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The last few months have brought several big changes to Facebook, including the rise of videos in news feeds as well as Facebook’s recent crackdown on promotional posts. By now we hope you have re-evaluated and updated your brand’s Facebook marketing strategy accordingly, but as always, we are here to help.

Below are some tips for increasing the visibility of you brand’s posts on Facebook:

1. Post Properly Sized Images

By now we hope you’re including plenty of pictures with your posts, as tons of studies have taught us that posts that include images receive higher engagement than text-only posts. But are your images the right size for looking their best on Facebook?

When you share an image in a Facebook post, it’s displayed at 504 x 504 pixels. If you’re uploading multiple pictures in a single post, those dimensions change. However, we recommend posting images that are 1200 x 1200 pixels, that way they look good when a user clicks to enlarge, and they won’t look distorted when cropped.

2. Stop Posting Overly Promotional Content

Just don’t do it! We assure you that it’s possible for your brand to succeed on social media without constantly posting overly promotional content. In fact, most consumers would probably agree that they’re more likely to click on a post that’s engaging and interesting, versus something that they’ve already stated annoys them (which is how this whole algorithm change came about). Instead of posts that say things like “Click here! Buy now! Download now!” create content that showcases interesting facts about your industry, brand, and its products or services. Funny images and quotes that are relevant also work very well.

3. Share Links Correctly

There are two ways that you can share links on Facebook: You can upload a photo directly to Facebook and include the link in the caption, or you can add a link into the post and let it populate with an image and description from the destination URL (Facebook refers to this as the link-format).

We recommend going with option #2 whenever possible, as Facebook has been looking closely at how pages share links on the platform. They’ve discovered that users typically prefer to click on link-format posts because they provide more information. In order to cater to user preferences, as Facebook often does, the network has stated that it will “prioritize showing links in the link-format, and show fewer links shared in captions or status updates.”

So now that you know what you need to do, know that it’s possible and perfectly fine to remove the link after the image and description have populated if you prefer a cleaner look. It’s also possible to edit the image and content in the description once it populates. Use that headline and line or two of a description to your advantage, but make sure it’s relevant to the page that it takes users to.

4. Create More Video Content

You’ve probably noticed more videos in your Facebook feed recently. Facebook’s Autoplay feature means videos are more eye-catching than a regular post, and they seem to be getting a decent amount of organic reach.

Video is one of the best ways to communicate a story, educate an audience, and entertain. Here are a few quick tips to make yours great:
• Keep it short and sweet- under two minutes is ideal
• The more professional-looking it is, the better
• Have movement, or something eye-catching, in the first two to three seconds to attract the attention of users who have Autoplay

What do you think? If you have any additional tips to share, leave us a comment!

Casey Kurlander is a Social Marketing Specialist at THAT Agency, focused on creative campaigns that increase brand awareness and consumer engagement.