Crafting a witty Facebook post is one way to gain engagement. The best way requires a little more integration than comedy or questions. In public relations, we find that there are about four different types of messaging one can use to engage their audience (I’m about to get technical so hang with me for a moment). There is one-way communication, two-way communication, two-way symmetrical and two-way asymmetrical.
Now these terms can be a bit confusing and overwhelming but they’re easily explained. One-way communication is somewhat of public information. For example a Facebook post may read, “Early voting begins on October 22nd. Don’t forget to vote!” While this is a valuable piece of information for the page’s audience, it leaves no real room for developing a conversation. The page has simple dispersed info and left it at that. These types of post are needed at times and okay, but filling a page with this a good way to get a train ride to nowhere. It doesn’t yield much engagement, if any, and it may seem as though you haven’t truly made an effort to connect with your audience.
Two-way communication has to subdivisions. To start with, symmetrical communication fosters conversation. It relies on honest and open communication and mutual give-and-take rather than one-way persuasion. Here your audience can begin to build trust and focuses on mutual respect and efforts to achieve mutual understanding. Your audience sees this type of messaging as an effort, on your part, to work together and take into account their feedback so that you both benefit from the relationship. A post of this kind may read, “A big thanks to everyone for your support in this campaign, we couldn’t have done it without all your hard work and dedication! Who is ready for election night? Join us at the election party as the votes roll in!” See how this provides an engaging punch line after the emphasis of appreciating the audiences roll in the goal of the page?
Two-way asymmetrical communication generally focuses on achieving short-term attitude change and incorporates lots of feedback from target audiences and publics. “We’re redesigning our office space, which color do you like best for our new room?” The page is generally looking for feedback and trying to give an uplifting mood to their business’ most recent change.
These are all approaches we see in Facebook messaging each day. Overall Two-way symmetrical communication yields the highest engagement when it is paired with Two-way asymmetrical communication – in other words, mix it up! It’s always good to have variety and to post with direction.
