Getting engagement on our content is not merely a reason to feel justified about all the effort and time we put into our social media marketing. It is always hard to know that what you are doing is working. Especially when at the start all we hear is crickets and nobody really commenting on your stuff, well, maybe your mom. Mine does!

Why we need to build engagement

But the truth is that building engagement is essential not so we feel validated. It is crucial so our content can be seen by more people. In general, there are a lot of individuals on Facebook who are very active, but not in an obvious way. They read your posts, watch your videos, and some of them even love every word you say. But they NEVER ENGAGE. There are various reasons, from personal to cultural to simply not knowing that they should.

But here is a deal. Some of your posts will always get more engagement than others. Especially when they are polarising, or funny, or if they are videos of cute furry babies. I do mean kitties and doggos, not actually hairy babies, although I am sure some of them can be cute. I am just going to allow for this to be a possibility.

These highly engaging posts are super valuable to us. As they boost the algorithm, letting Facebook know that our content is attractive to people, so the algorithm will start “pushing” such posts for more people to see. Facebook wants us to create discussions and build relationships.

But it is impossible only to post pictures of cats all the time. We also need to add some value, and the truth is, those value posts do not get that much engagement. Not before we are already established influencers with an army of raving fans to support everything we post.

In fact, sometimes your valuable posts remain without much engagement simply because they were so good, your audience turns to implement those tips, and forgets to say thank you! That happens to me- I get so excited to implement those tips I’ve just learnt or I can get so engrossed in your story, I forget to comment.

So how do we leverage the engagement on previous posts? Here is a quick and easy strategy I use. It is particularly useful on those posts with high engagement to ignite the algorithm and then pave the way to a new value post. (I usually post something of importance and value the next day, to give some time for the trick to work its magic.)

Strategy

Every week take some time to go over your older posts. You can even search for the posts you did months and years ago and engage with the ones that performed well. This will boost them to the top of the newsfeed. It also creates more engagement and gets new people involved in the conversation. Plus it will send another signal to the algorithm that you produce content that just “keeps on giving”.

Check out my video below a couple of ways you can search for the older posts.

When you want to boost engagement with a high performing post

First shows how you can search by date (year+month). Just open up your profile on the computer and scroll a little bit down the page for the options to sort your search appear on the top left. Find a post that performed well and add some comments in replies to older comments and add a new comment. You will see in the next few hours new people will start engaging with that old post – as it starts showing in the Newsfeed again!

When you want to boost a strategic post

The second one shows how you can search for a post about a specific subject. This is very handy if you have regular launches of the same product or offer, as your old content can help you be more visible and have a purpose to convert again and again!

Type your name and a keyword/phrase that you used in the post you are looking for in Facebook search bar. When the results load, go to Posts tab. Find a post that you want to boost and reply to some comments and add a new comment. 

Just make sure you update any links you used if they have changed since. Add something like [UPDATED: The doors are re-opening] to the top of post.

Watch the strategy in action! And do not forget to share the video – there might be someone who need to know about it amongst your Facebook friends.