What not to post on Facebook

| Social media

What not to post on Facebook

 

For many estate agents posting the wrong things on Facebook is one of the key reasons behind them not finding success on social media. So I thought it would be helpful to clarify what elements you should leave out of your Facebook posts and you may be surprised by how many you commit.

Here are five elements every Facebook post should avoid in order to progress and find successes:

1) Don’t over complicate it

Your Facebook posts are aimed at everyone, it is important you keep things simple. You want these posts to be shared, engaged with, liked and most importantly read. This means you can’t over complicate things with industry jargon. Instead keep your posts short and sweet, there is no need to pack them with confusing ramblings or complex language.

2) Limit #Hashtags

How many hashtags is too many? Lots of studies have been done regarding this question and the answer is – no more than 2 or 3. According to research, if you include more than 3 hashtags you are likely to do more harm than good.

Over use of hashtags results in a cluttered post, distracts readers away from the message and lowers engagement rather than enhances it.

3) Avoid multiple links

It may be tempting to try to stuff as much information and links into one post to save time but cutting corners won’t get you anywhere. A post should be solely focused on one topic, with one destination in mind. More than one link per post increases clutter, confusion and reduces the chances of those links being clicked on.

4) No unnecessary wording

In point 1, we mentioned the importance of being clear and to the point. Despite having more freedom on Facebook, shorter posts do better so you should always try to keep posts in the vicinity of 40 characters or so. It’s not supposed to be an essay, keep it to the point.

5) Don’t be overly promotional

Facebook are cracking down on promotional posts and they have warned business pages that they will see their organic reach take a sharp decline, in particular for posts that are deemed “overly promotional”.

This means if your posts are seen as pushy and salesy (a post that seems to be more like an advert), rather than creative and engaging posts then be warned that these posts will appear on hardly any newsfeeds. This change to Facebook has come from direct user feedback, as users want to see fewer ads within their newsfeeds and from this Facebook are trying to provide a better product to their users. And for those of you who are unsure what they mean by “advert like posts”, posting properties that are on the market would fall into this category. 

Luke Stanley