How to use Inspiration
Posting great content that engages your audience every single day is no small task. Oftentimes, the best way to consistently post great content is to, well, start with great content. Many pages on Facebook have partially become content curators, simply reposting other page’s high performing content with small changes of their own. ActionSprout’s Inspiration feature makes finding great content that relates to your work a snap.
Now, every time you sit down to think about posting, simply pop into your Inspiration tab and scroll through your network’s top performing content.
In this guide we will cover:
- What content is included in your Inspiration feed
- How to add content to your Inspiration feed
- Navigating and reading Inspiration results
- How to Sort, Search and Filter inside Inspiration
What content is included here?
Your ActionSprout inspiration tab includes recent over-performing content from any and all pages you want to follow. You should add pages with content you know your audience already likes. It is important to look at the activity and quality of the page’s content. Pages that rarely post or post low quality content are of little value to you.
How can I add pages for ActionSprout to track?
You can add any page that you would like us to monitor and we will add their top performing content to your Inspiration tab.
In the left hand area click on the blue “Add Pages” button.
Start typing in the name of the page you want to follow or a keyword and you’ll see a list of matching results. When you find the page you want to follow hit “add” and the page will be added to your follow list.
You can also tag the pages you follow. Once tagged you’ll be able to sort and filter your feed by these tags.
Reading Inspiration Results
Over-performing
At the top you will find the percentage that the piece of content is over-performing in terms of engagement. This is based on the page’s unique average engagement. In this example this piece of content is over-performing by 4073% over the average, with the average always being 100%.
Content thumbnail
Next you will find a thumbnail of the piece of content as it appeared on Facebook.
Likes, Comments and Shares
This is the number of each that the piece of content received. It’s good to pay attention to these numbers. A piece of content could be over-performing by 200% but only received a few likes and comments. This merely reflects that this page normally has a low average engagement. Keeping all numbers in mind gives you the larger picture.
Search
This may be one of the more powerful features of Inspiration. In the search box you can search for pieces of content that include your keywords. This is an amazingly fast and easy way to bring up the highest performing content on any subject. The next time you’re creating an action on, say tigers, you can search Inspiration and find the highest performing content on tigers for your action. If you don’t find the content you where hoping for or want to see more results you can always “like” more pages that post that kind of content.
Filter
You can choose to filter your feed by content type as well. This is handy if a particular type of content, like images, tend to perform well on your page. Simply filter by images to see all the top performing ons in your network. This saves time searching and takes gives you right what you need.
Looking Through the Content
When looking through your Inspiration feed get in the habit of looking for patterns. Patterns are tell-tale signs that indicate what supporters in your focus area like to engage with. For example if you notice most of the high performing content is images and articles this is a clear indication that supporters like images and articles over other pieces of content. It would be a good idea to post more images and articles to keep your audience engaged.
When looking for patterns there are a few big ones you’ll want to keep an eye out for.
Content Format
What types of content do you find here in terms of format? Is it mostly images? Videos? Articles? Status updates? You want to play attention to the format types and notice which is dominate. It may be just one or a few. Which ever is dominant is the format your audience prefers to consume on Facebook.
Another way to think about format is the way the content is presented or framed. Is the content framed as a story? An action? As a study or recent finding? Is it all about presenting the facts or asking questions and opening discussion. Also pay attention to whether the content is long or short.
Translating more of your content into this format can boost your engagement and reach.
Subject Matter
Format aside, what kinds of content do well. If the winning content format is images what are they images of? Nature? People? Do they include text? If it’s articles which ones are the top performing? Is there a pattern in subject matter? There usually will be a few that supporters enjoys over others.
Tone and Language
What is the tone of the highest performing content? Is it light and cheerful? Is it serious and down to business? Are many of your posts celebratory? What kind of language is used?
Once you have an idea of what’s working, try some of these strategies on your own page. These patterns will help give you ideas when experimenting with your content strategy and offer a great a place to start from.