Facebook for
Influencers

Set up your Facebook profile on your computer, phone or any other device that has an Internet connection. You’ll need an email account or mobile phone number that can receive SMS texts, and basic identifying information about yourself. Setting up and managing a Facebook profile and Page is always free unless you decide to take advantage of Facebook Business Tools to grow your brand. You can set up Facebook in your browser or download the free app to your mobile device. Follow these steps to get Facebook via your browser:

1. Go to Facebook.com
2. In the boxes indicated, enter your email and choose a password and enter it.
3. Take a look at the Facebook terms, data policy and cookies policy linked below the gender choices so that you understand Facebook’s user policies.
4. After you hit the Sign Up button, Facebook will send you an email or SMS. Follow the instructions in the message to confirm your account.

Your Facebook account is called your Facebook profile. It contains your personal information such as your real name and birthday, and it’s your way of communicating with Facebook friends as you, not your brand or business. Facebook friends are people you’ve invited to be able to see what you post on your Facebook profile, and you can see their posts too.

A Facebook Page is where you post information about your brand or business. Instead of friends, your Facebook Page has followers. These are people who choose to “follow” you because they like your content and want to be alerted when you post new content.

Since your aspiration is to become an influencer, you’ll want to create a Facebook Page for your brand or business. The advantage to this is that you can keep your brand awareness separate from your personal life. Also, people often prefer to keep parts of their personal profiles private, but you’ll probably not want limitations on your privacy settings for your brand. That way more people can find you and follow you.

In order to set up a Facebook Page for your brand, Facebook requires you first set up a personal Facebook profile. If you already have a Facebook profile, use it. Facebook wants to know you’re a real person to allow you to set up and maintain a Facebook Page. If you’re new to the Facebook arena, we’ll show you how to set up your profile now.

Even if you’ll be using your Facebook Page more than your Facebook profile, you’ll still want to add some basic information so that Facebook is confident you’re a real person. Pages are meant for public figures, including “celebrities, athletes, bands, politicians, journalists and creators,” says Facebook’s policies. And it will remove accounts that cannot be verified. 

You can make your personal profile completely private if you like. That means only people whom you “friend” will be able to see your photos, birthday and any other information within your profile. So take a moment to add some content to your profile. This can include:

• A profile photo of yourself and a background photo
• Your friends, which you get by sending friend invitations to your family members and close friends
• The city and state where you live
• Where you went to school or go to school
• A few photo albums
• Places you’ve worked

• At the top of your Facebook profile page, click Create.
  
• From the dropdown menu, choose Page.
• Add the name of your Page, which will be the name you want people to identify your brand with. It might be your name or your business’s name. What you choose should be consistent across all of your social media platforms, YouTube channel, blog, website or any other marketing platforms you use. This encourages brand awareness (people quickly recognize your brand when they see it) to help grow your following.
• Add a category by beginning to type a word that best describes the niche or genre that you’re in. It may be fashion, blogger, chef, tech and so on.
• Facebook will then take you through a series of steps to help you set up your profile photo or logo, your banner picture and information on your About page. These can include:
  • Your username, which is a unique name that identifies your page and is preceded by an @ symbol
  • The date your business or branding started
  • What you do
  • Your mission or goals 
  • Links to your website and other social media accounts
  • Awards or recognitions 
  • Your story, or anything else you want your followers to know

You can now create a separate Facebook Page for your brand or business. Since your Page will be linked to your personal profile, you’ll sign into your profile to get to it. You can set up as many Facebook Pages as you like. We recommend setting up just one for your brand so that it’s easier to manage and your audience has one central place to go to find your content. If you’ve diversified and have completely unrelated brands, you can set up separate pages for them.

Setting up your Facebook Page is similar to setting up your profile in that you’ll include photos or a logo or both and identifying information about your brand. Here’s what you’ll do:

On both your personal profile and Facebook Page, you can choose if you want your posts and messages to be visible to the whole world. Or you can post or message to only your Facebook friends or only one specific person. You’ll be able to communicate with people by:

• Making a status update, which is also called a post
• Sending a private Facebook message 
• Making a comment on someone else’s post
• Clicking the “like” button to show your reaction to a post
• Sharing someone else’s content

On your profile page, your News Feed is the list of stories that constantly update on your page. These are posts made by you, your Friends, and Pages and groups you’re following on Facebook. On your Facebook Page, your feed includes only posts you’ve made and any comments Facebook users and you have placed on your posts.

Facebook lets you add a variety of content types to your posts. You can write a post that just contains text or add media like photos, videos and links. You can also add features like emojis and hashtags to make your posts more engaging and increase traffic.

