11 Awesome (and 1 terrible) Facebook Post Examples with Critiques & Best Practices

Table of Contents

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Use product comparisons, opinion polls and sneak peeks to encourage fan participation

Remember your demographics to focus or expand your audience

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3Use great images to catch the eye of your followers and inspire some casual likes and shares

4Check your links before you publish. Even the small things can cost you

1Encourage Fan Participation

How do you create a Facebook post that will maximize fan participation?

1Value their opinion

2 Simply ask for it

3 Give a sneak peek

4Offer advice

Example Facebook post below with my critique:

Value their Opinion

Things I like:

1. Easy Engagement: The post has two simple options that make it easy to engage.

2. Seasonal Relevance: Using ice cream in the summer is a great example of tapping into what your Fans are already thinking about.

How to make it work for you:

Either use your own products, or come up with your own imaginary battle royale and encourage your customer’s online involvement:Han Solo or Luke? Batman or Spiderman? Facebook or Twitter?

Use a Poll

How to make it work for you:

The online vote or opinion poll strategy is simpler for retailers, but it’s not exclusively in their back pocket. Come up with your own competitions from scratch. Remember to choose eye-catching and appealing subjects for your competition.

Things I like:

1. Opinion polls: Facebook users love to share their opinion.

2. The Call-to-Action: They use appealing language: ‘which flat is your favorite for fall?’

Things I would change or test:

The Picture: I’d test a more exciting picture for this poll post. How about the traditional ‘lady’s-night-out shoe shot’?

Ask for it

How to make it work for you:

Find a simple image that embodies your brand, whether that’s your logo or a picture more complicated is up to you. Test the image and remember this strategy does not have to be based around your brand as a whole. Try something more ambiguous as well: ‘If you’re a Fan of high heels on a Saturday night, like this post’.

Things I like:

1. Knowing their audience: John Deere Fans are Fans on more than just Facebook. They recognizes their audience and take advantage of their passion.

2. The Infrequency: John Deere does not use this strategy often, so when they do it’s new and bold again.

Offer AdviceThings I like:

1. The Photo: Photos of food, as the single most popular pictures on social media, are an excellent way of attracting attention to a particular post.

2. Providing ‘quick and easy’ tips: Tips give readers and Fans a reason to keep coming back to your page.

3. Easy to like: Encouraging Fans to ‘like’ an easily accepted assertion is a simple and painless way for them to participate.

How to make it work for you:

Offering advice is effective for ‘how-to’ articles, ‘top-10’s’ and webinars. It’s important, however, to find an appealing tagline and picture for the ‘offer something new’ strategy, so put some effort into this one as it’s not just gaining you likes, it’s also driving Fans to your website.

2Create Targeted Posts

3 Ways to Target your posts:

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Images are superior to words: Your followers skim their newsfeeds. Be sure to use an eye-grabbing image to target your market.

Use the right language: Once you’ve grabbed your targeted follower with a catchy image, use demographic-based language to inspire their involvement. This also creates the feeling of exclusivity.

Go universal: Universally appealing quotes, statements or advice are a great way to achieve some straightforward Like and Shares. 3

Target your audience to get the most bang for your buck

Knowing your demographics is one of the most important factors in marketing. Facebook posts are no different.

The example from Intuit (left) is great. It quickly and easily indicates its targeted audience with an image of the Golden Gate Bridge. They also rely on a demographically-focused hashtag (#supportsmallbiz!) and geo-targeted jargon.

In this way, the picture is easy to digest for a person skimming their news feed, and the content draws their geo-targeted audience towards involvement.

Use Universal Appeal

Things I like:

Quotes: Statements like this can be incredibly effective, especially positive and thought-provoking ones like this as people share the thought on their own social media outlets, occasionally citing where they found it.

How to Make it Work for you:

1. Simplicity: This is the simplest of all Facebook post strategies: a catchy, inspirational quote which appeals to a select audience. Figure out what your target audience is, and choose your quotes according to that group.

2. Balance: There has to be a balance between quotes and statements like this (which have no bearing on the product itself) and more traditional advertisements, product releases, and CSR notices. If you cover your profile in product-meaningless quotes you risk losing brand interest.

Showcase your FansThings I like:

1. Speaking to their market: By creating groups and user-submitted contests focusing on music, art and other subcultures, Converse caters to their specific clientele and creates all-important exclusivity.

2. Involving multiple social media outlets: Converse encourages Fans to upload their own artwork and designs to Converse’s Google+ group - a great way to spread the love.

How to make it work for you:

Converse’s newsfeed is a great example of setting a tone and sticking with it. Make sure you know your own target audience, and act accordingly. You might be surprised at the return you get when your tone matches your audience.

3Let the Image Speak for Itself

3 Ways to Use Photos:

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Go Adorable: Pets and babies (and baby pets…) are a great way to attract the eye of your Fans to your brand’s Post.

Use real people: Human interest stories, with the appropriate images, are fantastic opportunities to increase engagement with your brand.

Find the funny: Using a cartoon, a meme or a funny quote makes your brand more approachable. Just make sure your social media tone matches up.

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Go Adorable

A great picture is worth a thousand words - grabbing your attention and communicating so much so fast.

Hewlett Packard’s post (left) takes advantage of an adorable puppy, coupled with their brand logo, to attract the eye of Facebook users.

They throw in a universally appealing and witty statement (TGIF: been working like a dog), and the easy Likes pour in.

It all works to catch your attention, encourage their social media tone, and promote their brand.

Use Real People Things I like:

1. Human interest stories: Significant events like birthdays and births are great for social media as people love hearing about and promoting the positive.

2. The Specifics: The personal story makes a multi-national corporation seem approachable and results in increased Fan participation.

How to make it work for you:

1. Take Advantage: Opportunities like this one don’t come along very often. So when they do, make sure you take advantage of them.

2. Take pictures of your events: Do you have a weekend softball team or recent business barbecue? Personalizing your Facebook page, and posts, makes your business profile more approachable.

Use Memes Things I like:

Humor: A humorous statement, quote, or image can effectively communicate an organization’s social media ‘tone’ - something very much dependent on their target audience.

Things I would change or test:

Playing with fire: Not every organization can ‘pull off’ a meme Facebook post, or should try. Converse, an organization whose target audience is young, hip and irreverent, makes this ironic and funny tone work..

How to make it work for you:

Just because you don’t have an international celebrity or model on your payroll doesn’t mean you can’t use great pictures to increase your social media following. Images are relatively easy to come by. Perhaps ask your Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram followers to get involved: A contest for most adorable “baby+your-product” picture?

Check your Links!4

Measure twice, cut onceBy prioritizing the editorial process and double-checking your work you can limit those little human errors that can make all the difference. But no matter how hard we try, the intricacies of social media can catch even the best of us out sometimes.

Telus’ Facebook post looks great to begin with: unfortunately, they’ve made a damning mistake, one that not every Facebook user will catch, but could seriously throw off their competition if left as it is:

The link they’ve provided (#peak2peak), sends the Facebook user to a 10-mile charity run in Omaha, Nebraska (not Whistler BlackComb)…

This example really brings it home how important it is to check your links, and your posts as a whole, before making them live.

How do you use Facebook Posts to Drive Engagement?

Facebook is all about the conversation. Facebook posts are the ice-breaker. Whether it’s by asking your followers their opinion, speaking to them as individuals, or attracting them with a pretty face (or a puppy…), you might be surprised at the level of participation you get from such a simple little thing.

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