Ever wondered why your Facebook page is struggling to gain new fans, while your content fails to pick up user engagement? It could be because of one of these three common problems brands have on the world's most popular social media platform.

Your content isn’t appealing

I could write an article a mile long as to why content is still (in my opinion) king, but I’m fairly sure you (and my editor) wouldn’t be so appreciative of such extensive detailing.

So, I’ll keep it brief. The pages that constantly have an active buzz within their community are the ones which create fun and engaging content that’s easily shareable. Users want brands to ‘get them’ and they want products that represent their lifestyle.

One of the most effective ways of communicating your brand’s personality is via social media, so if you’re the brand constantly promoting content that contains strong sales language, it’ll be unsurprising if users don’t stumble upon your page, let alone like your page and stick around for more.

So my advice would be to get that social media content plan down, monitor changes and carefully consider your strategy week-by-week until you have some healthier engagement rates.

Your ads are poorly targeted

It’s safe to say that Facebook has one of the best social ad targeting systems available, but more often than not those in charge hit the juicy boost button with little regard for what they’re doing or how they’re, frankly, wasting their money.

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For me, boosting should never be seen as a campaign. It does what it says on the tin - it ‘boosts’ - and more often than not to an existing target audience who already like your page. If you’re trying to get any new messages across, boosting is the wrong way to go about it!

Spend some time getting cosy with Facebook Ad Manager. Sure it might seem a little complicated and overwhelming at first, but if you stick at it you’ll soon find that you’re able to create much more targeted ads that effectively reach the market you were aiming for.

You don’t post at the right times

Oh so simple!

Quite often, content creators post content in the middle of the day, and only after they’ve remembered, with little regard to whether their audience is online and, most importantly, engaged.

So, when is the right time to post? Well, the answer to that question is different for every brand. Generally speaking, it’s good to take a look at your analytics in the Page Manager section. You’ll find a graph that normally displays a big dip and a steady rise. This ‘dip’ is where users were asleep with a peak in the evenings, although you may see two or three peaks - for example before work, at lunchtime and after work.

There will be exceptions to the rule, and that’s great! It means you’ve got an accurate representation of when your users are online, and that’s when you should be posting. Simply put, it’s always about your audience and when is best for them to consume that style of content. For example, if you’re trying to promote a lunch offer for your restaurant you’re going to want to put that out during the morning commute to catch their attention.

How does this affect page likes? Well, if you’re not posting at the right time users aren’t going to be engaging and sharing your content with other new users.

By bearing these three points in mind you might find your engagement rates increasing with your target market. Give it ago and let me know how you get on!