Adding media increases engagement. Photos catch people’s attention and people enjoy watching videos. Facebook posts with video get at least 59 percent more engagement than other post types, according to Buzzsumo. When you add a link to your photo and video posts, viewers are more likely to click on the link that leads to your content. This content can be on your blog, YouTube channel, product website or other platform. 

When you use Facebook for marketing your brand, your goal is to increase audience awareness and engagement. Let’s break down the type of content you can include in your Facebook posts and the various features that help boost interest and traffic.

Text Content

Facebook allows you to use up to 63,206 characters in your posts. That equals a lot of words. But most people are not going to stick around to read a long post on Facebook. Instead, write a brief summary or call-to-action and link to the full story on your blog. Facebook posts that are between one and 40 characters have been found to get 86 percent more engagement than longer posts, reports Jeff Bullas of HubSpot. Scott Ayres, author of Facebook All-in-One for Dummies, offers additional tips for writing successful Facebook posts:

• Ask a question: Give people an easy choice of answers, like yes or no, instead of posting an open-ended question. You’ll get more comments and engagement this way.
• Keep it short. Facebook users typically scroll through posts, quickly scanning for those they want to take the time to read. Ayres recommends keeping your posts no longer than 160 characters to increase the chances that people will engage in them.
• Give a call-to-action. Tell readers exactly what to do, such as, “Click here if you agree or comment if you don’t,” suggests Ayres. Telling readers what to do without being pushy helps them make quick decisions for higher engagement.
• Give valuable information. Give a tip that will improve a reader’s life. Or, tell them what they’ll gain when they click through to read your blog post, view your Pinterest board or watch your vlog.
• Be positive. Posts that are positive, inspirational or funny tend to get the most shares on Facebook. Remember that your posts can live forever on the Web, so if you’re having a bad day or want to rant, hold off. Even if people agree with you, they’re less likely to Like, Share or Comment. And people gravitate towards things that make them feel better, so keep it positive to maintain and grow your followers.

Photos

Add one to 10 photos to a post on your Facebook Page. To get started:

1. Click the Photo/Video button under the Create section, which is under your banner photo.
2. Choose from the options:

• Upload Photos/Video: This will prompt you to add a photo or photos that are stored on your computer or device. Add a text message in the box that says, “Say something about these photos,” and insert Feeling/Activity emojis if you like. Hit the Preview button to see what your post will look like for both desktop and mobileusers. Then click the Share Now button when it looks the way you want it to.
• Create Photo Album: This is a fast way of uploading multiple photos and videos from your computer or device. After clicking Create Photo Album, click on the media you want to include, and give your album a name. In the Description box, say something about the album contents that you want your viewers to know about. If where the photos were taken is important, add the Location to the album. Then hit Post.

These photos will now be displayed as an Album for your viewers to see. You can edit the album at any time by adding or deleting photos, dragging photos to change their order, or deleting the entire album.

• Create a Photo Carousel: This is a streamlined way to share the media that is oyour website, blog, vlog or other site. Insert the URL to the page you want to direct viewers to, hit the arrow, and the images that are on that page will pop up. X-out the ones you don’t want, finish your post with text or other features, and press Share Now. When viewers click on your images, they’ll be directed to your linked platform.
• Create a Slideshow: Here, you can make a video presentation from your photos. After clicking on Create a Slideshow, choose Add Photos. You’ll be prompted to either upload photos from your computer or device, take photos or choose photos from your Facebook albums. Select the ones you want to use (up to 10) and choose Add Photos.

Now you can add music if you like, from a variety of preset tracks or those you upload. When you’re done, hit Create a Slideshow.

• Create an Instant Experience: This option allows you to add a variety of multimedia components to your post. After clicking Create an Instant Experience, click on the plus sign after “Select a Canvas.”
  • Button – Attach a URL to a webpage or app you’re selling or link the button to another Instant Experience you’ve created. When people click on the button, they’ll be directed to the destination.
  • Carousel – Add two to 10 images to your Instant Experience to show as a slideshow and add an optional URL.
  • Photo – Use up to 10 photos or video stills and an optional URL.
    Text block – This lets you post what you want to say in a variety of fonts, font sizes and colors.
  • Video – Upload a video in .mp4 or .mov format. Facebook recommends videos under two minutes and with captions so that people can still engage with your videos without audio.
  • Store Locator – This will direct people to the physical location of your store if you have one. To add this, you’ll need to first add your business location on your Page.
  • Header – Add a catchy title or your logo to your Instant Experience.

As you add components to your Instant Experience, you’ll see a preview of it on the right panel. You can also see how your it will look on mobile devices by selecting Mobile Preview.

