The rules seem to be constantly changing on Facebook with what works and what doesn’t. It is easy to get caught up trying to do all the things and then getting frustrated when none of them seem to work for you and your community.
Yes, Facebook has “rules”. There are certain types of content that they appear to give priority to with reach from your business pages. One thing consistent with Facebook is that they show your audience what they respond to on your page. The key is finding something you enjoy that resonates with your audience and brings them back for more.
This month I want to share with you a few people I know who have found their “thing” and how they incorporate it within their communities. Each of them uses different aspects of Facebook to connect with their audience authentically and are genuinely having fun while they are doing it.
Facebook Lives to Connect and Teach
Roshanda Pratt is a Livestream expert and produces her own Facebook Live show, “The Rosho Live“. Roshanda uses Facebook Lives on her public page and within her closed Facebook group to connect with her community, teach and inspire them to go live within their own communities.
Roshanda’s messaging goes beyond Facebook Lives as she empowers her audiences with the mantra “Visibility is Power”. She has created an active group, hosts an annual conference, and most recently shared her State of Visibility for 2020 as a live and live-streamed event.
Why I love this? First, I absolutely love Roshanda. She inspires me in so many ways. I am thankful that she is local to me and I have been able to connect with her face-to-face. There is something about being in her presence that sparks a desire to push forward and embrace your story.
She is very open with the lessons she has learned along her entrepreneurial journey and how she balances her life as a full-time entrepreneur, wife, and mother.
Roshanda’s lives have a set schedule and time limit. She also incorporates pop-up lives from events she hosts, attends and while traveling. Her community can see how she manages the different areas of her life via her lives. It’s important to note that Roshanda has a background in media and uses her expertise as a producer to teach others how to command their lives with a step-by-step guide (affiliate link).
How can you apply this to your own page? Own your areas of expertise! What messaging can you create around your passion and purpose in life? Do you have specialized training or certification in a specific area that you can use to niche down within your messaging? By creating a schedule of Facebook Lives with engaging and informative topics, you can create connections with your community while growing it and expanding your reach.
Cultivating an engaged Community
Rachel Miller is the powerhouse behind Moolah Marketer. She and her team teach entrepreneurs how to build communities around their Facebook pages and groups. The best way to teach is through demonstration and Rachel does this consistently on her page. Having taken Rachel’s courses on how to engage and grow your audience, it is easy to see the proven-to-work formula she uses on her Facebook page to connect with the right-for-her people and cultivate conversation among her page followers.
Why I love this?  As a community builder, I loved watching Rachel break down how she found the right people to engage with on her pages during her recent 100 Perfect People challenge (affiliate link). There are some niches that call for more transparency. Rachel’s is one of them and she provides just that on her Facebook page and within her closed Facebook groups.
Rachel shares a variety of content on her Facebook page – client success story videos, Facebook Lives, sneak peaks of program and course launches, and so much more. The biggest takeaway from her that is clear with the questions she asks is to focus on asking questions where your community provides you information versus you always feeding them information.
How can you apply this to your own page? Strive to share a variety of content on your page – Facebook Lives, images, content from other pages that relate to your niche, engaging questions, etc. Remember to include a reason for your community to respond – ask a question or give them a specific task to do in the comments. Finally, speak with them, not at them. Ask questions where they can provide you with information versus you giving them all the answers.
A Weekly Event
Every Thursday you can count on a showdown called “This OR That Thursdays” over at Houseful of Nicholes. The rules are simple. Throughout the day they give you two choices and you have to pick one or the other. No substitutions. No ifs, ands, or buts. One choice and that’s it. The topics range from holiday movies to road trip games. The two options are often very difficult to choose between and that is where the thrill of it all lies.
Natasha Nicholes started “This OR That Thursdays” as a brief reprieve from all the things on Facebook that were bringing her down. It quickly took off and may have led to the dissolutions of a few friendships since its formation.
Why I love this? I love it because it was something Natasha was not expecting to take off, and it did. Don’t you love when that happens in business? Sometimes we need something simple and fun to connect with our community. By doing this regularly, it teaches your community to come back and engage with your content throughout the week. With This OR That Thursdays, many of her community members pop in throughout their workday to answer the questions and engage with others in the comments.
How can you apply this to your own page? What is something similar you could use to engage with your community? It could be trivia, fill in the blanks, poll questions, or sharing GIFs related to a specific topic. The possibilities are endless. The key to the success of this is having a somewhat catchy title for it, being consistent with posting it and engaging with those who respond .
Partnering With Other Experts to Teach
Stephanie Liu hosts an online interactive course via Facebook Lives that teaches her audience how to create a captivating livestream from their ideas, skills and experiences. She does this by sharing her expertise as an online marketing strategist. Stephanie regularly has guests to educate and engage with her community.
Why I love this? Stephanie is consistent with her shows. Her community knows when to expect them and shows up to support. She, also, repurposes her content to bring traffic to her website and push more views to her videos on Facebook. You can find show notes on her website and background information on guests. Stephanie also incorporates a Facebook messenger bot on her page. This easily allows her to alert her readers when she is live with new episodes.
How can you apply this to your own page? This is a great way to shine a light on the connections you have made throughout the years and the wonderful people in your circle. You can use a 3rd party application like StreamYard or eCamm to live-stream with a guest. Find an evergreen topic that you can create multiple episodes around. Doing some research on your guests and finding a topic that resonates with your audience is important. This way you can have a compelling topic that will bring viewers – live and replay.
You can easily re-purpose this content as a podcast and download the video to use on other social media platforms, like YouTube and IGTV.
You can also create an article around the video, embed it and pull out key points and quotes.
After you have completed your Facebook Lives, go back in to edit and add captioning for ease of viewing.
There you have it – four amazing women who are rocking out Facebook in their own way.
I would love to know how you plan on implementing any of the steps I’ve outlined.
About The Author: Michelle D. Garrett
I blog full-time over at Divas With A Purpose and am passionate about helping fellow female entrepreneurs show up authentically on social media for their communities. Feel free to connect with me online and see me in action on Instagram, Periscope, Facebook, and Twitter.