With bulls sales well underway now is the perfect time to engage with the people who attended your sale, but how do you do increase reach and engagement on your Facebook page?

In a move by Facebook to make marketing content on newsfeeds take a backseat to more meaningful content by friends and family, it’s no longer a given that everything a page posts will be shown in people’s newsfeeds. Which is why Facebook gives us insights into what the reach of a post is and the level of engagement.

If not all posts you put on your Facebook page will be shown on people’s newsfeeds, the ‘Reach’ metric Facebook gives is a really important factor in your marketing as it effects every other metric that can be tracked e.g, likes, comments, clicks. How can you increase reach? By increasing engagement. Content that is shared and liked is what Facebook considers to be more ‘meaningful’. So create content that is share-worthy, post at times of the day that your fans will be on Facebook, encourage fans to like and share your content, ask questions that encourage people to comment, or run a competition where comments are asked for, and Facebook will reward your content.

THE VALUE OF FACEBOOK

Social media use amongst farmers is becoming more commonplace and farmers are using various platforms to connect with like-minded people, posting pictures and videos of their day-to-day work, dogs, cattle, scenery (combined with a funny comment or two) and how-tos. Not only does this show farming practices, livestock and land use to various audiences, it also means farmers can interact and connect with customers while sharing knowledge. 

How to get more traffic

·      Post often, post various content (images, videos, etc)

·      Post a maximum of two times a day and a minimum of twice a week

·      Mix up the content you post with farming activities (images and videos), share posts from associated pages, funny farm-related posts

·      Set up a Facebook event for your sale

·      Post in the pre-sale build-up. 

Pre-event build-up with Facebook live

There’s just something about a live video that makes a post more appealing; maybe it’s the chance that people could mess it up or the transparency, maybe it makes us feel more connected. People enjoy live video far more than they do traditional video; users spend three times as long watching live video as they do pre-recorded video. It quickly engages people and they watch it for longer than alternative video content. Facebook considers live video more newsfeed-worthy than ordinary content and it is a brilliant way to create pre-sale build-up. 

Set up a Facebook event

Facebook has an excellent array of tools for effectively promoting an event on a business page. Done right this is an effective way to target those you would like to come to your sale and get increased attendance. Though this doesn’t cost, it does pay to boost your event at a chosen daily budget to a highly targeted audience. 

Know when to post with Insights

You can find out how your page is performing under the insights tab. You can access information about your audience and how people react to your posts. Once a page has more than 100 likes you can find out more information about your audience such as age, gender and location. You can also see which posts have the most engagement and when the people who like your page are on Facebook to help determine when is the best day/s and time/s to post to get your posts seen. 

How to grow likes

·      Ask for likes

·      Like associated pages

·      Invite friends to like your page

·      Post the link on your personal profile

·      Mention your page in your newsletter

·      Put a Facebook icon and the link on your email signature, website, signage and vehicles

·      Set up a Facebook ad to get likes: set your daily budget and timeframe, set up your audience to target, gender, age, location and interests. 

ABOUT OTHER SOCIAL PLATFORMS

Twitter: Is a quick way to easily connect with your audience as it allows you to share quick pieces of information and photos. Tweet short updates, photos, polls, gifs or short videos. Twitter is good for sharing little pieces of information quickly, building relationships with followers and driving people to your website. People will follow you because they like what you have to say, they can engage in conversation with you. 

LinkedIn: Specifically designed for businesses and professionals, users use LinkedIn to showcase their experience and network with like-minded individuals.

Instagram: Is a place where people post images and videos and is a great way to build community. Instagram is designed for customer engagement and visual appeal. Use it to post quality images of behind the scenes, farm life, animals and scenery. 

OTHER WAYS TO MARKET YOUR STUD ONLINE

Google

There are many simple ways to market your business online including getting more traffic to your website through Google Ads (previously known as Adwords) as well as getting more visitors organically (without paying) by optimising your website for the right search terms. 

Email marketing

Email marketing is a great way to keep in touch with customers and stay top of mind. Those who are interested in what you have to say and have a connection with your business will take the time to read an email from you. And through your website is an excellent way to build up an email database. 

Remarketing

There are also ways to remarket to people who have visited your website; this involves showing an ad to these people for a set time after they’ve been to your site. You’ve possibly experienced this when you’ve been searching for an item online and next time you go online you are shown ads for that item. 

Google Analytics

There are ways to look at your website traffic and discover whether you’re getting relevant visitors geographically and demographically. As well as checking whether the key phrases your site comes up for in Google are correct, whether there’s some phrases your site might not be coming up on page 1 for. A website can also be analysed to ensure the design is making people go to the right places on your site.