Videos

Add video to your Facebook Page using the same steps you use for adding photos. You can also edit your videos directly from your Facebook Page by clicking on the Publishing Tools option at the top of your Page.

Click on Video Library on the left side of the Publishing Tools page, then put a check in the box next to the video you want to edit. From the Actions dropdown menu, choose Edit Video.

You’ll have a variety of options including choosing your video’s thumbnail, adding subtitles and captions, adding meta tags for better search engine optimization (SEO) and more. When you’re finished, click Save.

Facebook Live

Going live on Facebook lets you interact with your audience in real-time. You create an immersive experience where viewers ask you questions, and they can get answers right away. You can also take them behind-the-scenes for a more personal look at what you do and what you stand for.

You can use Facebook Live from your computer or on your mobile device while you’re on the go. And after your live session is over, you can repurpose the content in future posts. It will stay on your Page’s timeline, so you can download it, edit it, pin it to the top of your Page, post it on your blog or channel or a number of other options. For you and your audience to get the most out of the experience, follow some best practices with these Facebook Live tips:

• Build anticipation. Let people know ahead of time that you’ll be going live. They’ll be able to plan to be there, get excited and share with others before the event. You could write a post a week in advance, then post a few reminders leading up to the live session, for example. You will get more viewers and people will likely be more engaged if you tell them in advance you’ll be broadcasting live.
• Have a strong connection. Facebook suggests using WiFi for best results, but if you’re away from a connection, 4G is a reliable option. Broadcast in a place with a strong connection so your video won’t be interrupted and viewers will be able to hear and see you clearly.
• Add a captivating description. Before going live, write a description for your session that lets viewers know what it’s about. Grab their attention with a compelling description.
• Ask for followers. While live, ask viewers to follow you if they’d like to hear more from you. Once they follow, they’ll receive notifications about all of your content, including when you go live again.

Facebook Stories

Facebook Stories is another way to reach your audience. Although your stories are visible for only 24 hours, they’re positioned at the top of users’ Facebook app. This means stories are the first thing they see when they open Facebook, unlike posts on their News Feed that continuously cycle down.

You can also repurpose your Facebook Stories for future content. Although they’re no longer visible to your audience, your stories are saved in your story archive. Reach this by clicking Publishing Tools at the top of your Facebook Page. Then, navigate to Story Archive on the left menu.

To create a story on your Facebook Page, you’ll need to use the Facebook app on a mobile device. Go to your Page and tap Camera under the Create a post bar.

Your device’s camera will open, and you can take a photo or video or upload one from your device’s library. To take a photo or video with special effects, you can:

• Tap the smiley face icon to take a photo or video with masks and other camera filters.
• Tap Boomerang to take a burst of photos of a moving object. The result is a short video clip that loops forward and backward.
• Tap Live to start a live video, which will be in your Page’s story until the end of the live broadcast.

After taking or uploading your photo or video, you can make additions and changes before posting. Options include adding effects, stickers, text, drawing, links and buttons. When you’re done, you can Save your photo or video to your Camera Roll if you like. To publish immediately, tap Page’s Story. Or, click Next and choose to publish on Your Page’s Story or your News Feed.

As you’re creating posts, Facebook makes available a variety of features to enhance them. These features can enhance the visibility of your posts, help express your emotions or thoughts and add interest. Consider using these features to increase engagement with your Facebook audience:

Call-to-action button – a button that you place on your Page to make it easy for viewers to complete some kind of action. This could be to contact you, shop, fill out a survey or any other action you customize. To add a call-to-action button to your Page, click on + Add a Button below your Page’s cover photo.

• Filters – used with photos to add special effects. When you take a photo or upload one to your Page, hit or tap the magic wand icon. You’ll be able to add masks, frames or change the colors and overall look of your image.
• Hashtags – words or phrases preceded by a # symbol, such as #photooftheday and #fashion. When you add a hashtag to your post, it becomes a clickable link. When people click on the hashtag, they’ll see other posts under that same topic. You can use hashtags to start a conversation with your audience to encourage community or join an existing one to get more exposure.

Be sure to do a little digging before using a hashtag to find out how your audience is hashtagging the topic you want to be part of. For instance, London Fashion Week’s official Facebook Page shows that #LFW is the hashtag to go with, not #LondonFashionWeek, for example.

Posts with hashtags can get more engagement than those without them, up to 12.6 percent more, says SproutSocial. But don’t overdo hashtags on Facebook. Too many become distracting and meaningless. Whereas using more hashtags is better marketing on other platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, best practices for Facebook is one or two only.

