Today’s guest columnist is Don Purdum, CEO of The Internet Conference. Have you ever wondered what the “Talking About This” really means on your Facebook Page? If so, read below and learn tips on how you can increase the number of people “Talking About This” on your Facebook page.
by Don Purdum
Over the last year Facebook has give fan page owners a tremendous amount of information to help page owners gauge the effectiveness of their fans engagement with them.
When we created our Facebook page we determined the one key metric we were going to look at was the “Talking About This”.
It is basically a measure of engagement. It is measured over 1 week and updated daily. If anyone interacts (likes, shares, comments, etc) with your page in some way they will be counted in this. The more “Talking About This” you have the more chances you have of interactions.
An average number I have seen for a solid level of engagement is roughly 10% of your Likes. If you can do better than this consistently then you are doing well.
I’m not saying that other metrics are not important. They are in helping determine if you’re reaching your target audience.
However, we felt this was the most important metric for two reasons:
- It is the only visible metric visible to the public.
- Engagement is more important to use than the size of our followers.
We knew if people were engaging us, then others would follow. Nothing is more devaluing to a Facebook Like page than seeing a high follow numbers, and yet very low or non-existent engagement.
There are sites out there that you can buy or network with for free followers to give an impression of a high following. However, those followers will never engage you, at least not genuinely. There may be rare exceptions, but I believe it will be very few and far between. When you do this, I believe you hurt your options of finding your true target audience that will want to engage you.
If you want your Facebook Like page to be a growing and thriving community, and if you want to turn existing fans into raving fans, engagement is the only way to do that. And Talking About This is a good measure of overall engagement.
How Do You Get More Engagement?
The best way is to just ask!
When you post an article, ask for your fans opinions. They want to share it with you, but sometimes they are not sure if you are encouraging that, unless you ask. It’s okay not to be the authority on everything. Let your audience be and they will respond in kind.
Here is an example of a post we used just recently:
“A lot of websites are moving towards logins that use social media vs a traditional login that requires a registration. Here is an interesting study. Which one is do you think your audience most prefers?”
It could have just been a statement and a link. Instead, we got some interaction. That is what you are after.
You might also ask your followers to “Share” your post.
Inserting a call-to-action will remind your audience to act, not just read. Inspire, encourage, and ask is my motto.
Finally, never let a post go unnoticed. When someone Likes or shares your post, be sure to reach out and acknowledge them. Use it as an opportunity to expand the conversation. And, don’t let it wait more than a few hours.
If you have additional thoughts or experiences, I would love to hear them. Please leave a comment below to help our readers.