Engaging Facebook posts are one of the most challenging forms of writing that you can master as a social media strategist. They need to be punchy, interactive, exciting, unique and fresh – or no-one will respond to your post. Today I’m taking a closer look at how to create Facebook posts that really grab the attention of your fans.

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The 5 Laws of Engaging Facebook Posts

#1: Increase Your Edgerank Score

Edgerank is the algorithm that Facebook uses to determine how close you are to individual fans. It decides how relevant you are to your fans, and when to show them your posts. Increase your Edgerank score by tagging fans in photos.

Right: “Fan poll: How do you use engaging Facebook posts to boost your business?” (Then tag 10 or so fans in the image you use with this question – they will be prompted to answer, and your edgerank score will increase, meaning they will see more of your posts)

#2: Use a Striking Image

People love engaging Facebook posts with images in them. It’s been proven that posts that have images vastly out-perform posts that don’t have images. Choose thought provoking, funny, emotional, intelligent or witty images and construct an equally as engaging text line to go with it.

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Right: “Engaging Facebook posts like this image, increase your edgerank score by 45%. Can you tell why? Tag the area you think has the most impact” (Then start the response list by adding in a comment below your post)

#3: Use Short Video Clips

It’s important to use short video clips, because people don’t tend to watch video longer than 4 minutes on Facebook. If your engaging Facebook posts are going to work, then select videos with huge viral potential. They need to be funny, shocking, fascinating and impossible not to share. Add an extremely tantalizing text line to the video.

Right: “Something in this video doesn’t make sense. Can you tell what it is?”

#4: Links For Engaging Facebook Posts

Links are always a powerful engagement tool, and they are even more-so on a site like Facebook. But don’t just share the link – that’s boring. For engaging Facebook posts that go viral – share an image from the page, and include the link in the text portion of the comment. Then give your opinion on WHY you are sharing the link.

Right: “What do three elephants, an egg and a chainsaw have in common? It all makes sense when you read Rod’s article on engaging Facebook posts here. Brilliant!” (Include an image that captures the imagination)

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#5: Focus on Top Text Updates

The key to great text posts, is to invite discussion or debate. Keep it short so that people can read it without clicking on the ‘see more’ link. Speak directly to your fans. Get them to share their knowledge, so that they look like authorities on the subject. Engaging Facebook posts happen when you make it easy for your fans to look good.

Right: “To write engaging Facebook posts I need to ________ “

Use calls to action, questions, trivia, word tricks, challenges, quotes, holiday themes and polls to get your fans talking.

Use these rules to create engaging Facebook posts, so that your business page can come alive with conversation. Don’t forget to use Facebook Insights to track which posts do better than others. Always test and improve – for better results!

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How do you create engaging Facebook posts on your page? Any tricks you’d like to share with us?