• Reactions – emojis your viewers can use to react to your posts, and you can use to react to their comments. They’re a quick way to show approval or reaction to a post. On Facebook, reactions include like, love, haha, bored, sad and angry.
• Stickers – small pictures you can insert in comments and messages to express an emotion or accentuate the topic you’re writing about. When you click the sticker icon, a list of topics will pop up. Click on the topic you’re going for and choose from the stickers available. You can also download more stickers for free or for a fee.
• Tags – links in your photos or videos that lead to another Facebook Page or a person’s profile. From time to time you may want to tag another influencer’s Page to increase your audience or give credit to Facebook user whose content you’re using. Be sure to get permission from anyone else before tagging them in your photos or videos. You can also tag products that you’re selling.
• Mentions – links to a Page or Facebook profile within your text post or comment. When users mention your Page in their posts or comments, others can click on the mention and land on your Page.

Facebook is the most widely used social network across the globe, so it makes sense to want to establish your influencer brand on the platform. As of the second quarter of 2019, Facebook had 2.41 billion active users, reports Statistica. That’s a lot of potential people engaging with your brand and your content.

The steps to becoming an Influencer on Facebook share many similarities with becoming an influencer in any industry. An influencer is someone who’s trusted to give an opinion, recommendation or insight that’s reliable because they’ve proven they know what they’re talking about. And that applies to any industry, whether it’s fashion or food, business or backpacking, gaming or gardening, tech or travel. Follow these top tips as you’re establishing your influencer brand on Facebook:

Love what you do. An influencer is genuinely interested in what they do. Most if not all have a passion for it. Authenticity is what attracts an audience to you and keeps them interested in hearing more from you. In order to sustain the momentum it takes to become and remain an influencer, make it something you love waking up to every morning.
If you can’t get enough of taking photos of nature, then that’s your niche to post about. If all you think about is when you can get back into the kitchen and create the next culinary masterpiece, then you have what it takes to become a food influencer.

Let your personality shine. What makes a person an influencer is their ability to make an impact on people and build a meaningful relationship. So, it’s your audience that decides when you become an influencer by how many of them follow you loyally. People will connect with you because they like who you are and what you have to offer. So be you. You won’t be able to sustain your influence by trying to copy someone else’s success or being something you’re not. Be genuine, and you’ll build your unique audience.

On your Facebook Page, use a profile photo of yourself that shows your personality and style as well as resonates what your brand is all about. Use emojis in your posts that reflect the mood of the post, whether it’s fun and playful or inspirational. In your posts, write like you speak, as if you’re having a conversation as opposed to writing a report that will be graded for grammar. Let your audience get to know you by what they see on your Page.

Add value. Post content on your Facebook Page that is valuable to others, something they can use to benefit their lives. Focus on your customer, in other works, your follower or potential follower, and give them what they need that’s related to your brand. Research the demographics of your niche and find out what concerns or interests they have. Listen to their feedback in comments or questions they ask you. Make sure whatever you’re offering is trustworthy and helpful.

Interact with your audience. Communication is key to any good relationship, and that includes your relationship with your Facebook followers. Engage your audience in conversation by asking questions in your posts, holding Facebook Live Q&A sessions or having them take a poll. Respond to their questions with interest and complete answers.

When people post comments on our Page, be consistent about responding. You can use the Like button as well as replying. The interaction you have with your audience builds community and ultimately builds your brand’s influence.

Network with other influencers. Find out who the Facebook influencers in your niche or industry are and follow them. This has several advantages. For one, you’ll see what they’re doing that’s working. That will give you inspiration and tips on what you might do to increase your audience engagement.

You can also tap into more potential followers by following other influencers. As you comment on their page with valuable input, people will be interested in heading over to your Page to see what more you have to offer.

Be patient. If you’re serious about becoming an influencer, you’ll need to be patient and consistent with the process. It takes effort as well as time. And you may have to overcome some negative feedback and challenges along the way. That’s all to be expected. Continue to keep your focus on what you want to accomplish, and the positives will outweigh the negatives.

“Patience will set you apart from the competition,” says Izaak Crook for App Institute. It will “help you be realistic about your goals and consequently help you become an influencer.

Have a plan. Planning your content out helps you stay organized and take advantage of seasonal topics and annual national or international events. If you use Facebook to drive traffic to your blog, create a Facebook post every time you add new content to your blog. Add a link to the new content in your Facebook post. Then, repost a month, six months and a year later to drive new traffic to your content. This is especially useful for content that has received a lot of engagement.

Stay current. You’ll want to keep your content fresh, up-to-date and current with trending topics to meet your audience’s needs and keep them interested. You’ll also need to keep up with any changes in Facebook’s policies, so you don’t run into any problems with the platform. The World Wide Web grows and evolves quickly, so keep up with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines that can affect your content too. For instance, if you place an ad or sponsored content in your post, you must make that clear to viewers.

