Likes, Tags, and Shares—Oh, My!

What kind of response are you hoping to get from your fans on social media?[/caption] When you’re posting to social media, do you have an engagement agenda in mind? In 2018, the rules continue to change when it comes to making an impact with your organic posts. It can be hard to keep up with these fast-changing and secretive algorithms. You won’t even really know you’re making a difference until you’ve tried a few things, measured the results, and found what works for your exact audience. Alas, to succeed, this is the yellow brick road you must follow. When you’re putting in the time and energy to create those posts, you need to have an agenda in mind. It’s definitely better to be hoping for one particular outcome than “any” potential outcome or “all” possible outcomes. That helps you finesse your copy and creative from the start to work in harmony toward that goal. So—what are you trying to get your viewers to do, once you’ve captured their elusive attention? Do you want them to “like” your post? Do you want them to “tag” a friend in the comments? Do you want them to “share” the post to their own page, or maybe someone else’s? Perhaps you even have a different goal in mind (for example, you might just want to rack up video views). Here’s one way you can decide.

The Basics of Boosting Organic Posts

LIKES: Liking someone’s post is the time-honored way to show your approval of it, and your willingness to affiliate with it from your own account. It’s also super fast and simple to do, making it everyone’s go-to. Now that Facebook allows many different ways to express yourself through a menu of emojis that are still collectively referred to as “Likes,” it’s an even more specific communication tool. Counting “Likes” is still a valuable metric to demonstrate popularity and will help your organic posts go further. Sometimes, people will Like a post but not comment, since it is so easy do click and keep moving; so if you’re encouraging a lot of Likes, just be sure you’re not robbing yourself of any further engagement that you’re hoping for—including Tags or Shares. TAGS: Tagging a friend draws their attention to a post they might like without sharing it to their wall, which gets all of their friends dragged in, as well. It’s a more private way to share a joke or a reference. On the other hand, depending on their settings, friends can usually see when mutual friends have been tagged in posts, since it will be boosted in their feeds once their friends have started chatting there—so people with a similar interest in your content can still see it and get looped in. Targeting a goal of tagging is good because fostering conversation on your own post, rather than on a post that’s shared and thus becomes privatized, also helps boost your content. SHARES: As noted above, one of the perks of Sharing is that a post shared to anyone’s wall is typically visible to all of their friends. It can be a boost to a diverse crowd. Typically, people also add their own thoughts, which can be a bit of flavor that perks up your content with a person’s authentic voice and valuable testimonial. The downside is that the likes and comments that appear aren’t furthering engagement on your original post or boosting it more for you, organically. However, getting a lot of Shares (which is counted on the original post and visible to others) can help your page and your brand strengthen and show higher and more often in people’s feeds, because it’s clearly resonating with them and a mark of popularity. If you’re still wondering which endgame is best for your posts—or generally struggling to get the following you’re seeking on social media—hit us up. Here we are on Facebook!]]>