Have you seen a decline in the organic reach of your Facebook page posts? That’s not surprising and it’s due to a combination of the following reasons…
- Facebook needs to make a return for its investors, so it’s encouraging you to use Facebook advertising to gain more reach.
- Facebook continues to be the most popular social media site; and with over 40 million active small business pages on Facebook, competition for your business to be seen is high. There is only so much space in a users timeline and Facebook determines what individuals see by utilising an “often updated” algorithm.
Needless to say, this adds a lot of pressure to “pay to play” and you should certainly have allocated some funds for Facebook advertising in your overall marketing budget. As an aside, I very rarely advertise for page “Likes”, either for my own page or client pages. I will generally utilise any advertising budget to help promote an event or promotion; I see more value in using advertising for a specific step I would like my audience to take rather than just a page “thumbs up”.
I believe it still holds true that social media marketing is not a numbers game… Better to have a small, fully engaged audience than a large audience that really isn’t interested in holding a conversation with you.
So, the question remains… Is there anything you can do to ensure your posts reach more users organically? The good news is, yes you can, but it takes work and an investment of your time. Here are ten tips to help you achieve more organic reach…
- Post great content – This is my number one tip. Make sure that what you’re sharing provides value to your end user and their friends and colleagues. If your content is truly valuable, people will like, share and comment, all the time moving you up the Facebook hit parade. I have said it so often I must sound like a broken record, but “practice the art of not selling”, your audience will see right through the pitch. There’s a reason we skip forward through the adverts on our Sky recordings or at the beginning of a YouTube video, none of us want to be sold to…
- Get personal – Invite your audience in for a little fun with you! They want to hear about you, not your business or your brand. I can guarantee that if you’re a retailer, a cute photo of your dog will get far more engagement than your latest product! Again, I know I’ve said it before, but I’m going to say it again, we do business with people we like, so let people know and like you.
- Pick your moment – Consider when your audience is active, but when your competitors are not. Your page insights will help you determine the most effective time for you to post.
- A picture paints a thousand words – Apparently, 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual; it stands to reason then that a great image can make the world of difference to audience engagement.
- Employ online table talkers – The thought of using table talkers at a dinner party fills me with horror! But asking a question in your Facebook post is a great way to get the conversation flowing.
- Tag somebody in your post – Obviously there has to be relevance, otherwise it’s more commonly known as “spamming”! But if you believe your content will resonate with a business or even an individual that is a fan of your page, go ahead and tag them; if you have judged correctly they may well share your post.
- Share your own page’s post – This is a “no brainer” to me; but so many people seem to forget. Once you have published a post on your page, share it on your timeline too.
- Keep it going – If somebody likes, shares or comments on your post, that counts as engagement and will move you up the hit parade; if you answer their comments and include questions, you’re keeping that engagement going!
- Never underestimate the power of a group – Create a group and invite your page’s biggest fans. There is much to be said for building a tribe of people that you know are already interested in connecting with you. It’s likely that you will see greater organic engagement levels within a group than you will on your business page.
- Use organic post targeting – Most people know you can target within Facebook ads and boosted posts, but many are unaware you can also target organic posts…. The good people at Social Media Examiner have written an excellent blog post about this, find it HERE.
For more tips please connect with me on Facebook, see you there!
