may provide a solution to some recurring questions your followers have or it could be as simple as posting a blog that talks about tips and tricks when using your product. It is much easier to share and repost an answer to a common question or insight into an upcoming product than it is to share an article unrelated to your brand or industry.

Promotions. Promotions can be a great way to get your fans involved and talking about your page. The chance to win something for free is always a great way to circulate buzz. As the value of the reward increases, whether it is a gift card, a product or an exclusive event invite, the more enticing it becomes.

Ask. Ask your following to share or repost your content to their friends. You may think that asking your fan base seems desperate, but it isn’t. If you post an interesting article with great information, there is no harm in asking for your readers to share it and spread the word. You might be surprised by how effective a simple request like that can be.

Reward. It is a great idea to reward the fan who talks about your brand the most. Even if you do not make it a contest, the simple act of sending this person a free gift will spark interest. Surely they will thank you publically for the gracious gift, showing others that by simply “talking about” your brand, they will be rewarded in some shape or form.

Be more engaging. By now you have seen other brand’s Facebook pages that are either competitors of yours or in an industry that compliments your company. Engage and interact with other brands. Compliment their page or product. Offer help to some of their fans that may have an unanswered question. By leaving your page to engage in conversation elsewhere, it will create more exposure for your own company. It is also a great way to network and form relationships with other brands on Facebook.

These new insights will be vital in tracking what works and what doesn’t. If people are currently talking about your brand, it will be very easy to track trends on your Facebook page. Do more people talk about your brand during promotions? Is there a lot of talk when you post events or videos? It will allow you to see what your fans like, so in the future you can adjust your Facebook campaign accordingly.

Remember that getting people to talk about your brand does not happen overnight, so don’t expect it to. It takes time to build a fan base as well as curate original and engaging content. If you are looking to increase the amount of people “talking about you,” ask yourself what would get you to interact with your own company. From there you can go on to create content worthy of being talked about.