Boost Your Social Engagement: Strategies to Improve Reach and Interaction on Facebook and Instagram

In today's digital landscape, building a strong social media presence is essential for businesses and individuals alike. Facebook and Instagram, two of the most popular platforms, offer tremendous opportunities to connect with audiences, amplify brand messaging, and drive meaningful engagement. In this article, we'll explore effective strategies to enhance your engagement on Facebook and Instagram, helping you build a thriving online community and achieve your social media goals.

  1. Know Your Audience: Understanding your target audience is the foundation of successful engagement. Conduct thorough research to identify their demographics, interests, and behaviors. This knowledge will enable you to create content that resonates with them, making it more likely to be shared, commented on, and liked.

  2. Craft Compelling Content: Engaging content is the key to capturing attention on social media. Develop a content strategy that balances variety and consistency. Include a mix of captivating visuals, informative articles, entertaining videos, and thought-provoking questions. Experiment with different formats to keep your audience interested and coming back for more.

  3. Utilize the Power of Storytelling: Storytelling is a potent tool for creating emotional connections with your audience. Share authentic and relatable stories that align with your brand's values and resonate with your target audience. Incorporate user-generated content (UGC) whenever possible, as it not only fosters engagement but also strengthens the sense of community.

  4. Leverage Hashtags: Hashtags play a crucial role in expanding your reach on both Facebook and Instagram. Research relevant and popular hashtags within your industry and incorporate them strategically into your posts. They help categorize your content and make it discoverable by users who are interested in similar topics.

  5. Encourage User Engagement: Actively encourage your followers to engage with your content. Pose thought-provoking questions, ask for opinions, and invite them to share their experiences. Respond promptly to comments, show appreciation for their input, and foster meaningful conversations. Additionally, run contests, giveaways, and challenges to incentivize participation and create a sense of excitement among your followers.

  6. Optimize Posting Times: Timing is crucial for maximizing engagement. Analyze your audience insights to determine when your followers are most active on Facebook and Instagram. Schedule your posts accordingly to ensure they appear in their feeds when they're most likely to see and interact with them.

  7. Embrace Live Video: Live video has gained immense popularity across social media platforms. Leverage Facebook Live and Instagram Live to connect with your audience in real-time. Host Q&A sessions, product launches, behind-the-scenes glimpses, or educational webinars. Live videos create a sense of exclusivity and urgency, driving higher engagement levels.

  8. Collaborate with Influencers: Partnering with influencers in your industry can significantly boost engagement. Identify influencers whose values align with your brand and collaborate on campaigns or content. Their endorsement and involvement can generate buzz, increase reach, and encourage their followers to engage with your brand.

  9. Analyze and Adapt: Regularly monitor your social media analytics to gain insights into the performance of your posts. Identify patterns, understand what content resonates most with your audience, and adjust your strategy accordingly. Pay attention to metrics such as reach, impressions, likes, comments, and shares to measure engagement levels accurately.

Improving engagement on Facebook and Instagram requires a thoughtful approach that combines compelling content, audience understanding, and strategic tactics. By implementing the strategies outlined in this article, you'll be well on your way to fostering meaningful connections, driving interactions, and building a thriving social media community. Remember to adapt your approach over time based on audience feedback and evolving trends to ensure ongoing success.

2022 Content Marketing Calendar Worksheet

A free downloadable content marketing calendar for 2022 that comes complete with:

  • NZ Public Holidays

  • Key National & International dates

  • Links to resources to find other key dates

Along with the calendar there is also a space for additional notes, content pillar colour key and a project checklist.

Screenshot of excel content planner

You can get the 2022 content calendar either as a downloadable excel file or an online google sheet that you can copy.

Annual Content Marketing Calendar Downloadable file

Annual Content Marketing Calendar - Online version google sheets.

How to improve your social media photography Part 1: Lightroom Presets:

Ever wondered why so many accounts you come across on Instagram look like they have a professional photographer behind them. Their lighting is great, the same colours pop, it has a vibe - beachy, moody, minimal, maximal etc.. It’s consistent.