Consistently posting content on your Facebook Page is key to keeping your audience engaged with you and your brand. Your posts will show up in your followers’ news feeds, but they won’t stay at the top of the list for long. Many other posts are constantly flowing into their feeds. So, to keep more eyes on your brand, post content often.

There’s something to be said, however, for posting too often. If you’re inundating your followers’ feeds with a post every other hour, for instance, your content will begin to seem meaningless. People may even unfollow you if your frequent posts become annoying or distracting. Also, it’s very difficult — and unnecessary — to keep a constant flow of valuable content coming out of your brain and into your Facebook posts.

As far as how often is just right, most social media studies say once a day is optimal, with a maximum rate of two posts per day, reports social media marketing expert Louise Myers. Consider these additional statistics and tips to help you decide your content creation frequency on Facebook:

• Facebook Pages with under 10,000 followers that posted more than once a day saw a 50 percent decrease in engagement per post in a study conducted by HubSpot.
• So, posting once a day or every other day is suggested for sites with smaller audiences. That’s backed up by Neil Patel and Quick Sprout too.
• When you have over 10,000, Neil Patel recommends posting at least 31 times a month, which is once or twice a day, he says.
• Posting three times a week is the minimum frequency suggested by Myers.
• Ten times per week is the maximum posting frequency, according to Constant Contact. Hubspot, Nulou and Social Media agree. Adobe bumps it up to 11.
• Facebook’s algorithms rank posts higher that have meaningful interactions, so keep your content focused on quality over quantity.
• Posting on a consistent day and time frame helps followers know when they can expect to visit your Page and see new content.

All of this content creation is manageable when you have great tools to make things more efficient and streamlined. The right tools save you time and money. Start off with some free tools. As your brand grows, your budget will too, and it will make sense to reinvest money back into your brand. Consider the following tools to help you be more productive and make great content on Facebook:

Facebook’s Creator Studio (free): The best place to start is at home, right on Facebooks’ platform. When you create a Facebook Page, you have automatic access to your Creator Studio on Facebook. Here, you’ll see a list of all your posts and how they’re performing, create new posts, upload videos and go Live. This is where Facebook’s Sound Studio is: a free library of over 2,000 royalty-free music clips and sound effects for your posts. Monetize your Facebook Page from the Creator Studio and a lot more, as well.

Canva (free and paid): Use predesigned templates for Facebook posts, ads and covers with this design tool. It has hundreds of free and paid images and templates to choose from. You can combine text, images and shapes, and its design tutorials help you master the craft of making visually compelling posts.

Coschdedule’s Headline Analyzer (free): Make sure your Facebook post headlines attract attention by plugging them into this tool. It will give you an overall score for your headline’s effectiveness and let you know how you might improve its character count, structure and emotional impact.

Timeline Contest Manager (free): Running contests on your Facebook Page is an effective way to increase engagement and grow your audience. This tool from Agorapulse keeps track of an unlimited amount of sweepstakes, photos contests and quizzes that you want to launch on your page. It saves you time by scanning your post’s comments to assess who the winner is, factoring out duplicate entries by the same user and more.

Shortstack (paid): Speaking of contest, Shortstack is a design tool that helps you create professional looking contests and polls on Facebook. You can create coupons, giveaways, quizzes, photo contests and more without knowing any coding skills.

Easelly (free and paid): If a picture’s worth a thousand words, an infographic might be even more valuable. Choose a template, insert your data, and let the tool do the work. Infographics tend to get more shares on Facebook, which has the potential to grow your audience. They also make information easier to understand, which boosts communication with your audience.

Bitly (free and paid): Bitly shortens URL links so you don’t have a long string of characters in your post. Instead, shorter links are more attractive. Bitly’s free version lets you shorten links as well as track and measure your audience’s interaction with them. It’s paid features let you customize your links with your brand name and manage your campaigns.

Post Planner (paid): Facebook lets you create posts and schedule them for later for free. But this scheduler gets posts five times more engagement, according to BuzzSumo and Buffer. One reason is that it identifies photos across the Internet that have gotten more likes, views and shares so you can use them with your content. Since Facebook ranks posts higher that get more engagement, your content ends up getting more eyes on it. You can organize your posts on your other social media platforms all in one place with this tool too.

Turn Page Messaging off when you’re not active. Page Messaging is a Facebook feature that lets readers and customer message you directly with questions or comments. Respond as quickly as possible to queries to build stronger relationships with your audience. If you’re going on vacation or know you’ll be away for more than 24 hours, turn messaging off. That way, people aren’t put off by your lack of response.

