Facebook workshop for hosts

In this workshop we will show you that Facebook is not "old school" at all, but a helpful tool to attract new guests. We explain what you should pay attention to in your posts and where you can find most important key figures. We also venture into the topic of Facebook advertising. And we always keep in mind that you have little time. This is why for most of our the following tips & tricks only little time is required.

Unlike Instagram, Facebook is not so popular with some of you. Even if that’s the case for you, please read on anyway! Because Facebook still offers you many possibilities, complements Instagram very well and many tips can also be transferred to Instagram.

Facebook – why do you need it at all?

In the last two workshops, we showed you tips and tricks for Instagram. Feel free to check them out again! This way -> Instagram Basics for Hosts and Instagram Workshop for Hosts Part II.

Why Facebook now? Isn’t the platform on the decline? Who uses Facebook anymore? We already have Instagram, aren’t the same people on Facebook? … you might be asking yourself.

Our answer to that is: Facebook is still important and there is, for example, only a very small overlap of readers on our Little Travel Society account who follow us on both Facebook and Instagram. So we reach a different group of people on each channel. And there are various studies that show that the 30+ generation is the main group on Facebook. So it’s exactly your target group, parents with children.

However, the use of Facebook has changed, it is used less for personal exchange and is no longer as social as Instagram. Instead, it is increasingly used as an information tool. And on Facebook, users are not looking for the perfect photo ad like on your website, but rather for the real view out of our windows. And – unlike your website – Facebook gives you the opportunity to get in touch with your guests directly and build up a community.

In this workshop, we would therefore like to give you tips on how to write a successful Facebook post, where you can find key indicators to determine which posts are best received by your followers and how to use the algorithm for your benefit. And above all, how to do it all this with little effort.

Most readers only take a few seconds to read your posts. Therefore, keep the following tips in mind:

A Successful Facebook Post – a how to

  • Include at least one suitable photo or short video in your post. A picture gets much more attention.
  • Choose a captivating, surprising headline or one with a reference that will appeal to many readers (e.g. “Do you also need a break from wrapping Christmas presents?” or “We have something new that will especially please moms”).
  • Don’t get too bogged down in detail. Sure, you know your house inside out. But  readers don’t. Therefore, general posts about your house, yourself and what you offer are better received than, for example, the information that you have now bought a third tricycle.
  • Include lots of emojis. I am not a fan of these little things, but I had to be taught better: Texts with emojis get more interaction because they appeal to the reader’s feelings and help to understand the text better.
  • Add a Call To Action or a question at the end: Ask a question that encourages readers to comment. The more comments, the higher the algorithm will rate your post and the more it will be presented to other readers. Or – if you want readers to visit your website, for example – add a so-called “Call to Action”. This means: You ask the readers to do something, e.g. “Click here for our offer!Important – answer the reader’s questions under the post as quickly as possible. After a week, some people won’t even remember their question. And of course you can also comment on posts about your house on our Little Travel Facebook page.

Step II: Fine-tuning for perfect Facebook Posts

The Facebook algorithm collects all the data and prepares it for you in a structured way. These are your statistics, which you can find in your Facebook Business account named as “Insights”. Reach, visits and posts are some of the data that are helpful.

⇒ Insights

It’s simple: if you know which post was well received and which didn’t, you’ll know what your guests want to see next time. But where can you find this?

You can find the insights as here:

⇒ The right timing

Posting when most of your followers are online is the easiest way to increase the reach of your post. Because if many of your followers are online at the moment when you post, they will see the post and interact with it. This helps the post to be classied as “interesting” by the algorithm and it will be displayed to other users with higher priority.

This is how you find this information when your followers are online: Open your Facebook page (desktop) and click on “Insights” in the column on the left.

Don’t be distracted by the many diagrams and click on “posts”. The tab “When are your friends online” normally appears first. The graph shows peaks and drops in activity. This allows you to track how many of your followers are active at each hour of the day. You can view this information for every day of the week. In our case, there are only minimal differences with regard to the day of the week. However, the differences during the day are enormous.