Are they all super talented at photography while you can’t make anything look good? Are they forking out bucketloads of cash for professional photos?

Maybe both of those things. Or maybe they’re using a preset.

LOTS of businesses apply subtle preset edits to their photos to give their brand a consistent look and feel. Sometimes it’s to brighten photos, increase clarity,  enhance certain colours or to portray a certain feeling, season or mood.

A VERY common way to do this is Lightroom Presets.

 Adobe Lightroom is a FREE app for your mobile phone.

 You can search and choose from LOADS of different presets around the web until you find one that suits your style. Then you download it, install it and use it. Simple!

Usually you have to purchase them but there are free ones if look hard enough.

Here’s a video guide on How to install Lightroom presets on your phone.

There are two steps - first on your computer and then on your phone.

Step one - On your desktop:

Step two: Installing on your phone

Good luck! Tag me @theclassroomnz if you give it a go. Would love to see your creations!

Business Manager Series: Part 4. Do you (or the business) already have a Business Manager?

Before you create a new Business Manager, check that you don’t already have one or that someone else hasn’t set one up for the business.

Business Managers have been automatically created for people when they do things like convert an Instagram profile to a Business account, or create a shop. So you or the company may already have one, you just don’t know it yet…

There are 3 ways to check if you already have a Business Manager.

  1. Go to https://www.business.facebook.com

You may see something that looks like one of these two screenshots.

Like this if you have access to multiple businesses.

Business Manager Home.png

OR something like this if you just have access to just the one business.

This is the OLD version os Business Manager - most people now have Business Suite however as of September 2021, there are still people who have not switched to Business Suite.

Business Settings on the left-hand menu will take you through to the control room of Business Manager.

Business Manager Home inside.png

If either of the above two options are you, you have a business structure set up. But you may need to continue adding employees or other assets to your business manager.

2. You may get taken to Business Suite

When you go to business.facebook.com you may be taken to Business Suite instead (to see the explanation of Business Manager VS Business Suite click here). This is the current version

Business Suite.png

In the left hand menu Go to More Tools -> Business Settings.

If you DO have already have access to your Business Manager, you’ll see something like this. This is Business Settings, the control room of your business.

You can also check what other businesses you have access to by clicking the dropdown next to the business name (in this case Eden).

Business Settings Overview.png

If you DON’T have one, or don’t have access to this businesses one, you’ll see this Business Manager creation screen instead.

You could go ahead and create a new business manager BUT before you do, go to Step 2 and check if it’s already owned by a Business manager you don’t have access to.

Business Manager Home image.png

3. Check if ANOTHER business doesn’t already own your Page.

If you’re an employee of a business, there is a good chance someone else has already set one up. And the reason you can’t see it in the above two methods is because you haven’t been given access yet.

To find out if another Business manager already owns your page go to:

You business page - > Settings -> Page Roles.

Do you see an OWNER there?

Page Owner -Facebook Page roles.png

If you only see admins and no owner, go ahead and create a new business manager!


If you see an Owner, that means a Business Manager has already been created that owns your page…….. so congratulations you’re about to become an investigator and track down those owners! This also applies if you have a business manager but the Page Owner has a name or Business Manager ID that doesn’t match yours.

Think of anyone who might have created it - colleagues, ex-colleagues, agencies? etc and point them to this page so they can check if they have access to a Business Manager.

If they have success, they can either:

  1. Add you as an admin of the business and they can be removed

  2. Remove the page from their business so you can add it to yours.

Business Manager Series Part 3 - What is the difference between Business Manager and Business Suite?

A brief history of Business Manager tools.

2014: Business Manager was introduced to allow Businesses to group all of their FB and Insta assets together under one business umbrella and easily give employees and contractors admin rights to pages and ad accounts.

It sat in the background as a business ownership structure and didn't affect publishing etc. (further explanation of Business Manager here: what-is-facebook-business-manager)

Late 2020: Business Suite was introduced - this ahas the ability to manage the "front-end" stuff - you can schedule posts, view insights and view messages across both Facebook and Insta in one place.

