You have a Facebook Page for your insurance agency and a plan for using it in your marketing. If you find yourself wondering what next or how can you make your Facebook Page better, it’s pretty easy to find articles on how to improve your Facebook marketing. I’ve written several for the American Agents Alliance newsletter. Or, you can also check out the ITC marketing blog.
These articles have saturated the marketing blogosphere and discuss what kinds of content to share, including images, links, polls, videos, text updates, etc., what times or days to share it, calls to action to include, etc.
But instead of talking about the what, how, and when of posting content to your Page, I want to examine seven simple features within Facebook that can improve your Facebook marketing.
1. Edit link titles
When you share a link, Facebook will automatically pull the title of the article. If you wanted to provide some extra context or information about the article, you can edit the title. Just click on the title and add what you wish or remove what you don’t want to be shown.
2. Select the best picture
Facebook likes images. Part of a recent change to Facebook’s algorithm has affected the images that are associated with links. These images are now bigger. You can choose the picture that will be shared with your link by clicking through the photo options. You can also upload your own image for those times Facebook fails to pull the image you want to be included with the article.
3. Edit preview text
Just like with titles, you can edit the preview text of an article to highlight a specific detail or try to encourage more people to click on the article. To edit the preview text, click on the existing text and then type what you want.
4. Schedule posts
If you’re going to be out of the office for a few days but don’t want to leave your Facebook Page unattended, Facebook allows you to schedule posts. Click on the clock icon in the bottom left, select the date and type in the time you want your post to go live.
5. Edit a scheduled post
Finally! You can now edit a scheduled Facebook post. When Facebook first rolled out the schedule a post feature, you could only edit the time the post is to be published or delete the post entirely. There was no way to edit a post to fix a typo or add a detail you forgot the first time. That changed recently. To edit a scheduled post, go to your Activity Log, and hover your mouse over the right corner of the scheduled post you wish to edit. Click on the arrow that appears, and select edit.
6. Pin your best posts
When you have important news or something that you want to promote continually for a period of time, you can pin the post so it always appears at the top of your Page. That way it doesn’t get pushed down by your most recent posts. Your post will stay pinned to the top until you unpin it. To pin (or unpin), click on the top right of your post and select Pin to Top.
7. Highlight milestone
Like pinning a post, you can highlight a post to get more attention for important news or milestones. When you highlight a post, it doubles the width so that the post spans your entire page. To highlight (or remove the highlight), click on the top right of the post and select Highlight. What simple tips have helped your Facebook marketing?
About the Author: Entrepreneur and technology consultant Laird Rixford is the president of Insurance Technologies Corporation (ITC). Founded in 1983, ITC provides marketing, rating, and management software and services to the insurance industry, including independent agents and insurance carriers. Rixford oversees the direction for each of ITC’s products while also leading the company’s sales and marketing departments. His philosophy is to become a strategic partner with agents and carriers instead of being just another vendor.
