facebook engagement

Effective engagement

Steve ButtryDigital First Media webinar

October 11, 2012

on

What’s going on?

2 things that help most• Post photos, not updates

• Start conversations (not headlines)

Best practice: Post photos

Feel-good photos

Breaking news

Breaking news

Breaking news

Odd photos

Seasonal photos

Seasonal photos

Seasonal photos

Non-photo images

Best practice: Ask question

Best practice: Ask question

Best practice: Ask question

Best practice: Ask question

Best practice: Ask question

Best practice: Ask question

Best practice: Ask question

Best practice: Include link

Best practice: full URL

Best practice: Prompts

Best practice: Crowdsource

Best practice: Crowdsource

Best practice: Crowdsource

Best practice: Crowdsource

Best practice: keywords

Photo issues• Post one photo of slideshow, with link• Do you have rights? (Not for AP, Getty)• For user-submitted photos, specify in

terms that you might use on Facebook• Include link in cutline (when appropriate)• Weak photo not likely to engage

Experiment

Other engagement tips• Engage with comments • Post and/or share from personal pages

(selectively; don’t be a spammer)• Post on pages of interested community

groups• Display share buttons prominently on

story pages

Other engagement tips• Tag sources in posts• Ask sources to share your posts on

Facebook• Comment on related posts (interest

groups, other news orgs’ pages) and share your link

What’s the best time?• Early morning is print newspaper time,

not Facebook time (see how it works)• Peak Facebook traffic: 1-3 pm local time• Facebook use goes up in evening (&

weekend) – what can you post then?

Staff Facebook use• Subscriptions probably more effective

than journalist pages (need to be public or decide which posts are public)

• Post your stories on your account/page• Share, like & comment on some

colleagues’ stories• Engage w/ comments on your stories

Broaden your engagement• Step up Twitter engagement• Be sure to post to Google+• Share images on Pinterest, Instagram

Let’s experiment• Try photos, questions• Try different approaches• Try different times of day & evening• Try posting different volumes• Post results on Google doc• Share doc: sbuttry@digitalfirstmedia.com

Follow up• Blog post at stevebuttry.wordpress.com• Google doc to record what works (and

what doesn’t)• I’ll blog about experimentation results• We’re following up w/ Facebook & will

report what they tell us