So Business Manager = back-end ownership and access.

Business Suite = front-end management - creating and scheduling posts, replying to messages etc.

They are merging into one tool (as many of you already have). Business Suite is the homepage, and you manage the 'back-end' business manager through Business Settings, found in the left hand menu of Business Suite.



Business Settings Menu.png

Business Settings is the control centre of your business whether you’re using “Business Manager” or “Business Suite”.


Business Manager Series Part 2: Why use Facebook Business Manager

Why was it created in the first place?

One of the reasons it came about is that when Facebook was built there was no long term thought into how businesses might use the platform, so everything was done through personal profiles.

You had your Facebook business page (with people as admins) but no way to create a business ad account. These were all personal and attached to a personal profile.

This caused many problems:

  1. When an employee had been running ads for your business in their personal account and then left the company, they ran away with your ad history, company credit card and pixel etc

  2. When you add staff to your page, they are not added to the ad account. Most people didn’t realise this so you had multiple employees using lots of ad accounts (their own personal accounts) for your business making it difficult to find campaigns

  3. Disgruntled employees - if you had to fire an employee and they were an admin of your business page, they could kick every other admin off and shut down, or even worse, badmouth your company on your own business page.

And quite a few other issues I don’t have the time or the will to get into….

The Benefits of Business Manager

Business Manager was created to:

  • Formalise a business structure where all the things that are associated with a business are collected together in one place.

  • Allow businesses to create Business Advertising Accounts (multiple if necessary).

  • Appoint Admins to the overall business - these people have full control over all people and assets and can add and remove people. So even if they are removed as admins from the page by a disgruntled employee, they still have overall control of business assets and can reappoint themselves and remove the bad egg.

Make it quick and easy to add & remove employees and contractors as admins to your pages and ad accounts.

Do you need to use a Business Manager?

Quite likely. If you’re a sole operator with no employees and you don’t advertise, you may get away without setting one up. But over time, Business Manager has become a requirement for lots of features (such as Facebook shops) so it’s likely you’ll need one.

You should have one if:

  1. You have employees / contractors who need access to pages and ad accounts.

  2. You work with agencies who need access

  3. You advertise to drive traffic and sales on your website

  4. You have a Facebook or Instagram shop

  5. You want to use your database to create audiences

  6. Might sell your business one day

So most of us will need one. Next step, do you already have one……?

Business Manager Series Part 1: What is Facebook Business Manager?

This is the beginning of a series on Facebook Business Manager. It is the main source of confusion and furrowed brows amongst my students…..never has a tool been so un-user friendly.

I’m going to attempt to simplify it for you and answer the most common questions I get - such as what is the difference between Facebook Business Manager and Business Suite? Why use use business manager? How do i delete a Business Manager? Why can’t I add my page? etc etc.

Instead of one huge novel, this is more like a pick-a path…..with lots of short blogs explaining lots of aspects.

I expect I will continue to add to this series over time, but lets get started with the basics.

And remember that if this is absolutely doing your head in and you’d prefer to talk to someone, you can book a 1:1 - sorting out business manager messes is my specialty.

What is Facebook Business Manager?

Facebook Business Manager is a FREE platform that allows you to organise all of your Facebook business assets in one place, and easily give staff, employees and contractors access to whatever they need to manage.

When setting up Facebook Business Manager I think of it like packing your suitcase - if you had to pack up everything that belongs to your business in a suitcase and pass it on to a new owner, what would you put in there?

  • Facebook Page

  • Ad account (s)

  • Instagram accounts

  • Pixels

  • Catalogues

  • Your domain

So get ready to pack up your suitcase!

First though, to understand the why it exists and whether you should use it, check out part 2 here

The Classroom goes virtual! (and 8 reasons why I think it will be more valuable).

To pivot (verb): to turn or rotate around a central point.

That central point is Covid 19, and The Classroom is turning virtual!

In the beginning of this lockdown I was sad and worried. I was sad that the business I had spent five years building could no longer exist (until such time as the world returns to normal), worried about how to pay the bills, sad that I could no longer spend my days doing what I love with groups of cool NZ businesses who inspire me no-end and worried about those businesses and their future too.

