We’re again with the most recent version of our sequence, @Me Subsequent Time, the place we invite Crew Sprout and a few of our favourite social specialists to share how they actually really feel concerning the newest developments and trade discourse.
Let’s say the factor: Fb remains to be a related and vital community for manufacturers. Even after twenty years, Fb stays a stalwart—regardless of the deluge of recent networks and the dramatic evolution of the social media panorama general. Based on The 2025 Influence of Social Report, 70% of selling leaders agree Fb is the social community that has the strongest influence on their enterprise—probably the most for any community.
Fb hit over 3 billion energetic customers in 2024 and is the third-most visited web site on the earth. Simply because the platform has an Oscar-winning biopic about its creation, doesn’t imply it’ll cease making historical past.
We sat down with Lodge Solid Iron’s Director of Social Media, Jodi Lawrence, and Social Media Strategist & Social Listening Analyst, Sarah Swainson. They defined why Lodge continues to wager on Fb as greater than only a legacy community, and what it takes to keep up a neighborhood of 800,000 followers and 40,000 Group members. As Lawrence stated, “We realized Lodge’s long-time customers are energetic on Fb. That’s a gaggle of individuals we don’t wish to depart behind.”
How audiences use Fb at the moment
Talking of The Social Community, rather a lot has modified because the daybreak of Fb. As soon as a spot for connecting school college students, the community now connects the world. Regardless of its behemoth energetic consumer base, who makes use of the community—and how they use it—stays a thriller to many entrepreneurs.
Swainson shared an anecdote that illustrates this: “Lots of people assume Fb’s consumer base is an older crowd. However 90% of the individuals who considered our latest publish (that obtained over 2 million views) had been between the ages of 25 and 35.”
We turned to knowledge from Sprout’s analysis and the platform itself to uncover the reality.
Generational utilization developments
Based on Sprout’s This fall 2025 Pulse Survey, 80% of world customers have profiles on Fb, and that’s true for about 83% of Millennials, 86% of Gen X and 82% of Child Boomers.
Fb customers are probably to work together with textual content posts printed by model accounts adopted by static pictures and short-form movies (The 2024 Social Media Content material Technique Report.
Lodge presents some early proof that they could be altering as Reels grow to be an even bigger a part of the platform expertise, which we get into beneath.
Fb’s position in buyer care
Fb is the #1 channel customers flip to for buyer care, and that’s very true for Millennials, Gen X and Child Boomers, per The Content material Technique Report.
The community provides these customers accessible, real-time and personalised assist by way of DMs, feedback and posts. In return, manufacturers can faucet into worthwhile suggestions that helps them refine their content material technique and inform their product.
“On Fb, we’re capable of determine points extremely quick and stop them from getting worse. Our viewers on the community are superfans, so if one thing goes flawed, they’re the primary to tell us,” factors out Swainson.
Enriching neighborhood with Fb Teams
Greater than 1.8 billion folks use Fb Teams every month per a Fb neighborhood research. Teams proceed to be fashionable on the platform as a result of they offer customers a way of neighborhood constructed round area of interest pursuits, fandoms, native happenings, shared tradition and extra. Think about the Fb Teams you belong to, and the vital position they play in sustaining connections and hobbies.
You may even belong to a Group for model superfans, just like the one Lodge created. As Swainson explains, “There have been so many different Teams centered round forged iron on Fb, and numerous nice dialog occurring about our merchandise. Nevertheless it was actually tough to watch with all the chatter about subjects that didn’t contain our model. I needed to kind a Group so we might convey the prevailing dialog to an area the place we might monitor, take part and monitor product suggestions. It shortly took off with little or no promotion, and, in simply over two years, we’re at almost 40,000 members and a whole bunch of posts per 30 days.”
4 methods to maximise the influence of Fb to your model
It’s clear that many manufacturers are leaving potential untapped on Fb as a result of they don’t know how you can maximize the community. What do you have to publish? How will you discover your companies’ viewers? What is going to it take to enhance your return on funding on the community?
To reply these questions, the Lodge crew gave us a peek behind the scenes at their technique. Take inspiration from their greatest practices to domesticate your individual.
Experiment to maintain up with the Fb algorithm
Like all platforms, Fb’s algorithm is at all times being reinvented and fine-tuned, which implies your content material technique should change, too. Once we spoke to the Lodge crew, they recounted the various evolutions of their content material—which as soon as included posting hyperlinks and even full recipes. Lately, their fixed experimentation has led them to embrace video.
