1. Post a Question

One of the simplest and most effective ways to kickstart a dialogue with your Facebook fans is to ask them a question. Basically, you’re inviting a response. If fans can relate to the question and you find a way to leverage people’s interests or needs, they’ll find it hard not to answer.

Here are some questions to ask:

• Specific: What’s your favorite…?
• Tips: How do you…?
• Experiences: What’s your favorite moment from experience/memory…?
• Edgy: Do you think…? (controversial question)
• Direct: Why do you…?
• Events: Who is going/Who attended…?
• Timely: Today is…, so what are you…?

3. Ask Fans to Make a Choice

A fun way to get your fans to engage with you is to publish a “this or that” post. Ask people to choose a side, pick a favorite, or make a choice between two things. An added benefit is that it can create a division among your fans, which can spark a dialogue in the comments.

Most of the time, those debates are good fun but be mindful of trolls. If you want to spark even more debate, you can always mix in a little controversy but avoid politics.

4. Post When Your Fans Are Online

People use Facebook at different times of the day. Some are on Facebook throughout the day, while others may only check it in the early morning or evening. If you’re randomly publishing a few posts each day, there’s a good chance some of your audience will miss them. By the time they check their feed, your content could be buried.

A better tactic is to post when your audience is most active. Check your Facebook Insights to find that data. To access it, click the Insights tab and then click Posts in the left menu.

By default, the dashboard shows data for when your fans are online. You can adjust the date range to compare blocks of time so you can see what times of the day your fans are most active.

Tip: Posting late at night (when your fans are less active) isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There’s less competition in their feed, so the people who are active on the site are more likely to see and engage with your content. If that engagement jumps a bit, there’s a better chance your audience will see it when they come online in the morning.

5. Boost Your Best Posts

If you have a blog post or other website content that has seen tremendous traffic, post it to your Facebook page and boost that post. You don’t need to throw hundreds of dollars at it; give it a modest boost of $25 and target the people who like your page and their friends.

You won’t necessarily see thousands of shares, but a boosted post can help get your best content in front of your target audience and spark some engagement. The more people engage, the greater the organic reach to their networks. This tactic can be especially effective if you’re sharing high-value content with a lot of great takeaways, such as a solution to a problem or an answer to a question.

To find your most popular content, check your Google Analytics. In the dashboard menu, click Behavior > Site Content > All Pages. Review the metrics for each post to determine what content to promote on Facebook. If you don’t have any archived content to pull from, that’s okay. You can always boost other post types from this list with a small budget to give them an extra nudge.

6. Adjust Your Post Frequency

If your Facebook engagement is slipping, it might have something to do with your post frequency. Posting too little (say a few times a week) won’t help you establish relevance with Facebook’s algorithm and you’ll be fighting for space in your audience’s feed.

On the other hand, posting too often can hurt you, too. Facebook tries to show users the most interesting and relevant content from everyone they follow. If you’re posting a half-dozen times each day over a short period, expect a lot of your content to be missed.

To find a sweet spot, try posting a few times each day at the times your fans are most likely to engage.

7. Go Behind the Scenes With Live Video

Visual content is much more likely to be shared on Facebook, and this is especially true for video. Facebook Live makes it easy to stream live video to your audience, anytime you like, to leverage that engagement.

Don’t stress about the production value or not having a killer splash intro. Fans legitimately enjoy seeing the people behind a business just being…people. Give fans a glimpse into how your company operates, show your personality, and make a human connection.

Live video is also a great way to take your fans with you on company outings or to major events and trade shows they aren’t able to attend. Once your live broadcast is finished, it’s saved so others can view, share, and enjoy it at any time.

To broadcast a live video, open your Facebook page from your mobile device. In the status window, click the option to Go Live. Give Facebook access to your camera and microphone, describe your video, and click start.

8. Provide Value

Anytime you share or post content to your Facebook page, ask yourself what kind of value you’re providing to your fans. The best way to get their attention is to make sure there’s a takeaway or something in it for them. At the very least, give them a good chuckle. At best, teach people how to do something, inspire them to take action, and add value to their life.

9. Celebrate Holidays

If you factor in silly holidays, along with more serious awareness dates and traditional holidays, you’ll never run out of ideas for your Facebook content schedule. If it’s a more whimsical celebration, have a little fun with it.

Your fans might also appreciate knowing when they can get a good deal, like $1 hotdogs on National Hot Dog Day at Sonic. Find ways to add value to every post to spark engagement.