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10 years ago, you could post almost anything on your Facebook business page and reach 60% of your fans organically. Now, you are lucky if you reach 2% of your fans.
While organic reach has diminished, this doesn’t mean you should abandon Facebook altogether.
In fact, according to the marketers we surveyed, more than 80% of them follow at least 6 brands on Facebook.
36% of them are more likely to engage with a brand on Facebook than on other social media channels.
And lastly, most of that engagement happens right on the newsfeed.
As you can see, the interest is there. However, in order to have any chance of showing up on your fans’ newsfeed and make sure their interact instead of just scrolling past your post, you need to create compelling Facebook content.
Need ideas or don’t know where to start? Take a closer look at 16 brands that simply nail Facebook marketing.
Want to track and measure how your brand awareness grows across multiple channels? Download this Brand Awareness dashboard for free.
With more than 10 million likes, you know that GoPro has to be doing something right with their Facebook strategy.
“GoPro is perhaps the most engaging brand on Facebook,” says Olivia Tan of CocoFax. “With more than 10 million followers, GoPro uses a unique marketing strategy to engage the audience. The brand does not post photos of its high-quality action cameras but markets by posting videos of its customers’ lifestyles. Everything on GoPro’s Facebook page screams excitement and fun.”
Natasha Rei of Explainerd adds, “The visualization of each campaign is very interesting to learn. GoPro uses the limited time to convey messages effectively. Most of the time, viewers are invited to become a part of the video. This often leads to curiosity into what happens next. The audience is brought to the journey, making it feel like an amazing short experience with GoPro. Their video campaign doesn’t look like one. It’s more like watching some sort of adventure/experiment with them.”
Another company that does a great job at social media storytelling is Red Bull.
“In my opinion, the best brand on Facebook is Red Bull,” says Mikkel Andreassen of Dixa. “Their campaigns are always focused on entertaining the community and asking people to engage with the posts. The brand is incredibly popular with the younger population and all of the posts are tailored for that audience.”
Akram Assaf of Bayt agrees, “If you’re looking for a high-end marketing brand on Facebook then you need not look further than Red Bull. Red Bull’s entire marketing strategy is amazing, but their approach to Facebook is particularly interesting. They serve region-specific content above all, so the audience is always getting the most relevant content.
On top of that, Red Bull as a brand is always on top of its game with unique, fresh, and engaging content. Although your budget probably can’t match that of Red Bull, you can still get many good ideas just by looking at its RB’s Facebook activity.”
While I’m guessing you don’t have anywhere close to Nike’s marketing budget, you can still learn a lot about branding and effective Facebook advertising strategies by following their page.
“Out of all the brands I follow, I find Nike’s page the most engaging and provocative business presence on Facebook,” says Stacey Kane of EasyMerchant. “They are aggressive when it comes to their advertising strategies while still being able to strike a chord in the audience’s hearts.
The most notable thing about their page is that it’s not just a brand profile, Nike has successfully cultivated an all-around community of both young and old audiences, alike. Their secret weapons, I found, are not just about flashing their products to the market — Nike showcases the sports industry and upholds the athletes, their talent, and their hard work. This worked well for their advantage because sports, just like music, is inclusive and universal.”
Anthony Chen of PaidSearch.Pro adds, “I personally love how Nike doesn’t overemphasize the need to buy their products and has established a strong brand image that resonates throughout their Facebook Business Page. Their Facebook page provides a mix of content from new products to charitable initiatives. This showcases an approach that many brands do not leverage on their Facebook pages, which is providing content that shows a bit of humanity versus just saturating news feeds constantly with products and services.”
As a major tech publication, TechCrunch uses their Facebook presence to build their audience.
Nick Chernets of DataforSEO says, “In my opinion, one of the best brands on Facebook is TechCrunch. They use the chatbot for messaging very effectively and manage to find the way to their customers effectively.”
If you are a content creator, film producer, Youtuber, or media company, there is a lot you can learn from how Netflix uses social media to promote new shows.
“The Netflix pages for individual TV series are entertaining and educational (for marketers) at the same time,” says Peter Thaleikis of WhichLogin. “It’s such a great combination. Their video snippets bring back memories of previously watched series and tease new series and episodes. Some of the few posts I genuinely enjoy spotting in my aimless scrolls.”
To optimize your Facebook marketing strategy and get an idea of your return on investment (ROI), you need to learn more about your Facebook followers and find out how they’re interacting with your company page and the content you post. To do that, we recommend tracking the following metrics:
Now you can benefit from the experience of our Facebook marketing experts, who have put together a plug-and-play Databox template showing all the key insights you need to optimize your Facebook page for conversions. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in marketing reports, and best of all, it’s free!
You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.
To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:
Step 1: Get the template
Step 2: Connect your Facebook account with Databox.
Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.
Similar to Netflix, Disney+ is another brand that excels at social media marketing. Given the Disney brand, they’ve also stepped up their game in terms of engaging their raving and massive fanbase.
“The Disney+ social media team has been killing it this year,” says Maggie Lovitt of Your Money Geek. “They listen to fans and release bonus content, follow the trends within the fandom, and consistently put out engaging content that makes me want to interact with their products. For a brand that is notorious for being disengaged with their fans, it has been refreshing to see how they have been engaging this year.”
