With 1.960 billion people using Facebook everyday, the long-standing social platform remains as active as ever. Active users depend on their Facebook feeds to keep them up-to-date on the latest news, trends, products, and everything in-between.
So, what do businesses and brands need to do to take advantage of this highly engaged audience? It all starts with having an active Facebook business page and a strong content strategy to keep your page top of mind.
Having an active Facebook page sounds a lot easier than it is, especially with how quickly the social network evolves and adds new features.
So, no matter what stage you’re at with your Facebook page, our goal is to help you add new elements of creativity to help your content perform.
Facebook Content Types
Whether you’re sharing a business update or hosting a Facebook Live, video content is still the best performer. After all, Facebook users view 100 million hours of video on Facebook daily.
As video content continues to accelerate, we see many new video features grow in popularity, such as the optimization of Facebook Stories, Facebook Playlists, and 360 Video.
These features can be exciting. However, knowing what to post or how to optimize video content that delivers strong results can create a real scramble.
No matter which new feature you choose to explore, a key component for keeping new audiences engaged is to post high-quality content that resonates with your audience.
And, no matter what new formats you try, there’s always the traditional Facebook post to reach your following.
So, whether your goal is to increase sales, promote brand awareness, or connect with customers, these 12 content tips and tricks will help you build momentum on your Facebook pages.
1. Post to Facebook Stories
If you originally hesitated using Facebook Stories, you’re not alone. However, more brands and small businesses are jumping on board with the engaging feature. In fact, over 300 million use Facebook Stories each day.
Similar to IG Stories, this feature encourages brands and businesses to engage their Facebook audience with the latest news, video content, and a call-to-action via swipe-up links.
Tip: If you’re worried about spending more time and money creating Facebook Stories, simply re-purpose or re-post your IG Stories.
Or, access free text-over-image templates within Create or mobile apps like Over instead.
If you’re wanting to go the direct Facebook Story route, peruse Create’s templates for an easily customizable image.
Another way to find the Facebook Stories in Create is to just type “Facebook” into the search bar. You’ll be met with categories like Facebook Ad, Facebook Event Cover, Facebook Page Cover, Facebook Post, Facebook Shop, and Facebook Story. Scroll and select to customize.
You’ll notice in Create, there’s never a shortage of ways to do something—and there’s never one right way. We aim to encourage all design levels to find the methods that work best for them.
Fashion Forward Background
Have a slick pic to showcase? Whether you’re in the world of fashion, art, music, or the like, show off the latest lines, designs, and events.
Pair your announcement with a textured background, shadowed plant graphic, and you’re set—all available in Create.
Geometric Shapes
Inserting geometric shapes into your design is a clean way to make a Facebook Story stand out. Plus, it gives you space to insert pertinent details.
To find them in Create, simply click Shapes and select your favorite. Then, customize with colors, textures, and effects.
Paintbrush Strokes
Celebrating the weekend, an accomplishment, or just a cute outfit? Whatever the mood, throw it on your Story! Pair it with a slick paintbrush stroke texture, add an image, set the background color, and done!
In Create, the paintbrush strokes live in the Graphics > Design category. Add the photo by clicking Images and upload your own or select from our loaded stock photo library.
Tip: To customize one element with the same color from another element, use the Eyedropper tool found in the Change color panel.
First, select the layer you wish to change, then click the Eyedropper. Drag it over the color you desire and click to set!
Soaking up the Summer Breeze
Whether you’re celebrating the Fourth of July or just a remote location candid, post your whereabouts for all to see!
Add one of Create’s unique effects and adjust sizing to add a caption or message.
New Blog Alert
If you’re a blogger, vlogger, influencer, or lifestyle brand, use Facebook Stories to announce your press releases, events, seasonal sales, and the like.
Pair a background image with thin frames and text boxes—all customizable—for a clean look.
2. Upload a Video Campaign as Your Cover Image
As your business evolves, so should the content within your Facebook Page. If it’s been a while since your last page update, start by updating your home page. Include a fresh profile photo and make sure all your business details are up-to-date.
Next, update your cover image to the latest video campaign where it’ll be displayed at the top of your page for all to see.
