For a long time, brands and businesses were able to post to
Facebook and easily reach their target audience and fans organically (without
using paid ads). That all changed in 2013 when Facebook’s algorithm changed to
feature business pages’ posts significantly less organically.
With this shift, Facebook went from a huge traffic generator
and branding tool, to a pay-to-play model platform.
Battling Against
Lower Organic Reach
Despite the algorithm change that dictated what is shown in
a user’s Facebook News Feed, there are still some ways to help your posts get
some organic reach. One of these factors is the amount of engagement a post
receives - meaning the amount of likes, comments, and shares.
The only problem is that getting those likes, comments and
shares is a lot harder to get when a large portion of your fans aren’t seeing
your posts.
Luckily, there are still some ways to reach a portion of
your audience and help boost your engagement, even with the changes to the News
Feed. Give these seven strategies a try to jump-start your likes, comments,
clicks and shares on your Facebook posts.
1. Share Content Your
Audience Wants... Not Only What You Want Them to See
Sometimes businesses get a bit of tunnel vision when it
comes to showing their audience content that benefits only the business, and
not the customer. An example of this would be a flower shop only posting about
the flowers they have available, their promotions and company news. This type
of self-promotion isn’t always what customers care about and certainly won’t
help your engagement.
To balance these types of messages, a flower shop could also
post about how to make flower last longer, gardening tips, how to make upcoming
holidays special (beyond giving flower of course).
2. Post at the Right
Time
On of the tricks to getting your content seen is posting it
at times that get the most engagement… and it’s not always when you might
think. Although most people tend to check their Facebook during the daytime, the
most engagement happens at night. Buzzsumo found posts published between 10
p.m. and midnight (local time) receive the most engagement.
Image from Sprout Social
In order to find the best times for your business, it’s a
good idea to schedule your Facebook posts ahead of time and to test different
times between the most engaging hours to find out what works.
3. Use Real Photos
with Real People
Photos make up 75% of the posts on Facebook and account for
87% of the content shared on the platform, Social Media Examiner reported. That
means that photos should be a huge part of your engagement strategy for
Facebook.
Instead of relying on generic, stock photos, use your phone
or camera to take some real pictures of your surrounding, people on your team,
or even customers (if they agree). Posts containing original photos feel more personal
and organic, which can lead to people engaging with those posts more.
4. Use Facebook Video
Video content has become a huge part of digital marketing
over the past couple of years. Youtube might be the second-largest social
network, but when it comes to Facebook marketing, that doesn’t mean much.
In one study on the engagement of
Facebook native video vs. YouTube videos published on Facebook, the winner was
clear. Native Facebook videos received:
- Seven times more comments
5. Use What Works
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel with every Facebook
post. Sometimes the best way to get more engagement is to publish more of the
same type of content that was popular in the past.
You can see what has performed well with Facebook Insights.
This can also help you identify the best times to post from our second tip.
Organic reach on Facebook has definitely decreased, but that
doesn’t mean you should count the social media platform out. There are still
over a billion people logging in every day, which gives you plenty of
opportunities to reach your audience and potential customers without reaching
too deep into your pockets.
If you’re interested in learning more about the
possibilities of Facebook marketing, contact Sales & Marketing Technologies
by calling (407) 682-2222 or using the contact form below.