Posting for increased engagement on Facebook requires, in addition to posting at the right times, posting the right kind of content. Most businesses at the onset find the question of what to post on Facebook quite daunting. Here are some tips to help you with the dilemma:

• Industry related news, tips and trivia: These are the easiest types of content you can post on a daily basis to keep your Facebook account active. Depending on the relevance and freshness of the content you pick, your followers would engage with you. This type of content often is also a great way to kick start discussions.

• Images: Including images in your post is a great way to boost engagement. They generate more engagement compared to text-only posts, and posts including links. Picture posts can be used in different ways. You can use them to answer a question. You can post a picture without a caption and ask users to suggest one.

• A or B: Your posts can ask users to choose between two options. Here, too, you can include images, but they are not necessary. You can ask users to choose between two captions for a photo, or to decide which of the two options they would prefer in certain conditions (for example, driving versus public transport on a rainy day). In addition, you can also generate likes and shares by asking users to like the post if they prefer option A or share the post if they prefer option B.

• Contests: Hosting contests with an incentive is a sure-fire way to boost engagement. You can ask users to follow you, like and/or share posts, comment on posts, post photographs or stimulate enaggement in several other ways.

• Questions: Ask your audience what they would like to see. Technically, A or B is also a question post, but it can be used to generate likes and shares. However, subjective questions, in general, will not gain more likes and shares than other forms of content. What they will help you with is to obtain a large number of comments.

• Fill in the Blanks: Another good way to draw comments is to ask your audience to complete a sentence. For instance, if you sell foods, you can ask them to complete “I eat (your product) when …”, or you can also ask them to fill one or more blanks in a sentence.

• Quotes: These can help you gather comments as well as likes and shares. Your quotes should be inspirational and if they can be actionable too, then that’s just icing on the cake. Use quotes from movies you like. You can also ask your followers for their favorite quotes on a particular topic.

• Memes: You can use memes to great effect to state your opinion on any topic. They will draw a lot of attention and can bring you likes, shares, and comments. Including quotes in memes can be fun.

• Customer Shout-outs: Instead of creating and sharing your content, share something published by one of your followers. If you find anyone promoting your brand, give a shout-out to them. You can also post a “follower of the month” post and highlight the user who has been the most prolific in commenting on your posts.

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