Step up your social media strategy by getting a good understanding of the Facebook followers and fans who are actually reading your posts and (hopefully) interacting with them. Armed with that information and some insight into Facebook user behavior, you’ll be in great shape to craft posts that resonate with your audience and dramatically increase engagement.

Learn About Your Facebook Followers and Fans via Facebook Insights

Using Facebook’s analytics, you can get a top-level view of who’s reading and liking your posts. Click Insights at the top of your page, and then choose People from the menu on the left sidebar to see basic demographics:

The Page Views and Actions on Page options let you see who is reading and interacting with your posts by age and gender, location or device.

To break things down even further, navigate over to Facebook’s Audience Insights via the Business Manager page. This tells you a lot more about your audience, including lifestyle, relationship and education metrics, as well as job title.

Facebook User Behavior

All of those demographics tell you who you’re reaching and what they do, but it doesn’t tell you anything about how they use — and consume — social media. Understanding user behavior makes it even easier to bump up audience engagement, as you can take your targeted posts and fine-tune them even further.

Though there are many types of Facebooks users out there, including the Power Users and Contributors, I believe that these are the groups you should put a bit more effort into as you start to build out your social media strategy:

Related: How Facebook is Changing the Marketing Game with Influencers

The Lurkers

Who They Are: This segment of the Facebook population is simply not interested in interacting with brands very often, even though they read your posts and watch your videos. They’re voracious consumers of social media, but you won’t see them liking or sharing your posts often – if ever.

Why They’re Important: Of the 263 million people who use social media, lurkers are the largest segment. Some estimates put the group’s size at 90 percent of all social media users. This gives them dramatic power when it comes to making – or breaking – your brand. They may not show their loyalty with likes and shares, but they will when it comes to choosing which brands to spend their money on.

How to Engage Them: The truth is, you probably can’t. The only way to keep them loyal is to continually provide them with the content they want to see. Use Facebook Insights and blog and website analytics to get a feel for what this powerhouse segment likes and doesn’t like, and tweak your content strategy accordingly to keep them around.

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The Influencers

Who They Are: These popular people have a high level of knowledge and credibility in their niche and a large group of followers because of it. Influencers are typically bloggers, activists, industry experts or celebrities, but they can also be ordinary people with a specific expertise. The people who follow influencers tend to be a loyal bunch and typically have a lot of trust in the person.

Why They’re Important: Influencer marketing is slowly edging out the traditional advertising trio: television, radio and print ads. In fact, a full 54 percent of companies now have a budget line item for sponsored social media for their brands, and much of that is devoted to partnerships with influencers. Having an influencer (or two or three) engaging with you publicly on social media or talking about your products exposes your brand to an entirely new audience and gives it almost instant credibility.

How to Engage Them: It’s always wise to create an organic relationship with influencers before reaching out to them. Build that initial relationship by engaging with their content across platforms, including likes, shares and comments. You can often get their attention by crafting high-quality articles that expand on topics they’ve written. Mentioning them or linking to their content in your articles is also a good idea.

The Superfans

Who They Are: This tiny segment of the Facebook community is passionate about the brands they love. Marketing Land likens this group to those football fans who don’t just attend games; they show up at the stadium at dawn and spend the day tailgating. They also make it their mission to convince their friends to attend with them. During games, they’re the first ones to start the wave to cheer on the team.

Why They’re Important: On social media sites, superfans are the ones writing reviews about your products and commenting on your posts. The result is an amplification of all your social media efforts with almost no additional effort on your part.

How to Engage Them: Use social media monitoring tools to find out who your superfans are, and then get to know them. Follow them on the social media platforms they’re active on, and always respond when they comment on your posts. It’s also in your best interests to build up your superfans as brand experts. Make sure they have the media and information they need to be loyal brand ambassadors.

Information is key in the digital age – and especially in the world of social media. Once you know who your fans are and how they consume social media, you’ll be better able to engage them. Remember that some of your most loyal fans may not be vocal and, in fact, may not interact at all. But ignoring this group is not an option.

The post Who Are My Facebook Followers, and How Do I Engage Them? appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.

1. The Overly Aggressive Editor

If you write long enough, you’ll eventually run into an editor who never seems to be happy. You spend hours meticulously composing a piece only to have it sent back with a blunt comment saying it doesn’t meet standards.

Take a deep breath and try not to take it personally. Look over your content again with a critical eye. If possible, read a few pieces other people have written for that client to make sure your tone and style are correct.

If you’re still confused, don’t be afraid to message your editor and ask. Most are happy to provide additional clarification. If the editor is truly rude or nasty, file a complaint with the company.

2. This Isn’t What You Wrote!

Writing is a creative endeavor, and you pour a little bit of yourself into every piece you create. That makes it all the more frustrating when you check back on a piece you’ve submitted and discover that the edited piece bears little resemblance to what you wrote.

This is another good opportunity for self-reflection. Although most content editors will send back a piece that requires extensive work, some will change it to show you where you’re going wrong. Some editors do simply like to put their own stamp on things, though. If you’re working with an editor like that, it’s best to just let it go.

3. The Instructions Are Unclear

Instructions can be confusing sometimes, and it can take time to get the hang of a new project. Many writers fall into the trap of silently struggling along while being too afraid to ask for help.

The solution to this one is easy: just go ahead and ask already! Communicate with your content editors about things that are eluding you. If a project forum is available, take advantage of that. Everyone has been in a similar place at some point, so no one is going to think less of you.

4. The Editor Is Wrong

Sometimes an editor will make a change that you simply don’t agree with. The first step is to take a moment to review it from an impersonal standpoint. Many of these changes aren’t objectively right or wrong, so it comes to down preference. In that case, it may be best to trust the editor’s judgment or at least have a conversation about it.

If it’s a clear error, such as a punctuation or spelling mistake, don’t be afraid to point it out. Content editors occasionally have typos too, and most will appreciate the correction. If your editor refuses to listen, notify someone else in the organization.

Having your work critiqued can be difficult, but approaching it with an open mind is the best way to ensure a healthy working relationship with your editors. Content calibration and good feedback help you improve your skills and grow as a writer, so practice taking it in stride and letting the bad feedback roll off your back.

The post They Don’t Like Me: How to Work with Your Content Editors appeared first on Crowd Content - Blog.