One Million Fans Can’t Be Wrong: Creating Engaging Facebook Content
How many Facebook “Likes” does it take for a company to be considered a social media success? One thousand? Ten thousand? One million?
Grammarly, a San Francisco-based automated proofreading company, recently surpassed the incredible milestone of more than one million likes on its Facebook page. And although we’re excited about this impressive accomplishment, we know that it takes more than a fan liking our page to be successful.
Engagement is a key metric at Grammarly. Although we appreciate the support in a simple “like,” we want more for our Facebook fans. In order for Grammarly’s Facebook page to be the largest media channel dedicated to spreading awareness about quality writing around the world, we want engagement. This means that – in addition to encouraging our fans to visit our Facebook page every day – we want them to comment on and share our original content. This is truly the first step to a more in-depth industry-wide dialogue about the importance of writing.
Take a look at some of our most engaging posts over the years, below.
1. Top Ten Grammar Peeves ( LINK )
This, by far, has been Grammarly’s most engaging Facebook post. First, it directly relates to our underlying business without trying to overtly sell anything (except for good grammar!). Also, it is easy to read, informative, and entertaining all at the same time.
The proof is in the pudding when it comes to the success of this post:
The post received more than 10,000 comments
More than 46,000 people “liked” this post
The post was shared more than 107,000 times
2. Insult Properly ( LINK )
With almost 30,000 shares and nearly 45,000 likes, this post also received high engagement. Everyone knows someone who makes this mistake on a regular basis, so it rings true to many who will feel compelled to share it with their friends. Social media users are motivated to share things with their circle when it hits home and is relatable – which this post certainly is.
3. Can’t Spell ( LINK )
Another post that is relatable to a wide range of people, the one below rang up nearly 60,000 likes and more than 12,000 shares.
4. Find the Mistake ( LINK )
Posts asking fans to solve a riddle are often popular because they grab your attention and challenge your brain. Once you figure out the answer, it is natural to want to share it with your friends and put them to the same test. Almost 50,000 people liked this post, and it was shared more than 4,000 times.
What Can We Learn?
Each of those four Facebook posts were a little bit different, yet each highly successful in terms of social engagement. Varying our content and keeping it original has been one way that Grammarly has grown our page in the past couple of years.
What aspects of this technique can other organizations replicate? Two techniques stand out above the rest:
Keep it simple. Keep your posts quick, visual, and to the point. Make sure that fans immediately understand the gist of the post within just a few seconds. Shareable content is succinct because people know their friends will enjoy a quick laugh or thought provoking moment.
Be relevant. Grammarly is an automated proofreading company. It wouldn’t make sense for our Facebook page to share information on politics or animals. Businesses trying to grow their page must ensure that the content they are distributing is relevant to their bottom line so fans know what to expect.
Applying this strategy to your Facebook business page
Since launching our Facebook fan page in mid-2010, Grammarly has experienced tremendous growth — increasing fans by a factor of around 50 in the last year. But what truly differentiates Grammarly’s Facebook page from that of other Internet startups, and even consumer brands, is the level of engagement we receive. With between 300,000 and 1,000,000 people talking about us at any time, our community is more engaged than fans of Pepsi, Jeep, and other household names.
As context: For most of the top consumer brands, engagement levels are somewhere between 0.5 percent and two percent of their total number of fans. At Grammarly, our engagement levels hover between 50 and 200 percent of our total number of fans. This is because our team focuses on creating compelling, original content to help explain the importance of good grammar using humor and grace.
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