7 Ways to Create the Perfect Facebook Post

Social media has some great platforms to promote your dental practice. However, creating a good post requires skill. There are some best practices in this regard. In fact, some social media best practices, like using hashtags and stock photos on Facebook, harm your social media campaigns. If you want to create the perfect Facebook post, read on.

1. Avoid Hashtags

Using hashtags (#) and symbols (@) in your Facebook post will decrease your reach to approximately six percent of total fans. Facebook will penalize you for using those symbols because they are often used on other platforms like Twitter, one of Facebook's competitors. Also, posts with hashtags and symbols may indicate that they are not original Facebook posts, which are likely to exist on other social media. This happens when you write a post for various social media using a social media management system like Hootsuite. Because Facebook does not want users to advertise other social networks on its platform, it will penalize you by reducing your reach.

If you're using scheduling services like Hootsuite for your posts, be sure to write separate copies for each social network. For example, include hashtags and symbols in your Twitter posts and create a different version without the hashtags and symbols in your Facebook posts.

2. Post Moderately

Sometimes more is not better. This is especially true for Facebook posts. In Facebook's eyes, posting too much means you're posting lower quality posts. Facebook does not reward frequency, but rewards interaction numbers. Posts with a high level of engagement will figure prominently in Facebook's algorithm, resulting in a prominent position in your news. Conversely, posts with low interaction will have less reach. Therefore, it is better to have fewer high-quality posts than many low-quality posts with little interaction.

Moderate publishing also prevents spamming. If you post often enough for your followers to perceive your efforts as spam, they can easily hide them or, worse yet, report it as spam. Once users do the latter, Facebook reduces the rank of your page.

3. Use Emoticons (if appropriate) ??

Case studies show that social media posts with emoticons have more interaction than posts without. Emoticons have been found to increase comments and actions by 33% and I like them by 55%. Also, in an experiment conducted by AdEspresso, Facebook's marketing partner found that ads with emoticons performed better than ads without, as he commented in a previous article. With these promising discoveries, it may be time for you to add smileys to your texts.

However, only use emoticons if it's appropriate for your brand image and the tone of your post. Also, be sure to study your Facebook analytics to see if your posts with emotis work better than your posts without. Some tactics may work for some and not for others.

4. Include Photos In Your Publications

Studies also show that posts with photos receive more interaction than posts without photos. According to Kissmetrics, photo posts get 53% more likes, 104% more comments, and 84% more clicks. It's not hard to imagine why posts with more photos work better: Photos grab the audience's attention, causing them to stop mid-scrolling.

If you want to increase your reach with posts like these, upload photos that have never been uploaded to Facebook before, photos that are completely original and do not exist anywhere else. Yes, that means do not take stock photos that you find on the internet. This is important because Facebook checks the .EXIF data on your photo and rewards posts with original photos.

5. Write Shorter Publications

Shorter posts also get more interaction. Studies show that Facebook posts less than 250 characters have 60% more interaction. If you reduce your copy to 80 characters or less, you can increase your interaction by another 66%.

It's easy to imagine why shorter posts prevail. People on the Internet, especially those on their mobiles that are going to and fro, are often impatient and consume information quickly. If your posts are long, followers are unlikely to read your posts in full, if at all.

6. Post Value Content

If you are a business owner and are managing your social media, think of your posts as answers to the question what's in it for me. Post content that is valuable to your followers. For example, if you're a dentist, post content that's useful to your followers, such as informative blog posts, explainer videos, infographics, or other helpful resources.

7. Includes a Call to Action (CTA)

As mentioned in point number two, posts with low interaction will have a smaller reach. If the pages have a low level of interaction, those pages will receive low Facebook rankings, reducing the chances of getting the top spot in the news. To increase your engagement, you can combine tactics number three, four, five, and six listed in this post. However, you can also increase your interaction by adding a call to action in your post. Calls to action let followers know what you want them to do after reading your post. For example, you can ask them to comment, like or share it with their friends. Adding a call to action can improve your engagement. After all, the adage sometimes seems true: ask and thou shalt receive.

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