Have you ever used a ladle to flip pancakes?  Probably not. But if you had you would have realized that flipping pancakes with a ladle didn’t work so good.

In actuality you probably used the ladle to pour the pancake batter onto your pan and then flipped the pancakes with a spatula, right?!

Yeah, that’s how I make pancakes, too.

My point is, sometimes it’s not the tool we’re using that’s wrong, but the way we’re using the tool.  I think this is exactly what most of us do with Facebook.

Facebook is a powerful tool to connect with ideal clients and give your business visibility, but all too often we use the tool wrong.  And guess what?! We get “crickets.” And “crickets” are what make us want to throw in the towel on Facebook.

Without further ado, here are 10 ways to use Facebook right and avoid the “crickets:

1. Add photos.  Post with photos get 39% more interaction.  The two most popular photos are photos of yourself or epic eye-catching photos.  Check out pexel.com for free stock photos (because we want to be compliant with the photos we use AND in our business, right?!).
2. Timing posts.  Posting when more people are on Facebook, means your post will show up higher in your audience’s feed. High times on Facebook are lunch hour and between 5 and 8 pm (if you’re audience is largely stay-at-home moms you’re gonna want to go for right-after-the-kids-leave-for-school).  I typically post between 6pm and 7pm; I find that 9pm is a good time for Instagram.
3. Call to action.  All too often your posts disappear into cyberspace, not because they go unseen, but because no one knows what to do with your content.  So, tell your audience what you want them to do with your post. If you’re wracking your brain to come up with calls to action check out this post!
4. Respond to comments.  Facebook ranks posts based on the amount of engagement they see on each post.  And they rank posts with comments even higher than posts with a lot of likes. Guess what?!  Your comments count too! Not only that, responding to each comment let’s your audience know that you’re there for them and you’re not just trying to be seen.
5. Time your comments (this is not only my BEST KEPT SECRET, but my MOST REWARDING SECRET when it comes to Facebook marketing).  Respond to comments in intervals: 1-2 hours after posting, the following morning around 10am, and the rest of the comments between 6 and 8 the following evening.  Why?! Because, every time there is a comment Facebook puts your post higher in the feed. Facebook prioritizes your post with each comment! Getting the most life from your carefully crafted Facebook post can be as simple as timing when you respond to comments.
6. Get social.  There’s a reason social media is called social media, but all too often businesses use social media as all-about-me media.  No one likes to talk to someone who only talks about themselves (unless of course you’re getting paid for it, like yourselves, *cough* therapists).  Before or after you share a post take five minutes to leave likes and comments on others’ posts. I do this by going to my last few posts, clicking on the people who engaged with my content and interacting with their content.  That way, I’m not only interacting with my audience, but building loyal followers. Also, don’t be afraid to hop into someone’s DM. If you see they asked a question or are thinking about something you’re an expert on message them and offer them a free ebook, 30 minute consultation, or just an opportunity to explore the topic more with you.
7. Where to share your links.  Share your link as a comment to your post, not in the post itself.  Seriously?! Yes, seriously. Here’s why: First of all, your link will count as a comment – score!  Secondly, Facebook will be less likely to slow down your post. Facebook wants their audience to stay on facebook as long as possible, not get side-tracked to a different website by your link. Make sense? So, make your post a catchy sentence related to the value in your link or a quote from said link and drop a quick sentence about how the link to such-and-such is in the comments.
8. Short posts (3-5 sentences).  Think about the posts you typically read.  Are they a few sentences or a few paragraphs?!  They’re probably only one sentence unless your best friend wrote it, right?!  So, a good rule of thumb to writing highly-read posts is: whatever can be read ABOVE the “read more” button, which is about 3-5 sentences WITHOUT “enters”.  When you go to write a short post, don’t make short be your goal.  Write your complete thought – it can be three paragraphs if you want.  Then, go through and highlight the epic sentences. Now ask yourself, “How can this post make sense with just the highlighted sentences?”.  After adding some transition words, a photo, and a call to action you should have 3-5 sentences!
9. Mix it up.  Give some value.  Leave a gif that makes people laugh.  Share a video or blog post that inspired you.  Ask your audience to leave a photo in the comments of what they did this past weekend.  Share a client testimonial.
10. Analytics.  I’m not exactly a numbers person, and chances are, since you’re a therapist, you aren’t either. But I’m gonna ask you to read this whole paragraph, because what I’m about to tell you is basically gold dust for the internet.  Knowing what is performing best on your page means you can create more of the best performing content.  Whenever you create new content, first click on your analytics and scroll through your feed with the single goal being: noticing of what your audience is engaging with most. Now you can do two things: a) create three posts that are similar to your best performing posts; b) re-share your best performing posts about 30 days later. Have you ever re-read a book or movie, just because you loved it?!  That’s what reposting a well-liked post is like to your Facebook audience.

Now that I just gave you 10 spatulas, figuratively speaking, for Facebook here’s what I’m gonna challenge you to do: pick 2 or 3 that you use.  I just don’t want to see you try to use all these tips and get burned out (can you imagine trying to flip pancakes with ten different spatulas?!  Some of the pancakes would get burnt as you tried to keep up). All of these tips will improve your facebook views, but if you do them all for a week and then fade out, you won’t see the results you were hoping for.

So, choose 2 or 3 and let us know which ones you chose in the comments!