Keep in mind that whenever you update your cover image, you have the option to display the update as a post within your feed. Use this bonus feature to maximize engagement and awareness for your campaign.
You can also include a call-to-action (CTA) within your cover image caption, similar to Shutterstock’s Creative Trends cover image that directs you to the latest trends report.
Tip: Videos with captions out-perform video content without captions, as 85% of Facebook users watch videos with the sound off. If you don’t have access to a video file or campaign, instead, try creating a banner image with text-overlay here.
Here’s another example of a banner image with text overlay on one of Shutterstock’s Creative Trends pages. If you need more inspo specific to Facebook, try these ideas as well.
White Space + Texture
Balance out your white space to emphasize your focal point. You can also use this space for additional info, like business hours, contact info, etc.
Your Facebook cover photo is a marketing platform, after all, so make it easy for customers to find you.
Floral Designs
Customize your cover photo with an established color palette and complementary floral graphics. In Create, select Graphics to explore your editable floral designs. Click to change colors and voilà!
Retro Textures
Who ever said two textures was two many? That’s right! No one. Especially when it comes to toys, play with your concept and pair Retro or Abstract Patterns found in Create’s textures tab.
Vintage Film Strip
Dig the film strip look? Us too. To get there fast in Create, click Collage and select your preferred layout. Drag the cells to adjust size. Fill with stock photos, personal pics, textures, graphics, and more.
Split Boxes
Not into the photo strip, but looking for something similar? Go for the half-and-half style to sport your product and your brand. Insert brand colors on one half, and a product photo on the other. Best of both worlds, eh?
Tip: If you’re wanting multiple social media outputs for your design, meet your new best friend: Smart Resize. Available to Pro subscribers, Smart Resize lets you change specs for several platforms at once without jeopardizing design quality.
Simply click Smart Resize and select the different formats you need. This might include Facebook Ad, Cover Photo, Event Cover, and the like, or different sizes among Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
No longer is LinkedIn the only relevant platform for sharing company news and culture. Believe it or not, your Facebook audience is also eager to engage with your milestones and celebrate your community.
To initiate positive engagement and expand your reach across new networks, try posting internal and external community news and business updates.
Tip: To get creative, use elements of design and text-overlays to highlight community news and updates similar to Sprout Social.
A few more ideas, you ask? You got it.
10,000 Likes
Every new business looks to hit particular milestone markers on social. If you’ve hit a big one, announce it to the world!
Pair a background image showing what you’ve accomplished, add shadow text, a Facebook graphic, and watch the likes roll in.
To add shadow and outline to your text, simply click the Shadow & Outline tab on the left-hand menu. Customize Inner Shadow, Drop Shadow, and Outline to your heart’s content.
Give Back in Gratitude
If the community’s played a big role in your success, let them know it! Nothing feels better than building momentum with a group of people on social.
To find this template in Create, click Templates and search “Thanks” in the search bar. No matter how basic or complex the template, you can always customize it to look just as you need—or even better than expected.
Cheers to Longevity
If your baby business is growing, announce it! Especially for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs alike, there’s nothing more special than celebrate your business’s birthday amongst the crowd of consumers.
Nice work!
4. Post Holiday and Seasonal Content
A great way to keep your content calendars active is by streamlining seasonal and hashtag holiday content within your calendars.
Whether you like posting stunning imagery or user generated content, seasonal and holiday content can act as a tool for providing awareness and educational value.
It can also support your sales goals of keeping track of memorable dates and holidays that reflect your buyers’ needs.
Tip: Whether you’re planning for Mother’s Day or celebrating #NationalDonut day with your staff, stay on top of holidays and seasonal hashtag days by downloading a handy social media content calendar.
Comforting Photos
Strong content and content calendars go hand-in-hand. Don’t stress yourself out with ever-living spreadsheets that make you feel it’s impossible to get it all done.
Bite-size your workload by the week and write down each day’s worth of tasks.
Set yourself up for success with manageable content schedules. Pair a personal or comforting photo on your calendar to keep you grounded throughout.
You got this!