“We shifted our Fb content material technique to concentrate on text-based posts in 2021—which was an enormous pivot for us. We’d ask questions, that’s what was getting engagement on the time. However there’s solely so many instances you may ask, ‘What do you prefer to cook dinner?’ or ‘How do you clear your pan?’ Now we’re pivoting once more. For a very long time it didn’t look like video had a spot on Fb, however at the moment Reels are producing tens of millions of views—which wasn’t even true 10 months in the past. So we’re experimenting by reposting our best-performing lo-fi Reels from Instagram onto Fb, and it’s going rather well,” says Lawrence.
However that doesn’t imply the Lodge crew goes to “set and neglect” their plans. They’ll proceed to check and experiment to remain forward of the subsequent wave of algorithmic adjustments.
Lawrence provides, “We’re an extremely experimental crew. We prefer to throw spaghetti in opposition to the wall. For instance, we not too long ago reposted a comic book strip we initially developed for Instagram, and our viewers beloved it. We strive new stuff on a regular basis.”
Decide to a daily Fb Stay cadence
With Fb Stay, customers can broadcast stay video on to their Fb viewers. Whereas some manufacturers draw back from going Stay for concern of on-air technical difficulties or destructive consumer interactions, Lodge has discovered Stay movies complement their different neighborhood engagement ways.
“We’ve got a sequence known as Recipe of the Month. It involves life in numerous methods throughout networks. On Fb, we’ve got a month-to-month cooking problem that we share in our Group, and our members can win a prize in the event that they share a photograph with us. Then, we go Stay as soon as a month on Fb with our in-house chef, Kris, who will cook dinner that very same recipe. We’ve got a core group of customers that regularly tune in, they usually’ve actually developed a dialogue with Kris. The movies have helped us set up him as an authority—somebody to information folks on their forged iron journey,” says Lawrence.
Whereas not all groups may have the bandwidth to benefit from Stay content material, people who do ought to take a cue from Lodge and embed it into their neighborhood expertise on the community to encourage participation—fairly than making a standalone activation.
Use buyer insights from Fb to refine product improvement and content material technique
As talked about, Lodge’s non-public Fb Group is a core a part of their social technique and the success they’ve seen on the community. It created an area for his or her most enthusiastic followers, but additionally welcomes people who find themselves new to their forged iron journey. As written of their neighborhood pointers, “You’re welcome right here it doesn’t matter what you cook dinner with.”
Along with sharing their greatest forged iron suggestions, tips and recipes, Group members additionally share unfiltered product suggestions. “The Group has been an incredible alternative to be taught what our prospects like and what they don’t like. If we’ve got a brand new product popping out, we launch it within the Group first to see the way it lands. We additionally drop survey hyperlinks there since we all know our members are the individuals who actually care about what’s going to occur at Lodge,” Swainson explains.
Lodge’s Fb Group is a goldmine for constructive suggestions. However additionally they faucet into buyer insights from their feedback part, tagged posts and extra. Swainson provides, “I monitor all the things. I really like buyer suggestions. We’ve got a sturdy social listening technique, and we routinely share buyer enter with groups like product improvement, artistic and even gross sales.”
Generally groups will uncover learnings they’re too near the product to see. Swainson shares a latest instance: “Lots of people had been saying, ‘I obtained the Rust Eraser, however I don’t know how you can use it.’ After speaking to our product and duplicate groups, we realized the product didn’t include any packaging that defined how you can use it. Due to the suggestions we obtained from social, we began delivery the product with particular directions and a QR code to our web site the place prospects might be taught much more. It additionally impressed social content material with demos of how you can use the Rust Eraser.”
Use Fb for a two-way dialog together with your viewers
Once we requested the Lodge crew for his or her prime piece of recommendation for any manufacturers who needed to start out utilizing Fb—or enhance their present presence—Lawrence stated this: “Any model that’s keen to have a two-way dialog may be profitable on Fb. In the event you’re okay with opening up the floodgates and responding to folks in your DMs, feedback part and Group, you may have the elements you want. Folks wish to really feel seen and heard on Fb. In the event you’re keen to meaningfully have interaction—not simply promote a product—you may develop a real model neighborhood.”
Prepare dinner up true neighborhood on Fb
Even after greater than 20 years, Fb continues to show its endurance as a neighborhood hub, buyer care channel and insights goldmine for manufacturers. As Lodge Solid Iron’s success reveals, the community is a dwelling ecosystem that rewards manufacturers keen to evolve with it.
From experimenting with new codecs like Reels to cultivating genuine two-way conversations in Teams, the alternatives on Fb are removed from exhausted. Entrepreneurs who look past outdated assumptions and lean into the platform’s strengths will uncover lasting influence and deeper connections with their audiences.
On the lookout for extra on how one can maximize each social community? Obtain The Content material Technique Report to seek out out what 4,500 customers stated they really need from manufacturers on social.
