For years the percentage of Facebook users who have liked your page that will actually see your posts in their News Feeds has been declining. Right now it’s at an all time low, with many business’ bemoaning the fact that their posts are only being seen by less than 10% of their audience, with others suggesting their Organic reach is closer to 1%!
In order to have a fighting chance of generating some engagement from your Facebook page, you need to give the Facebook NewsFeed algorithm what it wants. The algorithm is powered by machine learning, which assesses how users react to what they see.
So to put it simply – the more engagement (shares, comments and likes) your posts generate, the more likely it will be that Facebook will place your content in the News Feed. If your content is poor and doesn’t instigate engagement, the algorithm will choose not to show your content.
So what can you do to generate engagement in order to Improve your Organic Reach?
Use Preferred & Audience Restrictions
Preferred audience targeting is new Facebook feature that works just like ad targeting, but for your organic posts. It allows you to target your update so only the people who are most likely to be interested will see it.
If your Facebook page has a large audience, or if your page covers lots of topics, it’s quite possible that not everybody who has liked your page will be interested in everything that you publish. These feature allows you to target those who will be more likely to engage with your post.
This option can be found when you begin to post an update, next to the “add photo/video”, “what you’re doing/how you’re feeling” and “check in” icon beneath the text area. Please note that this feature hasn’t been fully rolled out yet so you may not see it as an option on your page.
When you click it you have two options – the first being preferred audience the other being audience restrictions.
Lets say for example a digital marketing agency’s Facebook page posts about the different disciplines such as PPC, SEO and Social Media, in order to generate the most engagement, the manager of the page may opt to attempt to reach those who are more likely to be interested in Social Media.
Audience restrictions allow you target users only matching a specific criteria based on age, gender and location. For example a touring show may wish to only show posts to users in (and in the surrounding) area where the next show will be.
Post Only Your Best Content
In order for you to increase your Facebook engagement rate, you need to be posting content that users will actually want to engage with. While your strategy on Twitter may be to post as often as possible, we wouldn’t recommend that you simply replicate this on Facebook.
Use Facebook as a platform to publish your best content – for example if you are publishing regularly on Twitter, have a look at what Tweets generated the most interaction and tailor a post around that (i.e incorporate expanded text and imagery).
Post Video Content
Users watch more than 8 billion videos every day on Facebook, generating lots of engagement.
Uploading video content directly to your Facebook page as opposed to linking to YouTube or Vimeo is encouraged and rewarded by the Facebook Newsfeed Algorithm. Why? Because of the engagement that is generated!
Upload your videos directly to your Facebook page, sit back and watch your engagement and organic reach increase!
Invite Engaged Users
Facebook has an often overlooked feature that allows you to invite users who have engaged with your post to like your page. As the users have engaged with your content, it’s fairly likely that they will do so again if they see it, so invite them to like your page in order for them to do so!
To find this feature, click on the leading line of names and amount of people that reacted to your post and you’ll see a list of the users that did. To the right of their name you’ll see three types of buttons (Invite, Liked, Invited). Click on that Invite button to send an invitation to the person like your page.
Use Post Engagement Campaigns
Post Engagement Campaigns do cost money, but can significantly help you reach more users for free. You don’t need to spend a lot of money either in order to reach a lot of Facebook users – a budget of just £20 can generate great results.
You see when users that you have paid to reach respond to your post, the interaction will appear in their friends feeds – giving your post more exposure…for free!
We’d recommend that you promote something that encourages interactivity and a response – such as a simple competition where users don’t have to do a huge amount to get involved, such as sharing your post, or tagging their friends to do the same.
Summary
Following these tips can help you reach more of your Facebook audience and grow your page even further. Post your best content, with videos uploaded directly to your page and make sure that you invite users that have responded to like your page.
Investing a relatively small amount of your digital marketing budget to reach more users can also have a big impact – especially if you are producing that something that is encouraging interactivity.
If you would like to discuss your existing Facebook activity, or would like us to help you devise a strategy for your page, please get in touch.