Innocent does a great job of real-time marketing on Facebook.
“Innocent is amazing,” says Bo Pokstefl of Kontentino. “They know how to make the most of real-time marketing, but the way they do it is not cringe or pushy. It’s very natural … innocent, indeed. They know what they’re doing – not only do they follow trends, they actually set them. It’s all incredibly consistent across all their social media channels, too.”
Wendy’s is known for their snarky and humorous personality across all of their social media channels.
Andre Oentoro of Milkwhale says, “They post on their Facebook page often and use humor to interact with their audience. There have been a few times where their posts and comments have become viral.”
Patagonia’s mission-driven approach resonates with their 1 million plus Facebook followers.
“Patagonia is a fantastic source of grade-A branding on Facebook,” says Laura Fuentes of Infinity Dish. “Their product line is cohesive and coordinated, and they maintain the highest degree of intrigue with each new article of clothing. My company will always try to follow brands who have a strong message and are able to captivate their audience with every post. This year, we’d like to up our social media game and dramatically broaden our Facebook engagement potential.”
Dollar Shave Club was one of the pioneers of longform Facebook video ads. Many brands have tried to imitate it since then. Most have failed. However, the shoe brand, Kizik has found a way to make this style their own.
“I love the Kizik commercials on Facebook,” says Ashley Cummings. “The commercials follow the longer-form ad style, but they are funny, descriptive, engaging, and make me want to buy. I don’t just look forward to new shoe releases, but I look forward to seeing their ads. That’s hard to do in a world that’s saturated in advertisements.”
Oura is a great example of how to do Facebook ads at scale.
“When it comes to Facebook, the most interesting brand I see advertising on this platform is Oura,” says Stephan Baldwin of Assisted Living Center. “It’s an app and wellness ring that tracks sleep. I’m always on the lookout for new developments in healthcare especially when it comes to senior healthcare. Sleep is a challenge for older people. So, a device that easily helps them see the quality and other metrics of their sleep is helpful so that they know how they can make adjustments to sleep better. This can help improve their quality of life.”
Facebook ads can and do work. In fact, 78% have bought a product or service after seeing a Facebook ad.
Another big brand that does Facebook advertising is Levi’s.
“The most interesting brand I follow on Facebook is Levi’s,” says Daren Xin of OurPCB. “It has around 26 million followers on this platform. The most interesting thing I felt about this is its advertising. This American clothing company succeeded in capturing the interests of so many people by describing their product flawlessly in a short video blended with music and millennial’s fashionable dressings. Looking at this, I have ordered one for myself and trust me the cloth quality is just extra-ordinary.”
The Teaching Company is a great example of how to use Facebook ads to educate and entertain.
“While Facebook is the home to 3 billion active users worldwide, it must be hard for the brands to develop the most engaging and exciting advertisements,” says Alina Clark of CocoDoc. “But for me, The Teaching Company comes number one in this category.
It is because the brand knows how to take advantage of what is happening around their audience.
For example, amid this pandemic, the brand decided to take advantage of people’s growing desire to learn something new in their free time and came up with great educational courses. The main point that gathered mine and my husband’s attention was the creativity in their graphical content, which was short and straightforward.
Also, by creating lookalike customers with features comparable to the company’s “”good”” buyers, the brand increased its traditional age demographics and attracted new audiences in the UK, Canada, and America.”
Mailchimp has been around since the early 2000s. As a commodity SaaS product in a crowded space (email marketing), they have mastered how to stay relevant among all of the noise.
“I think a brand that consistently creates engaging and interesting marketing on Facebook is Mailchimp,” says Chris Riley of USA RX. “Their ads are always eye catching and interesting and changed up often enough that I don’t begin to resent an ad for always being on my Facebook feed.”
With more than 48 million fans, we couldn’t write this post without including National Geographic. Their brand is basically made for Facebook.
“The most engaging/interesting brand I have come across is National Geographic,” says John Vo of Destination: Everywhere. “They post a few times every day; They respond to your message if you ever reach out to them; and they have very good content.”
Travel brands have it easier than most when it comes to coming up with engaging social media content unless there is a global pandemic going on and no one is traveling. This is when Booking.com got creative.
“As a digital nomad who loves to travel, most of the brands I find attractive or engaging in personal use are travel related,” says Jerry Han of Prize Rebel. “For example, one of the brands I’ve been keeping an eye on for the past year or so is Booking.com.
During the pandemic, travel was pretty much impossible, but Booking.com still kept posting about unique destinations, sharing images and videos from breathtaking views, exciting experiences and places to add to my bucket list. Their video content shares experiences of fellow travelers as well as magnificent destinations that are an absolute must-visit. This makes it appealing for myself as a consumer as it’s beneficial, beautiful and indirect marketing that is honest.”
While many of the brands we highlighted have massive fan bases, the strategies and tactics they are using can be applied to much smaller pages. The real keys to success with Facebook marketing is knowing your audience and building a Facebook content calendar. This allows you to create compelling content consistently.
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Jessica Malnik is a content strategist and copywriter for SaaS and productized service businesses. Her writing has appeared on The Next Web, Social Media Examiner, SEMRush, CMX, Help Scout, Convince & Convert, and many other sites.
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