It seems there isn’t a day that goes by without someone having a shot at Facebook, complaining that no-one is seeing their ‘organic’ posts any more. By ‘organic’ I mean posts from their business page timeline.
We’ve noticed changes too, but there are things you can do to ensure you’re still getting seen on the Facebook Wall.
Let's begin by exploring why these changes are happening.
Straight From The Horses Mouth
The following is taken straight from Facebook.
“As part of an ongoing survey, we asked hundreds of thousands of people how they feel about the content in their News Feeds. People told us they wanted to see more stories from friends and Pages they care about, and less promotional content.
According to people we surveyed, there are some consistent traits that make organic posts feel too promotional:
Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install an app
Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context
Posts that reuse the exact same content from ads”
Click here if you'd like to read the full article.
As a Facebook User scrolling through your newsfeed you’d have to be pretty happy with this decision, you get to see more of what you like and less promotional material.
As a Business Owner, maybe you won't be quite so happy, unless of course you use this decision to your advantage and play by Facebook’s rules. The crux of what they have stated is that overly promotional content WILL NOT get organic placement in the newsfeed (paying money for placement is a whole other story, and I’ll cover that in another post).
Here are my 5 key ways to increase your Organic Facebook Reach for Your Page.
1. Be Helpful
Facebook is a Social Networking Site, with the emphasis being ‘social’. Your potential clients aren’t scrolling through the News Feed looking for your products and services, they are there to see what their friends, family and others are up to.
With this in mind you need to post content that fits into their News Feed, something more conversational or educational rather than promotional or salesy. The key is to make it edgy, something that stands out, something that will grab their attention. That may sound contradictory but it’s not, I’m talking about 2 different things:
the first is the content of your post, and
the second is what your post looks like.
Let’s look at an example…
A weight loss practitioner would get a lot more traction by sharing a healthy recipe with a beautiful image of the meal and discussing the benefits of clean eating than they would by sharing an update asking overweight people if they want to lose weight.
Everybody flicks and skim reads these days, no-one scrolls slowly enough to read everything they see so make sure you use a catchy image or video, and add text, it will increase your posts visibility. People see what is relevant to them at that moment – so make sure your words or image create an emotional trigger.
Post updates that are aligned to your product or service AND that are helpful, insightful, playful or fun.
2. Be Responsive
Have you ever had a one way conversation? You know when you’re chattering away and then you stop but no-one responds. You feel devastated, and all you want to do is crawl back into your little hole.
When you don’t respond to a post on your Facebook page you are effectively doing the same thing, you are creating a one time one way dialog, because that person ain’t coming back.
If someone takes the time to write a comment, be courteous and reply, even if it’s just to say thanks. Engaging in a two way or multiple person conversation attracts others. You will stay ‘top of mind’ with your prospects the more responsive you are.
3. Be Authentic
By authentic I mean real. Share a bit of who you are. People want to see and engage with ‘real’ people so if you love animals include some animal posts, if you follow a sports team don’t be afraid to show your support, if you’re happy to share a bit of your family, show your family. Show your team or show yourself working behind the scenes. The more of you and your business you share, the more your fans understand you and feel a connection with you, the more they will want to engage with you.
A little word of warning – I’m not for a moment suggesting you should bare your soul and offer a warts and all dialog on Facebook, it’s a public domain. Keep it real but also keep it professional. What you post represents you and your business.
Facebook is not Vegas. “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas until it’s shared on Facebook!” What you do on Facebook is there for the world to see.
4. Be Consistent
This is my hot key. To maintain and build any following you need to be posting consistently. There is no right number of posts a day or week, but it needs to be consistent. The only real way to find out the best times and days to post for your target market is to test, track and measure. Facebook's Insights is really good for this.
Useful Tip #1 – Use the Facebook Scheduler for your posts. This way you get all your posts uploaded and don’t get sucked into the vortex of the News Feed and wonder why you’re not achieving anything. Using the Facebook Scheduling Tool rather than a third party app (ie Hootesuite, Social Sprout, Edgar, Viral Heat etc) also increases your organic reach in the newsfeed – as Facebook places more credibility on posts created in their environment.
Useful Tip #2 – When scheduling your posts set them for just before or just after the hour or half hour (ie 9:57am or 11:03am), this way you’ll be in the News Feed when people are checking their smartphones on the way to or on the way from meetings, or heading out for their coffee.
Useful Tip #3 – Watch what industry leaders in your field are doing and learn from them. How often are they posting, what are they posting, what time are they posting.
5. Be Creative
Two magical words, be creative. As Facebook has evolved so has what you can share. You can use words, images, gif’s, video’s, and links to websites.
Think about your ideal client and how you can emotionally engage with them. It’s a well known fact that people act on emotion and rationalise with logic.
My Tip – Use video. Uploading video directly to Facebook is huge at the moment, as Facebook are giving video serious Newsfeed attention because they are in direct competition with You Tube. Reports indicate over 50% of users watch the video silently as it plays, this is something to keep in mind. Overlay some text to get your message across, do something to capture their attention as they are scrolling through their newsfeed.
If you ever find yourself questioning what can or can’t be posted you can check out Facebook’s Posting Guidelines by clicking here. You’re playing in their sandpit (with over 1.4 Billion other people) which is why they get to make the rules.
With that number of users it's highly likely that a good percentage of your potential clients are on Facebook, which really does make it a playing ground you simply cannot avoid using.