Care. This applies all the time as an influencer, but especially when responding to negative feedback and viewers concerns. If you’ve made a mistake, apologize sincerely. When someone has a concern, take it as seriously as they do. Unless someone is obviously spamming your Facebook Page or being abusive — which you should block and report — they have a genuine concern. Remember that viewers are real people that want to be heard, and a successful influencer listens and responds genuinely.

Be authentic. This bears repeating because people want to know who you are and what you stand for, as a person. Facebook users are savvy, and they know when someone is trying to get a Like or Comment as opposed to adding value to their lives. You won’t be able to keep up a facade, so enjoy what you’re doing and stay true to yourself. People will key in on that and appreciate it, so you’ll build a loyal following that’s well-deserved, not contrived.

Limit your tags. Only tag people in your Facebook posts when you have their permission, they created the content, or they are mentioned in the post. Otherwise, tags appear to be spammy.

Be nice to your “competition.” If an influencer were to have competition, it might be another influencer or brand in the same genre. In reality, however, other influencers are your allies. You can and should leverage each other for the same audience members. Never speak negatively about another influencer or brand. People are listening and will more often follow you when you uplift others and leave you alone when you tear people down.

Give credit. When you share someone else’s content, always mention the creator’s name, brand, blog or whatever properly identifies them. This avoids plagiarism, which erodes credibility.

Over selling. When asked by HootSuite in a 2018 poll, social media users said the number one thing they hate about brands is obvious self-promotion. That means, don’t inundate your audience with ads or promotional posts. HootSuite suggests following the 80/20 rule. That means put out 80 percent content that’s informative and beneficial and no more than 20 percent that’s promoting your products, services or brand.

Automating. Using tools to help you schedule posts and measure analytics is extremely helpful to you and your audience. But beware of using bots as autoresponders and automatic posters. Things can go wrong when you take away the human touch. Hiring a personal assistant or two is a safer idea than trusting important communication to artificial intelligence (AI).

Over-commenting. Definitely respond to direct questions and concerns in a timely manner and respectfully. But you don’t have to overdo commenting on Facebook. If people are not talking directly to you, you can sit back and let the conversation run.

Clickbait. Clickbait is a post that’s meant to pique interest and get viewers to click through to your link. However, what they find on the other end has very little if anything to do with what they thought they were getting. This is a quick way to lose your audience’s trust and interest in returning ever again to your Facebook Page. Facebook flags and penalizes posts that have the following clickbait attributes:

• Sensational or exaggerated headlines that don’t deliver on the link’s landing page:

Withholding information to get people to click through to understand the full meaning of the post. Never use, “You won’t believe what happened next,” or ” You’ll be shocked when you see the results,” in a Facebook ad, says Facebook.

Using language to provoke interest and excitement, but not being accurate.

Liking your own posts. This can make you appear desperate for likes. It’s obvious you like your post since you posted it, so let the viewers express their opinions.

Making it about you. Avoid the mindset of doing what you do to become an influencer. Do what you do because you love it and you want to offer something beneficial to others. Hootsuite counsels, “When you try to be interesting, you make it about you. When you show interest, you make it about them.” Get to know your audience and find out what their interests, concerns and questions are. That way you’ll be producing engaging and relevant content that people will appreciate and keep coming back for more.

Arika uses Facebook as one tool in her marketing arsenal to stay present in front of her growing audience. She has 4.1 million followers on her account, as well as 33.5K on Twitter and 581K followers on Instagram. Arika is a 33-year old Japanese-American beauty influencer with her own line of intimate fashions, swimwear and athletic wear that carries her name.

She’s been vlogging tips for beauty, fashion, health and fitness on her YouTube channel since 2008. Since 2009 she’s been posting articles on her blog that cover the same topics. Her blog site is also where she sells her products. Arika makes full use of social media as a marketing tool by using a variety of platforms, including Snapchat, and keeping them up-to-date.

Zoe is known to her audience as Zoella Zeebo. She seems to be mastering the art of social media marketing by using the major platforms actively; in most cases with more than one account. Her Facebook Page Zoella keeps viewers up to date on her ongoing projects. She set it up in 2018 as a place to have positive conversations about beauty, lifestyle and community, reaching 2.4 million followers so far.

Zoe’s business Zoella Twitter account (2015) with 210K followers is set up for the same purpose as her Facebook account. Her Zoe Sugg Twitter (2009) shows fans a much more personal side and has 12.5 million followers. Zoe’s Instagram accounts are set up the same way, with Zoella having 1.2 million followers and Zoe Sugg with 9.7 million followers. On Pinterest (Zoella), she has 419K monthly viewers, and she uses the platform Like to Know It to get affiliate revenue for her fashion photos.