Background Texture
Create’s countless background textures ensure you don’t need design experience to make something beautiful. Decorate your content calendar with space for each day.
In Create, simply click Texture > Seasonal Patterns to find the one we applied. Otherwise, select any of your favorites for a standout schedule.
Gradient Accents
Create’s pre-designed calendar templates make it easy to check off every to-do from your lists. And, while you can customize weekly, monthly, or yearly calendars, feel free to customize cell sizing and placement to ensure you have enough space to write your lists.
To add color gradient accents as we did, simply click each layer, then select the Change color panel on the left menu. Click Gradient and select among our many pre-set options, or click the + Add color option to make a new blend.
5. Promote Your Shop
If you haven’t already, we highly recommend setting up Facebook Shops for your e-commerce business.
Facebook Shops is a mobile-first shopping experience and business tool that makes it easy for your audience to purchase products straight off of your feed.
Not only is Facebook Shops customizable to your business, but it can be a handy tool for featuring new and existing products on your website.
Tip: A smart way to engage your audience is by posting a carousel of your latest products, similar to how French bridal designer Christina Sfez does it here.
If you need a few extra ideas, you can repurpose Create’s Instagram carousel templates for Facebook. They both live at 1080 x 1080 px, so you won’t have to worry about resizing.
The following will demonstrate four carousel slides to be used in one post. You’ll want to customize each separately with cohesive elements throughout.
1. Introduce Your Brand
Like Instagram, Facebook carousel posts range between 2-10 slides. Start by naming your brand, what you offer, and other pertinent details like your website and the reason for your post.
2. Name the Benefits
With similar design accents, use a post to demonstrate one of the many benefits of your service or company.
Notice how from slide one to slide two, there are enhanced design elements including background colors, abstract shapes, and a centralized photo.
Like any story you tell, carousel posts help do so in a compelling way.
3. Create Urgency
This post, like the previous, is similar in design. However, since each photo captures a different angle of the body, these posts provide a sense of movement.
You can also use one of your benefits—like sustainability—as a reason to educate consumers. Pair with a local organization and donate a portion of the proceeds, or create a sense of urgency for action and solutions in your post.
Consumers support different causes with their dollar. Help folks support your mission with a cohesive carousel post.
4. Bring It Home with a Company Tagline
Every company has a mission statement, tagline, or slogan. Pair your post with consistent brand messaging. Compel consumers with short and sweet reasons to invest in you.
If you want to swap your primary brand colors with a secondary color palette, give the editable doodle graphics different colors. The name of the game here is subtlety. Throw your logo on each slide and done!
To find these templates in Create, simply click Templates > Instagram Carousel Ad or scroll to find the category. Select to customize.
6. User-Generated Content (UGC)
Do customers and followers tag you in photos or videos of them using your products? Or perhaps you’re seeing customer reviews pop up on your Facebook page.
Integrate this type of user-generated content (UGC) into your content calendars as a tool for posting organic content that highlights your brand or business in a positive way.
Sharing UGC is a smart way to add creativity to your feeds when showcasing members within your community.
Take inspiration from Hi Super Hi who adds UGC to branded templates, and A-System who re-posts UGC within a carousel post.
There are endless ways to get creative with UGC, whether you’re re-posting content within your Facebook Stories or creating a weekly hashtag such as #FeatureFriday.
Note: Ask the original creator for permission prior to re-posting any UGC on your page.
7. Re-post Your Facebook Live
Facebook Live is a nice tool for covering events, breaking news, and interviews, all in a live broadcast real-time video format. The live broadcasting feature is easy to use and both mobile and desktop friendly.
If you’re planning to go Live on Facebook, a good way to extend the lifetime of your Live is by saving and/or re-posting the clip onto your feed following the event.
Take inspiration from Thinkific who provided a Facebook Live recap and a call-to-action following the interview.
This allowed their audience to access the interview at their convenience. Plus, participants could also re-share it on their feeds.
8. Use Design to Convey Updates and Important Messages
A cool way to highlight important messaging and announcements is by designing text-over-image posts.
This content strategy provides a more sophisticated tone that allows for the important message to speak for itself in a clear and scroll-stopping way.
