How to increase community engagement on Facebook
Using targeted ads to encourage reader participation
Jada Glass is a 2024 RJI Student Innovation Fellow partnered with Houston Defender Network. The RJI Student Fellows will be sharing their innovative work throughout the summer in Innovation in Focus.
The Defender Network has experienced lower engagement on Facebook compared to other platforms. To address this, we devised a strategy to enhance interaction and expand their target audience.
Our approach includes launching a Community Photo Highlight contest, utilizing Facebook’s targeted advertising to specifically reach individuals who are 35 years old or older in the Greater Houston Area.
The Houston Defender’s Community Photo Highlight contest invites community members to share photos they’ve taken in the Houston area that fit a specific theme. More than just a competition, this is a chance for the Defender to celebrate local creativity and grow its presence and engagement on Facebook.
Here’s how we developed this plan:
1. Identify objectives and process
Objective:
- Encourage community members to submit photos that we will feature on The Defender Network’s Facebook page, allowing us to share the community’s creative work.
- Promote the photo submissions through targeted Facebook advertising aimed at individuals aged 35 and older. The goal is to increase Facebook engagement (posts, comments, likes, shares, etc.) with this demographic.
Photo Submission Process:
- Submissions will be collected via a Google form with sections for Name, Facebook Handle, Email, Zip Code, and Photo Entry.
2. Research
Our research showed that investing as little as $1 per day in Facebook ads can effectively reach a targeted audience, making it a cost-efficient way to increase content visibility. The success of these ads depends on the clarity of your goals, ad relevance, and audience targeting.
Facebook provides countless articles and tips on creating targeted advertisements. Here is a resource that helped us determine what ours would look like: Facebook Ad Targeting
This helped support our decision to start with a small investment of $3 per day.
3. Define Goals and Expected Outcomes
We are aiming to boost engagement among the 35+ age group. We’ll refine our target audience by considering factors such as age, gender, education, and location, ensuring a more precise and effective outreach.
Goals for the initial post promoting the photo contest:
- 50 Likes
- 30 Shares
- 20 Comments
- 20 Photo Submissions
- 50 New Followers
4. Run the contest and ad
To create the Facebook ad, we defined our budget and targeted audience.
- Budget: $3/day
- Demographics: Ages 35+, located in Harris County, Fort Bend County, and Brazoria.
At the same time, we uploaded and scheduled content across social media platforms (Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram) to promote the contest.
Here are some examples of that consistent messaging:
- Facebook Banner Advertisement:
- Facebook Story Post:
We used Canva to create the social media promotions like the banner and story posts.
While the contest will be cross-promoted on Facebook, Instagram, and X for maximum exposure, we will direct people to Facebook to see the photos with text.
What’s next
If our goals are met, we will adapt the campaign to seasonal themes, such as a Christmas tree or Halloween costume photo contest, to encourage ongoing participation and growth. If the goals are not met, we will analyze the campaign’s shortcomings and determine how to adjust our Facebook advertising investment to achieve our objectives.
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Cite this article
Glass, Jada (2024, Aug. 27). How to increase community engagement on Facebook. Reynolds Journalism Institute. Retrieved from: https://rjionline.org/news/how-to-increase-community-engagement-on-facebook/
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