You're not alone in that frustration. The landscape of brand article engagement and sharing by our readers has a dynamic all of its own and how and when we post our articles to promote our business brand is constantly changing.
Not so long ago when we set up our business or fan pages in Facebook we were pleasantly surprised about the amount of engagement we were achieving and came away with a positive sense that our product or services business identity was beginning to grow, that our company's exposure metrics were realizing positive gains. In more recent months the picture has changed rather drastically on the downside.
First and foremost realize that highly informative, highly relevant and easily readable article or blog post content is critical. The big search engines, Google in particular, is gravitating more and more to this algorithmic metric. When optimizing our articles for search engine friendly language and increased visibility we need to be fully aware of what is acceptable today in terms of SEO content in article or blog titles and body content.
Care must be taken to follow current day recommended keyword density so as not to appear to the search engine crawlers as "keyword stuffing" or artificial means to prop up keyword content in attempts to attract search engine attention. Websites are now penalized for that type of inappropriate activity and their ranking and search visibility will suffer as a result.
Recent studies indicate growing trends in terms of current day social sharing by internet users and we must be consistently aware of what users want to see, when they are online searching, finding and sharing online content. This user sharing activity awareness is critical for optimal article or blog post exposure. Staying abreast of these trends, as they change, is crucial to establishing your own reader engagement and building a strong and responsive following/subscriber list and traffic backlinking to our blogs or websites to develop new clients, customers for increased lead generation and sales.
In their recent article Social Sharing Habits, Social Media Examiner reviews current user share trends and how to engineer our blog and article content for better user engagement. Statistics reflect which of the social media channels are standing out in terms of their user interests and sharing habits right down to days and times when users are most frequently online and sharing in significant numbers.
The linked article by Social Media Examiner also identifies the "list" and "why" type of articles as the dominant force engaging the highest frequency of user sharing activity.
Timing of Posts:
Take a close look at the data presented for the best days and times throughout the week to schedule posts for maximum audience reach, engagement and sharing. Do NOT post randomly...plan for your greatest opportunity for exposure. Research through other sources to verify these trends. Facebook's post scheduler provides users with quick and easy scheduling of posts when doing so during times that are not ideal and helps to ensure that your articles will be seen by the most possible followers.
When posting your article on your Facebook Fan or Business Page, before clicking 'Post' first click on the pull down menu just to the right of the 'Post' button. You will see the post options 'Schedule', 'Backdate' and 'Draft'. Click on 'Schedule' and select the most suitable post date and time to ensure you get the highest readership and their engagement. By doing so you will maximize the potential for increased reader viewing and if your content makes an impression hopefully the readers will feel compelled to share your insights with others! Post on days and times of day that research data clearly shows are best for maximum user reach and engagement. Remember differing time zones when scheduling your posts. If you live on the west coast DON'T schedule/post at 10:00 pm when a huge segment of your audience is likely sleeping! Also remember to post on weekends when statistically people are online in greater numbers on their days off/weekends.
Be aware of who your targeted audience is, where they spend their time and when and what kind of information and viewing, relevant to your own business, products and/or services, is attracting their attention most in terms of engagement and sharing. Taylor your articles accordingly with information rich, appealing content posted at the most ideal times and understand the reading and sharing dynamics of your audience for best results.
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