The goal of your design posts should be to make it easy for your audience to learn, save, and share the information you promote.
To add text to an image, texture, or background, simply click the Text button in Create to peruse our hundreds of options. Click to apply, then drag to adjust sizing.
You can also change colors, add gradients, add an image fill, or play with the Shadow & Outline tab for extra dimension.
Your post only comes out once, so make sure you hit it hard with design details from the start.
Pair compelling ad copy with an animated, explainer, how-to, or simulation video so consumers are left with zero questions.
If you’re selling concert tickets for a venue, give a sneak peak of the artist so even those who aren’t familiar might be interested.
9. Promote a Contest or Giveaway
Are you running a contest or giveaway on Instagram? Gain more exposure and expand your reach by promoting the contest or giveaway with your Facebook audience.
This will also provide an opportunity to share and transfer Facebook followers to your other social channels. Cross-linking is an immediate way to share platform followers.
If your accounts aren’t linked yet, go to Instagram and open your settings. In Account, select Sharing to other apps. Click on Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr accounts to sync.
Easy!
BOGO Sale
If you’re in the spirit of giveaways, why not tack on a BOGO sale in your rotation? Make sure the type of sale is apparent in your text. Then, include specifics and details in your caption.
Is it limited time only? Where can people find you? Online or in-house? Sales can have immediate traction, so be sure you’re cool, calm, and collected.
Black and White
Black and white filters are no longer just black and white filters in Create. Add effects like Super B&W, Journo, Silverscreen, and other shades of gray for a standout sales photo.
Whether you use models wearing the clothes or sport just the clothes themselves, be sure there’s no question as to what the focal point is.
TikTok and Instagram Reels are not only popular with the younger Gen-Z crowds, audiences of all ages are responding to the humor and relatability of this streamlined video platform.
As a result, we’re seeing brands and businesses like Bud Light re-post viral TikTok videos on their Facebook Pages.
The result? Tons of engagement and comments proving that this strategy is here to stay.
Ultimately, you never know where one viral post will lead. Sometimes, they even wind up on Ellen or Jimmy Kimmel.
Go big—you never know who’s watching.
11. Ask Engaging Questions
Similar to the popular questions featured on Twitter and Instagram Stories, we’re also seeing many brands and businesses ask questions to generate engagement on their Facebook pages.
If you’re interested in hearing feedback from your audience, try asking questions that relate to your products and/or community.
If you want to get a bit more creative, try posing a question within a video post. Take a look at how Wendy’s does it.
Ending with a phrase like “Post your results” drives engagement on the post. Plus, you can influence Facebook’s “Recommended for you” section this way so folks see this same type of content from you.
Over the past year, we’ve seen digital aesthetics rise in the form of memes or screen-grabs that display viral tweets or messages from other social platforms.
On Facebook, Netflix does a great job of adding elements of humor within their content to engage their audiences and draw in new ones.
Tip: Re-posting tweets or other viral posts on Facebook is a great tool for engaging your audience through humor and creativity.
If you need some meme ideas, we’ve got you covered! The goal is not to try too hard, as you want your humor to hit.
Pet Memes
Pets are a universally relatable way to deliver your message. If you live in the world of sales, client relations, or customer satisfaction, you can’t go wrong with this template.
Simply pair your meme with a background photo—either personal or from our stock library—insert edits and add text.
Done!
Sell a Feeling
If you’re celebrating an achievement, use it as a way to influence your audience!
If you coach other business coaches, graphic designers, writers, or the like, empower them with a post like this and make them know they can achieve this feeling, too.
Be Relatable
Especially for bigger brands and companies, it can be difficult for consumers to feel connected. Make your message more personable with a cheeky meme-adjacent template.
Alright, fellow creators. As you can see, there’s an infinite list of ways to boost engagement on Facebook.
As the saying goes, It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop. And, the other encouraging phrase, Keep calm and carry on is also relevant here.
Whatever motivating mantras you need to fuel your creative process, welcome them in. Then, infuse that passion into your next design.
We can’t wait to see it!
License this cover image mockup via Reezky Pradata, Bibadash, and Vilmos Varga.
