This work was supported by Cooperative Agreement #NU58DP007539-01 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In a recent survey, over 40% of respondents reported relying on social networking for health information, with most (94%) using Facebook as their source (Gandolf, n.d.). Creating a Facebook account can also boost your organization’s search engine visibility and visitor traffic. Use these simple Facebook guidelines as part of a coordinated plan for your social media presence:
- Facebook algorithms prioritize “meaningful interactions” over unrelated content. This means posting content that feels personal, conversational, and authentic is more effective (Facebook, 2018).
- Shorter posts (around 250 characters or less) get up to 60% more distribution than longer posts (Cooper, 2016).
- Post consistently and with a variety of different content types like video or photos to maximize reach and make your content stand out (Facebook, 2018). Posts with photos receive up to 50% more likes than non-photo posts (Hershkowitz & Lavrusik, 2013). Visual content is forty times more likely to be shared than other content (Zantal-Wiener, 2019).
- Monitor interactions and comments with visitors to your page, using Facebook analytics and insights to see how your audience is interacting with your comments. Track your results and act on them, focusing your efforts on what’s working.
- Don’t post too often or too rarely, and use analytics to thoughtfully consider post timing (Zantal-Wiener, 2019).
- Vary your post type. Users don’t engage the same way with every post (Hershkowitz & Lavrusik, 2013).
- Pin important posts so visitors will see them first on your page (Zantal-Wiener, 2019).
- Develop a comment policy and moderate comments accordingly to prevent harassment in your comments section. Avoid identifying people in photos without their consent. See the CDC’s Guidelines for Public Comments for a model policy.
References
Cooper, B. B.. (2016, April 19). 7 powerful Facebook statistics you should know for a more engaging Facebook page. Buffer Retrieved from https://buffer.com/resources/7-facebook-stats-you-should-know-for-a-more-engaging-page/
Facebook. (2018). Facebook and Instagram best practices. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/gms_hub/share/best-practice-fb-and-ig
Gandolf, S. (n.d.) Facebook fundamentals: A guide to social media in healthcare marketing. Retrieved from https://healthcaresuccess.com/blog/hospital-marketing/facebook-fundamentals.html
Hershkowitz, S. & Lavrusik, V. (2013, May 2). 12 best practices for media companies using Facebook pages. Facebook. Retrieved from https://facebook.com/notes/facebook-media/12-best-practices-for-media-companies-using-facebook-pages/518053828230111/
Zantal-Wiener, A. (2019, August 30). 14 essential tips for an engaging Facebook page. Hubspot. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-create-facebook-business-page-ht