Promoting your business on Facebook can be complex, and you need to do a lot of things well in order to see sustainable results from your efforts on-platform. When it comes to Facebook marketing, though, there’s one mistake I see over and over again: brands create a stream of self-promotional posts, sharing their own blog posts and product updates and that’s it.

In reality, about 80% of what you’re posting shouldn’t be directly promotional. You should be focusing on brand building, relationship building, and community building, and the posts you share will set the stage for all three.

While  coming up with near-daily posts can be overwhelming, the secret is diversity. By using different types of relationship-focused posts, you’ll always have a full calendar that will work well for you.

Not sure where to start? In this post, we’re going to take a look at 10 types of Facebook post ideas that you can use to keep your content calendar full and diverse.

1. User-Generated Content

When new clients come to me and we start working on social media campaigns, user-generated content (UGC) is one of the first things I focus in on. People love seeing UGC on a brand’s profile. It builds trust, which makes it easier to establish communities and relationships, and people love seeing that you value what your customers say. Even better: it means that other customers cared about your business enough to create it in the first place.

Share user-generated content as often as you can, even if it shows up on Instagram or Twitter instead of Facebook. Include CTAs asking for UGC alongside them, and be specific. “Show us how you style our scarves!” or “Share what you’ve made with our tools” will increase the likelihood that people share.

2. Videos Featuring Brand Story

Using social media to create bonds with your target audience is a good strategy, and videos that focus on brand storytelling can help you do so. Use videos that somehow focus on your brand mission and create an emotional connection your customers will respond to.

Go behind the scenes to show how a product is made, talk to the CEO about why the brand mission means so much to them, and show employee or customer appreciation whenever possible.

3. Live Content

If you’re looking to switch things up and get a ton of engagement all at once, you can’t go wrong with live videos. Facebook live has the opportunity to be hugely engaging, especially when you’re able to create a conversation between viewers and the live host in real time.

If you’re wondering what you want to discuss on your live videos, there are plenty of great options. These include:

• Q&As with your audience
• Interviewing an influencer or industry expert
• Discussing industry news and sharing tips with your followers
• Discussing news about your business and answering questions
• Showing users how to use your product, or other tutorial content

You can learn more about going live on Facebook here.

4. Behind-The-Scenes Looks

When I go to a brand’s Facebook, I actually look for behind-the-scenes looks into who they are and what they do. What matters to them? How do things work behind the scenes? I’m coming in to this from a marketer’s perspective, but from a customer’s perspective, these things matter, too.

Behind-the-scenes and video content often goes hand in hand. Show people what your business looks like day to day. Give “exclusive” access to new information, making your followers feel like they’re part of an exclusive club. This will be an important part of community building that will keep them around.

5. Event Coverage

Are you hosting an event, or participating in one? Whether you’re hosting a conference or participating with a small booth in a local event, share pictures and videos of your time there.

Whether you want to promote an event or just fill up your Facebook post calendar, showing what you’re doing and how you’re interacting with the community is a good way to get results. If you post early enough ahead of time, you can even use it as a signal boost to attract people to you.

6. Product & Business Information

We said that 80% of your content shouldn’t be about selling. That means 20% can be.

This is that 20%.

If you’re posting daily, this means that only about one post a week should be directly promotional. This will help to keep users engaged, because you’ll only be posting relevant content that’s likely to be important since you’re sharing it more infrequently, and they will want some of this info.

Posts that fall under this category include sales announcements, product features (including product videos), and links to your blog posts.

7. Engagement-Oriented Questions

Sometimes the best posts on Facebook are those that completely center your followers. Asking them questions outright can generate conversations, getting you plenty of engagement (and thus momentum in the algorithm). It gives you a chance to talk to your audience one-on-one. Again, relationship building, relationship building, relationship building.

You can go for the easy “what’s your favorite product” or “how do you use this?” Instead, it’s almost always a good bet to go for the emotional.

A camping tools store, for example, could say “what’s the one thing you wouldn’t leave home without?” They may get more responses by asking “what’s your craziest camping story,” or “what do you love most about camping?” Emotion-based questions can yield incredible engagement and make a stronger emotional connection with your audience, which is exactly what you want to do.

8. Curated & Shared Content

Coming up with thirty posts a month is exhausting, so go ahead and fill in the gaps with other people’s content. Not only will this help you fill up your calendar and give your audience information or content they find helpful, it will also help you build relationships with other brands in your industry.

Share local events, even if you aren’t attending, or boost up other (non-competing) businesses in the industry. It will establish a lot of good will, and users like seeing valuable content that isn’t just all about you. It can help them to trust you more, and they’ll keep checking in for great info.

9. Insider Info

Insider information is another way to give your followers that exclusivity feel that can be intoxicating. In the video below, Barnes and Noble got an interview with one of their authors sharing her experience and answering some questions to provide incredible information not available anywhere else.

Other options include sharing statistics or data from research you’ve conducted, or sharing insider tips that will benefit your audience. A dental practice, for example, could even just share a snippet of information about why a certain toothbrush is preferred and how it’s important for health. It’s quick, it demonstrates expertise while offering valuable information for your followers.

10. Seasonal Content

Posting seasonal content is always a great option. It’s sure to get plenty of engagement, and posting fun, timely content without it being promotional will be seen as a positive from customers.

You can create new original content or share a relevant image or gif that you find that you know your audience will love. Humor, excitement, and feel-good nostalgia are all good feelings to target when creating these posts.

There’s no need to stick to the main holidays, either. Pounce on every opportunity possible that’s relevant to your business, including National Secretary Day and National Hot Dog Day. You can see a big breakdown here.

Conclusion

Keeping your Facebook posts diverse in subject will help to keep your audience engaged. No one wants to be sold to 24/7; that’s already what your email list likely does, and social media needs to focus on relationship building instead of selling. Think marathon not sprint, with a long-term goal of creating communities that are valuable alongside your product.

What do you think? What types of Facebook posts do you use? Which get you the most results? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below!