Tag Archives: Writing Facebook Posts

January 9, 2015 · 3:29 pm

5 Things to Remove from Your Facebook Posts Today

FBPost

Not so long ago, the Grammar Chic blog broke down the anatomy of the perfect Facebook post—listing a few things no Facebook post should be without.

For some small business owners, though, it may be just as helpful to address it from the opposite angle, mentioning a few elements that you might want to leave out of your Facebook posts.

And some of them may surprise you.

Consider these elements, which may be slowing down your Facebook progress rather than advancing it:

  1. Ten-dollar words and industry jargon. With your Facebook posts, you’re ultimately trying to reach everyday consumers as much as you are members of your industry. You want your posts to be engaged with, shared, and—first and foremost—actually read. As such, it’s important that you keep them brief and breezy. There’s no need to pack them with long-winded expressions or convoluted vernacular.
  2. Hashtags in excess of two or three. As you might imagine, there have been countless studies and analyses done regarding the question of how many hashtags is too many. The short answer: Once you get past three, you’re doing more harm than good. Cluttering your post with too many hashtags actually lowers engagement, rather than boosting it.
  3. Multiple links. It can be tempting to try to cram as much info and as many links as possible into a Facebook post, but that’s counterproductive; a good post will be singularly focused on directing users to a single destination. Introducing multiple links reduces the chances of any of those links actually getting clicked on.
  4. Superfluous words. We mentioned it before but it’s critical to understand just how brief a good Facebook post should be: Somewhere in the vicinity of 40 characters or so!
  5. Overly promotional language. Here’s something else we mentioned before: Facebook is seriously cracking down on promotional posts. Use “salesy” language at your own peril!

To learn more about what should and shouldn’t be in your Facebook updates, contact the Grammar Chic, Inc. team today: www.grammarchic.net, or 803-831-7444.

Leave a comment

Filed under Content Marketing, Content Writing, Social Media

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

January 2, 2015 · 9:44 am

Deconstructing the Perfect Facebook Post

FBPost

How would you like to know the secret formula to Facebook marketing success? To ensure that all of your posts are deliberately engineered to obtain the maximum results?

A recent Search Engine Journal piece, authored by Kevan Lee, promises something along those lines. The article is all about explaining “The Anatomy of the Perfect Facebook Post”—and in truth, it’s pretty good. It’s certainly worth reading and absorbing, especially if you’re a small business owner, doing all your own social media marketing.

We’re going to summarize the key points below, highlighting what we think is most essential and offering a couple of points of caveat and clarification. In fact, we’ll begin with this note: While there may indeed be a proper structure to ensure Facebook success, there’s also something to be said for variety. If all your posts follow the exact same recipe, then your account is going to feel a bit robotic and impersonal. The following points are all intended as best practices, then—but there can and should be some exceptions.

The Anatomy of the Perfect Post

Lee suggests that the perfect Facebook post has five basic ingredients:

  • A link.
  • Brevity—ideally 40 characters or less.
  • Publication at non-peak hours.
  • A place on a regular posting schedule.
  • Timeliness/newsworthiness.

Again, the Grammar Chic team is largely in agreement here, but we do have a few comments to offer. We’ll take the five ingredients one at a time:

  1. First, note what Lee really says about the perfect post being a link. What he says is that the perfect post actually uses Facebook’s built-in link tool; posting an image and then including link text in your photo description is not the same thing, and won’t get nearly as many clicks. And this is true enough: If you want to get maximize click-through, you need to focus on the link and on a strong call to action, without distracting attention with other elements. If social sharing and general online engagement is what you’re after, though, then images will be more helpful.
  2. Lee also shares that posts 40 characters or shorter tend to get liked and commented on the most. No big surprise there!
  3. Posting at non-peak hours, meanwhile, helps your post stand out, because the competition is a bit less heated. In particular, Lee recommends posting on weekends and after normal work hours.
  4. Lee says that an effective Facebook post is part of a consistent sharing strategy, encompassing a minimum of one post each day. Of course, we agree completely!
  5. Finally, Lee notes that compelling posts often factor in trending topics and current events, though he admits that this is optional. Certainly, it can be advantageous to leverage the popularity of a trending topic—but it’s not something you want to force.

And that’s that: The structure of the perfect Facebook post. Even with all this in mind, though, you may still be at a loss for developing actual content—and that’s where we come in. Contact Grammar Chic, Inc. today to inquire about our content development and strategy services: www.grammarchic.net, or 803-831-7444.

4 Comments

Filed under Content Marketing

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,