You have a Facebook page.  You set it up because people like me said you should. You post links to your blog using Buffer. You look at your number of fans and their engagement and wonder why those numbers either rise or fall by 6% or 86% every week. You read articles online about growing your Facebook page and you do your best to keep up with the ever-changing algorithm used by the social media giant to ensure your posts end up in the timelines of your fans.

But sometimes, if you’re really honest, you get pretty frustrated, right? You wonder if it’s even worth it to post on Facebook, especially knowing that it’s a good day if 30% of those who like your page see any given post.

Last week I spoke with Erin Bishop, the founder of The Whatever Girls. As the Director of Social Media for this ministry, I help Erin develop strategies for growing their presence online. We were looking closely at the data available through the new Insights for Facebook pages. {Which, by the way, if you haven’t realized Facebook is now offering a great deal more useful information for Page owners, you need to explore Insights.} We were reminded how much people like images and that posts scheduled through apps like Buffer often don’t have as solid a reach as posts scheduled through the Facebook scheduling option. And, we were reminded of how well people respond to simple questions!

As we discussed what sort of questions we could ask on the page, we identified three great ways questions on Facebook can be useful to bloggers {and non-profits and small businesses as well}.

Questions Improve Engagement

Asking simple questions like “Night owl or early bird?” is a great way to improve engagement on your page. But even longer questions like “What is the best book you’ve read on parenting?” will elicit a response most of the time. And remember, when people comment, it boosts the engagement on your page which improves your reach.  

Discern Community Needs

As bloggers, we want to know our community. For small businesses, it’s vital to understand customers {and potential customers}. And for non-profits, understanding those who are potential contributors is vital to sustaining the organization.  Questions are a great way to develop a clear picture of what your community’s needs {actual and perceived} are. You can also use questions to gather information about new products, resources, and services of interest to your reader/customer/client/contributor base.

Explore Potential Blog Post Ideas

Since most of our readers are bloggers, here’s the biggest way questions can help you: they provide a flowing fountain of post ideas! Even the simple question of “early bird or night owl?” can be a spring-board for blog posts. For example, since I often write about spiritual disciplines on my personal blog, knowing that many of my Facebook connections are night owls tells me that a blog post titled “3 Reasons Night Owls Are Not Quiet Time Failures” would likely be appealing to them.  Questions like “What is your favorite book on ______?” can lead to a  resource list post on your blog. {Trust me, if you share what your Facebook fans say and quote them in your blog, they’ll likely share the post with their friends.} 

There are countless other ways you can use questions on your Facebook page to grow your blog, your page, and your brand.  But let me give you the same counsel I gave Erin, use one of these three each week for the next six weeks.  Measure the results.  And then take what you’ve learned to improve how you use questions and how you use the information you gain.

What’s the best question you’ve ever seen on a Facebook page?