Regular Posts pay off

Why are regular posts important? Posting frequently shows your subscribers that you are active and interested in your guests. Outdated posts don’t give a good impression and guests may wonder if you are still open. Of course, this it is difficult to include this in your day-to-day business and it is unlikely that you come up with something great just at the time you have a free slot. This is why planning helps enormously and you can pre-plan your all your posts for a specific days and times. You can do this in the “Creator Studio” (or in the new “Meta Business Suite”). I will explain here how this process works in the Creator Studio, but the processes in the Meta Business Suite are very similar in most cases. By the way, the best way to find the Creator Studio is to log in to Facebook on your computer and simply google “Facebook Creator Studio”. This is most of the time quicker than trying to find it in your Facebook account.

VIDEO: How-to for planning a Post in the Facebook Creator Studio

In this video, we show you how to create a post in the Creator Studio:

Now you might be thinking: I’ll never find the time for that. Then why not using this hack:

When you post on Instagram or upload stories, you can automatically share them on Facebook. All you have to do is make a small change in the settings.

How to Post Instagram Posts automatically to Facebook

  1. Check that you have the latest version of both apps on your phone
  2. Open the Instagram app
  3. Click on your profile picture in the bottom left corner
  4. Tap on the three bars in the top left corner
  5. A long list appears. Select “settings” (gear icon) from the list.
  6. Select the “account” section
  7. Open the option “share in other apps”
  8. Click on Facebook
  9. Make sure the two sliders for “share automatically” is blue

This way, Instagram posts and stories will always be shared on Facebook as well. Good to know – you can change this setting at any time when you share a new post or story.

This is how it works:

Facebook Advertising even Works with a Small Budget

Advertising on Facebook and Instagram is a great way to reach exactly the right people (so called “target group”), even on a small budget. In your and our case, families who want to go on holiday. Facebook, or rather the company Meta, offers a wide range of very sophisticated options for this. In order to get an overview of this jungle of possibilities, even workshops are offered in a four-digit range. And Facebook itself also offers a variety of help on its site and offers support by phone.

With advertising, your subscribers, likes and comments will increase and your posts will be shared more often. This will also increase your visibility and attract the attention of more people willing to travel. It is impossible to show you here the whole advertising universe but we hope we can inspire you to give it a try.

The Easy Way to Advertise on Facebook

Facebook recommends that beginners use the big blue button “promote post” below your posts to start with advertising. It is an easy way to advertise as Facebook will take care of all the settings for you and you will get only a limited selection of key figures you can view directly in the app.

Here´s how:

Choose a post that resonated well with your followers. This is your organic content. At the bottom right of this post you will find the button “promote post”. Click on it and decide how much you want to spend. For a start, 50 euros is enough. And don’t worry, Facebook will never exceed the set budget. In this way, organic content is converted into paid content in one step. Facebook will show your post to users who don’t follow you but are interested in travelling or holidays. By the way, we have had the experience that we reach more people with less budget through advertising on Facebook.

By the way, you don’t need professional photos or videos from an advertising agency. On the contrary, seeing a private mobile phone video, the follower thinks: “Cool, among all this advertising I finally see a holiday video from a friend” and clicks on it.

⇒ Dos and don´ts for videos in your advertisement:

Extra tip: Even if you include subtitles, don’t overload your video with text (this also applies to images). Facebook claims that ad images with less than 20% text are more successful. And by the way, you can also add a call-to-action to your button (e.g. “sign up now!”). Use it! This little psychological trick works wonders.

Boom! You made it. With your advertising, you attracted interested people to your webpage, the so called landing page.

The landing page should be very tidy and easy to navigate. This is where you should be on your best behavior. And it looks most professional and coherent if the branding of your landing page (appearance, impression and style) is a continuation of your advertisement.

We hope we were able to shed some light on the Facebook world with this workshop. And we promise we will prepare another workshop for you next year. If it were up to Antonia,  the next topic will be “Canva” and its variety of design possibilities. Or would you like us to go into more detail about advertising on Facebook and/or Instagram? Just let us know!

This workshop was put together for you by our Instagram lady Antonia. She takes care of our Instagram account and reposts your pictures and stories if you tag us. If you have any questions about the workshop, please send an email to antonia@littletravelsociety.de.

Yours, Antonia from the Little Travel Society