Zoe began her road to becoming an influencer by starting a fashion blog in 2009 when she was 19 years old. She wrote about the things she was passionate about and enjoyed — including photography, fashion and life topics — and over time her small following grew into millions. Zoe has her own beauty line of cosmetics that are sold in the UK and online. She’s also author and photographer for her lifestyle book Cordially Invited and a novel series Girl Online.

YouTube is also a major platform for the fashion influencer. She has two channels here too. Zoella (2007) has 11.6 million subscribers and over a billion views. She vlogs about fashion, beauty and lifestyle and adds more about family and life on More Zoella (2012): 4.85 million subscribers and 8.2 million views.

Charles Chen. When Charles was a teen, he struggled with his weight and health. At 260 pounds, he was prediabetic and lethargic. After losing over 100 pounds and improving his health, he had a passion to share what he learned with others. He’s now a highly influential wellness chef, TV host, blogger and founder of a pop-up dining experience. On his blog, CharlesChenTV, he regularly posts health tips and recipes, using text, photos and videos to increase engagement.

Charles’ Facebook Page, also named CharlesChenTV, has a following is 23.5K people. He uses a toolkit of several additional social media platforms. On YouTube, CharlesChenTV has 5.2K subscribers, and he adds a video once or twice a month. He’s also on LinkedIn as Charles Chen where he lists his experiences, education, accomplishments and abilities. He also has 103K followers on Instagram and 5.6K on Twitter.

Chris is the founder and CEO of tech news website Android Headlines. He started the site as a blog in 2009 with a passion for all things android. With the help of other writers, editors and business partners, the site has grown into a global success that reaches millions of readers. Chris attributes part of the site’s reach to social media. He uses Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and LinkedIn to keep in touch with and grow his audience.

This travel influencer is better known as Nomadic Matt. After vacationing in Costa Rica in his early twenties, he caught the travel bug and went to Thailand the next year. Here, he met five backpackers that changed his life. They showed him how he can travel full time on a tight budget.

Matt has turned his passion and experience into a successful blog that teaches others how to travel the world on $50 a day. He’s written two books and is considered an authority on budget travel. He uses his Facebook Page to extend his reach and has 260K followers. His posts all contain links back to his blog articles, which is an effective way to connect social media to your blog or website. Matt also has 113K followers on Instagram, 19K on Pinterest with 682.5K monthly viewers, 1.4K followers on Twitter.

Lauren Orlando. Lauren began her career as an influencer at the age of seven when she made cameo appearances in her influencer brother Johnny Orlando’s YouTube videos. Two years later in 2013, she started her own vlog, which has 1.54 million subscribers and 103 million views at the age of 15. She’s a lifestyle influencer who vlogs about beauty and life and often features challenges and Q&As for her audience to participate in.

Lauren launched her Facebook account in 2016 and has 29.7K followers. She joined Twitter in 2012 before launching her vlog and has 399K followers. On Instagram, Lauren posts photos regularly for her 4.2 million followers. Lauren’s influencer status, bubbly personality and musical talents have also led to an acting career. She stars in the digital series Total Eclipse and has a feature role in the 2019 movie Next Level.

Facebook Insights is Facebook’s free analytics tool for Facebook Pages. It helps you measure the success of your posts, see who’s visiting your Page and when and from where, how people are finding your Page and more. Most influencers and social media marketers agree that this tool is invaluable. You can rely on the accuracy of the information since it’s coming from the source. And it’s a free, simple way to see what you should keep doing because it’s working and what you should change to get better results.

1. From your News Feed, click Pages in the left menu.
2. Go to your Page.
3. Click Insights in the left menu.

You have access to a variety of analytical data related to your Page, audience and posts. Use this guide to understand the different parts of Insights and what you can do with this data.

1. Followers – This shows the number of people who are following your Page, including those who Liked your Page and therefore automatically followed it. You’ll be able to see the number of people who have followed and unfollowed your Page over time.

Compare this data to the type or amount of posts you made. For instance, if you had a significant amount of unfollows on a day or over a week, did you post more? Less? Was there a controversial post? Were your posts spammy, or did you comment a lot, not enough?

Ask yourself similar questions when you have a rise in followers. As you consider other data on your Insights page, you’ll be able to see patterns that will help you make your Facebook Page effective and relevant.

2. Likes – You’ll see your total page likes since you first launched your Page. This number, as well as your follower amount, are also tallied on your Facebook Page for the public to see.

In the Likes section of Facebook Insights, you can also see your net likes. This shows the number of new likes minus the number of unlikes you’ve had over the past 28 days. Click the chart to go deeper by seeing the source of your likes and dislikes by day. Scroll down further to see a third chart, where your page likes happened. By clicking on the chart, you’ll again be able to see the source of your likes by day.

