We all know what it’s like to post something on Facebook or social media and you hear… nothing. It can be really disheartening, and it can feel embarrassing, as well. And on the one hand, you don’t want to keep posting because you think, okay, what is this doing anyway, and at the same time you know you need to keep posting because in this day in age, we have online businesses and really if you’re not seen online, then people aren’t going to see you.

And your greatest struggle is probably having to constantly come up with ideas of what to post and knowing how to create that engagement on social media.

This is Caroline Cain and in this video, I’m going to show you three ways in which you can increase you engagement on Facebook. Of course, depending on your following, on the size of your following on Facebook, this will have an impact and of course that will grow over time.

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1. Ask questions

So the first one is to ask questions. Ask them what they need, what they want from you. A great one is to ask them for feedback; for example if you have a cover for an eBook coming out, or you’ve just had a photo shoot and you don’t know which photo to use for your profile or for your home page, people love giving feedback on things like this. So you can do this in groups, as well, to become more visible. But do this one your page and you’ll find that you get more interaction. So ask questions, ask interesting questions, and ask for feedback for what they need but also for things that you want help with. People like to be helpful.

2. Share personal pictures

The next thing is to share personal pictures. So for example, if you’re a health coach, you’ll post photos of food that you’re eating, or you in your yoga pants off to a yoga class, or back from a yoga class siting in the park. If travel is a big part of your brand, you know, post photos of where you are, talk about that or of your family, for example, if you’re a relationship coach. So just personal photos that give people an insight into who you are. Now those are very obvious examples that I gave, but it can also be photos of things that you are passionate about. For example, you may be a copywriter who’s really passionate about sea life, for example. Then you want to post things like that, just your thoughts that you have around it. Or if you’re a business coach who’s very much into natural living, for example, bring that into it, or home schooling or natural parenting. Just share photos that show you. If you have any pets at home, show you with your pets. Or out for a walk with your pets. Or share a photo of your office setup, for example, how you work from home. So all of these things give people an insight—not people, your potential clients, your community—an insight into who you are and the kinds of things that you enjoy doing at home, what it looks like, in your spare time. And those photos are generally the most popular ones. You’ll get the highest level of engagement when you share personal photos.

3. Share your brand stories, what you stand for

And another great way of increasing engagement on Facebook is to share your brand stories. Things that you stand for. For example, for me I talk a lot about freedom-based choice in life, about lifestyle, about travel, about family. And of course my community also share the same values as I do, you share this desire for freedom, to be able to have choice in life. You share the desire to travel, so share these things with your community. Sit down and write down, perhaps 3 brand stories. What’s the reason behind your why, what sets you apart, what are you passionate about. And then when you share snippets like this or it can be articles from other people, or quotes, or anything around your topics that you’re passionate about, then your community will really get a feel for you, and because it’s things that they’re interested in too, generally you’ll get a higher level of engagement with those.

And really what all this comes down to is that you need to be consistent. So have a scheduling system, know on which day you’re going to post what, and especially in the beginning when you need to build up traction, remember that the people, the potential clients, your community on your Facebook page, might be just as nervous as you to post comments. So as your list grows, people will become more comfortable as they see others posting more and more. So there’s not necessarily something wrong with what you’ve posted, it’s just that they also need to build up their confidence to be seen online to make a comment.

So build up that traction and as your following grows, then you can be much looser and you don’t have to have so much strategy behind it and you can be much more personal and just relaxed around it.

Share with us in the comments below here a screenshot or the URL of one particular post that you did that really brought about a high level of engagement than your other posts do. You can do that by looking at your insights, seeing which are your most popular posts, choose one of those, when you actually go to the post, in the date and time section of when it was published, you can actually get the URL from there. Post that as an example in the comments below so that you can learn from what others have experienced as well, and try new things out.