What are your tips for maximising Facebook Marketing this holiday season?

These five tips on Social Media Today are a decent start, but what are your own hints and tricks for making the most of holiday shoppers? Hit me up!



Ensure you've set up all elements of your Facebook business Page

It largely goes without saying, but the key starting point for building a Facebook presence for your brand is creating a dedicated business Page, which you can do within the Facebook app. Ensure that you fill out all the fields that you can, as Facebook will then be able to use this info when categorizing and recommending your Page to relevant audiences.

Establish who your competitors are

You also need to understand what's working in your niche, and what constitutes realistic benchmarks for your Page success, based on your industry, region, etc. That means that you'll need to work out who your competition actually is, which you likely know to some degree, and you can start with the direct competition that you're aware of. But you can also dig into the data to find the Pages that are performing best, based on topic, products, brand name, and more.

Research competitor Pages

Once you have a listing of your key competitors, you then need to dig into their stats to figure out what results they're seeing. Audience Insights will give you an overall measure of how a Page is going, and what each Pages' most successful posts are, while again, you can also explore the data in Meta's Ad Library to get an understanding of the ads they've run.

Posting strategy

In terms of your Facebook posts, there are some general provisos to adhere to in creating content. Video posts do better than text updates (though that's not always the case), while shorter updates tend to generate more engagement and response than longer text blocks. Research suggests that the optimal length for a Facebook post is 25 to 55 characters. That's also not definitive, but part of the logic here is that posts of more than 80 characters are auto-truncated in the mobile app (giving you that 'See more' prompt at the end of the initial text), which can subsequently decrease engagement.

Reels is also a key focus for Facebook right now, with the platform looking to put the pressure on TikTok, and lean into broader engagement trends. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted back in July that Reels engagement is up 30% YoY across both Facebook and Instagram, and as it works to keep more people in the app for longer, it's looking to show more Reels to more people in-stream, wherever it can.</p>
<p>In terms of posting frequency, Facebook has previously advised that Pages shouldn't be overly-concerned about over-posting, as the News Feed algorithm will limit exposure from individual Pages.

Measure performance

Once you've got a strategic approach down pat, you then need to measure regularly to see what's working, and what's not, while also keeping tabs on your competition, so you can additionally learn from their efforts. As you begin, it's likely worth checking in every month to measure your best-performing posts, which will highlight the approaches that are resonating best with your audience. Double down on the winners, and re-assess those that flopped, and eventually, you'll have a clear posting strategy for your audience - which, it is worth noting, may not necessarily adhere to the top tips and processes followed by everybody else.

Give me your ideas!

This is by no means a comprehensive tips list, so please feel free to share your own ideas and proven methods for extracting the most out of holiday season shoppers.