You’ll see that your likes are categorized as organic or paid. Here’s the difference:

Paid like: On Facebook, paid likes are measured when you use Facebook ads. A paid like means someone liked your Page within 24 hours of seeing your Facebook ad or within 28 days of clicking on your ad.
Organic like: When someone naturally visits your Page without an ad then likes it, that’s an organic like.

3. Reach – Reach refers to the number of people who saw any of your posts or Page. Reach can be paid or organic, too. When you see a spike or drop on one of the graphs on this page, click or drag to highlight the section. Then, you’ll be able to see which posts were active and assess why they were popular or not. Here’s what you’ll find on your Reach page:

Post reach: This is the estimated number of people who had your Page’s posts on their screen. Organic post reach can be either viral or nonviral. Viral reach means someone got to your post through one of their Facebook friends. Either their friend liked or follows your Page, shared a photo from your Page with them, checked into your Page or engaged with one of your posts. Nonviral reach is when someone got to your post without input from a friend.

Your organic reach can change for a variety of reasons. Factors that influence organic reach include the quality of your posts, time of day and whether people are using a computer or phone to view Facebook. It’s also affected by how people are engaging in the content of your Page and how they’ve engaged with similar content in the past.

Likes, comments and shares: This graph breaks down the positive ways people engaged with your posts: through reactions (likes, loves, and so on), comments, shares, answers, claims or other. All of these actions help you reach more people.
Hide, report as spam and unlike: These are negative engagements. You’ll see how many people clicked hide post, hide all posts and report as spam and how many unliked your page. These actions decrease the number of people you reach.
Total reach: Referring to your Page, not just your posts, it’s the estimated number of people had any content from your Page on their screen.

4. Page Views – This records how many people viewed your Facebook Page, including those who are not logged into Facebook. This section is a great resource for learning more about your audience. You’ll be able to see the age groups and number of men and women viewing your page. You’ll also see from which country and city they’re from, and what kind of device they’re using to view your Page. This information can help you tailor your content to your targeted group.

5. Page Previews – When someone hovers over your Page name anywhere on Facebook to get more information about you, that’s called a preview. A preview is only a hover and not a click on your name. You’ll be able to look at your total Page previews and total people who previewed your page by age and gender. Since one person can preview your Page more than once, the total people previews may be smaller than the total page previews.

You can optimize your Page preview to encourage more clicks. Focus on these aspects:

Your Page’s name, username and category. If these are missing or inaccurate, change them in your About section.

A summary and link. Write a short bio that gives viewers a clear picture of who you are and why you have a Facebook Page. Including a link to your main site, whether it’s your blog, website, vlog or other social media platform, will encourage more engagement on that site. Change these in your About section too.

Photos and videos. Be sure to upload quality photos and videos to your Page regularly. Your most recent uploaded media will show up in your preview. Photos and videos that you’ve shared will not show up here.

6. Posts – Here you have powerful data that lets you pinpoint the kind of content that’s appealing most to your audience, and what’s not. You can also target a certain time frame when your audience is online and post content during those times. The posts page shows the following information:

When your fans are online. This shows when people who are following your Page are on Facebook (not just your Page) viewing content.
Post type. See which types of posts are being viewed more (reach), such as photos, links or videos. You’ll also see how many clicks and engagements each type average. An engagement is a like, comment, share or call-to-action button.
Top posts from pages you watch. Use this information to see what types of posts other influencers within your industry are having success with.
Individual post metrics. You’ll also be able to analyze each individual post on your page. See it’s organic reach, paid reach, clicks and engagement.

7. Videos – Here’s where you’ll get a summary of the success of the videos on your Page. You’ll be able to see how many were not watched and how many were watched for at least three seconds. Insights will also list your top (most-viewed) videos.

For an in-depth analysis of your videos, go to the Publishing Tools tab of your Facebook Page and choose Video Library on the left.

Here, you’ll see a list of all the videos you’ve uploaded to your Page. Click on any video to see its unique metrics:

Minutes viewed: Total minutes video has been viewed and percentage viewed on your Page and shared
One-minute views: Number of times video has been viewed at least one minute, if it’s that long
10-second views: Number of times video has been viewed 10 to 59 seconds and percentage viewed with sound on and sound off
Three-second views: Number of times video has been viewed three to nine seconds and percentage viewed with sound on and off, on your Page or shared
Average video watch time: Compares the average watch time with the length of the video
Audience retention: A helpful graph to see at what points in the video people stopped watching
Audience and engagement: Shows types of reactions, total comments and shares, and demographics and location of top audience members

The Video Library in your Publishing Tools section gives you analytical data on videos you’ve uploaded to your Facebook Page.