If you’ve been on Facebook recently, then you’ve probably noticed that there is something a little different about your status entry box: the Promote button.  This button enables you to pay a premium to have your message displayed more in your fans’ newsfeeds.  You may be asking yourself “Jason, what’s going on here?  Does this mean that if I don’t pay to promote then no one will see my content?”  Well, to put it simply… no!

According to Jamie Swanson, “Nothing has actually changed in how you show up in the newsfeeds other than you can pay to show up MORE than before in the newsfeeds of your fans. Rates start at $5 and your post will have a “Sponsored” label added to it when people see it.”

So how do you get your message out to your target market?  No, not magic, though the solution works like magic.  You just need to engage your audience.

By engagement, I mean getting Comments, Likes, Shares, and Mentions.  When Facebook users interact with your content like this, Facebook deems the content more worthy to be seen by other people.  This means more time at the top of the newsfeed and more exposure to a broader audience.

“So how do I get engagement?”

I’m glad you asked!  Honestly, there’s no mystical formula for getting mass amounts of engagement.  The best way to engage your audience is to simply ask them to participate.  Show them something and then ask “hit Share if you plan on claiming this deal” or even simply ask them to Like your post.  It’s that easy!

Now the trick here is to make sure that you are posting things that are of value to your fans.  If you’re constantly posting things about self-promotion that doesn’t really matter to your fans, it becomes noise.  Noise is bad on Facebook because noise doesn’t get engagement.  Post fun things, things that you’re interested in, and most importantly things your fans are interested in.  Are you part of a tech company?  Why not post something about surfacing technologies you may deal with?  Running a farm?  Post some of your photogenic fields, your audience will eat that up!

I’ll sum up with this: if you’re excited about what you do, then show your audience your excitement.  Chances are that they will get excited too.

For more information, including stats about the Promote button vs engagement, check out Jamie Swanson’s article here.