When you post on your business’ Facebook page, a follower has so many ways they could respond. They could share the post, comment on it or like/love/wow it.

But more often than not? They do nothing.

Between Facebook algorithm changes and the amount of information everyone encounters daily, it has become increasingly challenging to get the attention of social media users.

But all is not lost! We’ve noticed certain types of Facebook posts consistently perform well. So here’s our list of five Facebook post subjects — with examples from either our page or a small business’s — that might prompt those passive Facebook followers to reply!

1. Discounts

It would be nice to think that people follow your business simply because they love it. But it’s a little more complicated than that. Basically: They love it AND they want a deal. They’re hoping following your Facebook page means they get the inside scoop on sales, discounts and coupons.

So provide them that. Use your Facebook page to get followers excited about your promotions/sales/coupons through Facebook, like Doc’s Bar & Grill did below. Consider creating deals just for them — after all you should reward loyal followers.

2. You, your staff and your customers

Facebook provides a chance to be personable — take it.

People naturally respond to images of other people. You and your staff are far more relatable than your logo. You might be surprised how much followers enjoy seeing employees or customers having fun — even behind-the-scenes work tasks are interesting. It’s a window into your world and helps build relationships with social followers.

So show off your personality, like Hope Children’s Home here!

3. Feel-good stories

On our Dex Media Facebook page, we often post #feelgoodfriday stories about small businesses helping their community in some way. These often receive a positive response.

Today’s news can feel very negative, so a positive story naturally stands out — and creates warm, fuzzy feelings to boot. Here you see we highlighted Flo’s Pizzeria Ristorante‘s good deed, and they shared the post.

These feel-good stories can be about your business specifically — like a charity you partner with or volunteerism efforts by you and your staff — but they don’t have to be. A sweet story that occurred in your community or a big-hearted gesture in your industry also make for strong #feelgoodfriday posts.

4. Quotes

We’re fans of #MondayMotivation and share a motivational quote encouraging small business owners every Monday, like the one below. Everyone seems to enjoy a positive push to start their workweek!

If it makes sense for you to hop on the #MondayMotivation bandwagon, we highly recommend it! But not all quotes need to be motivational. In fact, ideally quotes will relate to your industry. Boutiques can share quotes from fashion icons, for example, while restaurants can share quotes from celebrity chefs, food writers and regular people who just plain love food.

Post quotes that coincide with holidays as well. So on Presidents’ Day? Share an Abraham Lincoln quote. (Protip: People LOVE Abraham Lincoln quotes, especially on Presidents’ Day.)

We’ve noticed that quote posts encourage not only likes but shares as well. So if you put your logo on those quotes, shared posts will lead back to you!

5. Hiring

If people are following you, they’re already committed to your brand in some way. So that’s a really good pool to aim your recruiting efforts at. Our hiring posts always rank as some of our top performers, like this one with 49 shares.

And your followers may know others who are looking for a job and share it with them. In fact, we recommend you ask your followers to share your post, as it often encourages folks to share who wouldn’t otherwise.

Bonus Tip

If you’re still not seeing the type of response you hoped for, then considering boosting your posts. Remember: Facebook doesn’t show your posts to all your followers. When you “boost” a post, it’s shown to more of your followers — and can be shown to Facebook users beyond your followers, if selected.

However, I wouldn’t recommend boosting all your posts. Instead boost the ones that are important to you — if you’re having a promotion or a sale, that’s an especially good choice for a boost. Boosting posts does mean you’ll need to put some money into your Facebook page, but the wonderful thing about the boost feature is that it’s designed to provide results with very small amounts of money. We typically only put $5-$10 behind posts we boost.

So there’s five fab Facebook post ideas (+ one helpful bonus tip) for you. What types of Facebook posts have your audiences responded to? Let us know in the comments!