Going online is something I’ve toyed with for years but always resisted because I love the personal interactions and I think there is so much value in group learning, not to mention the awesome networking opportunities that it brings. And you can’t run an 8 hour workshop online!! Who would sit there for 8 hours?  No-one…that’s who.

But the more I thought about it, and thought about it and thought about it…….(lockdown has been good for some things, huh) I realised that there was a way I could continue my workshops online, still provide the networking opportunities and it COULD actually be MORE valuable for my students. And my reason for existing has always been to give as much value as possible to kiwi businesses wanting to use social media to achieve their business goals.

So I’ve come up with a format that I believe is more valuable for my students. (How it works and content overview here

 How I hear you ask?

  1. MORE CONTENT – In total there will be at least 10 hours of content VS the usual 7ish.

  2. MORE DETAIL – I can dedicate more time to some subjects that get lightly touched on in the in-person workshop due to the additional time.

  3. ·You can REWATCH the content over and over with access to the content for 6 months.

  4. It’s delivered in BITE-SIZED pieces– you don’t have to concentrate for the whole day!

  5. IT’S CHEAPER - You have to supply your own, venue, wi-fi, catering and lollies….BUT the cost of the two workshops combined will be MUCH less than a full day one (final costs TBC).

  6. It’s CONVENIENT! You don’t have to take a day off work and can catch up on the webinars when it suits while still getting to ask questions.

  7. ·You’ll STILL get all your QUESTIONS ANSWERED and it might actually be easier to ask questions for the shy ones amongst you.

  8. You’ll still be exposed to valuable NETWORKING opportunities and learn from others through the Facebook group.

Help me & I’ll help you: $19 Workshops!

I need your help! I’m offering spots for only $19 (in reference to our new citizen Covid-19) to the first set of Virtual Classrooms. You get amazing value content while I collect feedback and iron out the kinks. 

If you’re interested in being my guinea pig, you can BOOK HERE. It’s limited to 25 spots per workshop so be quick.

 

 

The Classroom and Covid-19 (Coronavirus)

EDIT: Due to the alert level being raised to level two over the weekend, I can no longer proceed with in-person trainings. Stand by for details on online options.

We are in strange times indeed! Who could have predicted at the beginning of this year the current global turmoil we now find ourselves in.

I want to assure everyone I’m keeping a very close eye on the situation and how it will affect The Classroom.

 

Currently NZ is in the first phase of pandemic control – keep it out and stamp it out. Current guidance for (large) event organisers is the following (updated Tuesday 17th March):

Criteria for cancelling events

To slow the spread of COVID-19, gatherings of 500 people or more in close proximity will be cancelled. This includes festivals, fairs, sporting, religious and cultural events. This will be regularly reviewed.

You should still attend school or work. The Ministry of Education will work with schools and universities to try to mitigate large congregations of people. 

·     The following people should not attend events of any size:

  • anyone who is unwell

  • anyone arriving in New Zealand who has returned from any country except those listed in Category 2 (excluding airport transit), or been in close contact with someone confirmed with COVID-19 in the last 14 days is being asked to self-isolate

 

The Classroom caters to a maximum of 16 people and is usually between 10-16 people so while we are unaffected by the guidance, the following just makes sense for us to follow.

I am asking all attendees that:

·      If you feel unwell prior to coming to the course, OR

·      If you have travelled overseas in the last 2 weeks, OR

·      If you start feeling unwell during the course, OR

·      If you think you may have been exposed to Coronavirus through close contacts

 Please don’t attend The Classroom - just let me know and we’ll arrange a suitable alternative whether that be a refund or some online Zoom coaching etc.

 In addition, the venues where possible will be providing hand sanitiser and anti-bacterial handwash.

For future bookings, please book and resverve your spot as normal with the assurance that if the situation changes and The Classroom needs to be cancelled you will be fully refunded or an alternative session arranged.

 I am continuing to keep a close on these events as they unfold and will keep you updated if the advice changes.