How To Increase Organic Reach on Facebook
If your efforts to reach your Facebook community are lacklustre, try these 12 tips to increasing Facebook reach organically
Facebook’s algorithm is ever-changing, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to reach their followers organically on Facebook. There’s so much competition in users News Feeds thanks to smartphones and the ability to easily share content, so content has to be automatically prioritised so only the most relevant content is displayed in a user’s News Feed, rather than the thousands of updates that would otherwise come through. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s a tricky thing for social media marketers to work with, especially when limited budgets are available.
If your efforts to engage on Facebook and connect with both your established community and new followers seem to be getting you nowhere, try these tips to increase your organic reach and get your posts seen by more of your followers.
Quality over quantity
Facebook has become much better at identifying high-quality content and showing it to the relevant people. Therefore, creating quality content is more important than ever and the “quality over quantity” rule must be applied to every Facebook update. If you only have enough great content to update Facebook 3 times a week, that’s fine! It’s better to share three great pieces of content that drive some engagement and interaction as opposed to sharing half-hearted content that gets a lousy response from Facebook users.
Encourage engagement
Engagement is the key to increasing your organic reach on Facebook, so encourage your community to like, comment, tag and share your Facebook posts. Engagement simultaneously pushes your content out to a wider audience, generating more exposure and more engagement on great pieces of content.
So how do you get them to engage in the first place? Ask questions, request people’s opinion and tell them to tag any friends they think would like your content. When you have engagement on your Facebook posts, Facebook deems you more relevant and thus, spreads your content further.
Host a giveaway or competition
Hosting a giveaway or competition is a great way to increase engagement on your page and also reward your loyal followers and thank them for their support. You can run a competition for anything… it could be to name your new product, win a complimentary product/service/experience, meet the team or team up with other brands to create a big prize pack.
Whatever you choose, the entry requirements should be either a game of skill (where the entrants are judged based on their skill) or a game of chance (where a winner is drawn randomly). Before you host a giveaway or competition on your Facebook page, ensure you have read Facebook’s regulations on the topic, as well as any gaming rules and regulations in your state and/or country.
Reply to everyone
Every time someone comments on your Facebook posts, or perhaps posts on your wall, reply as soon as you can with an informative, thoughtful answer. Whether it is to thank them for sharing their thoughts, or to respond to a question, replying to every comment will increase engagement in the future, build your reputation and establish customer loyalty.
Keep things consistent
As with any social media platform, it is important to keep things consist so that your followers know what to expect after they’ve liked your page. If you are in the fashion industry, keep your content fashion-orientated, while businesses in construction should keep their Facebook content topical and relevant to construction. It’s also important to have the same tone throughout your Facebook content, and include branding on all corporate content.
Include a call-to-action
There’s no way you’re going to increase your organic reach and Facebook conversions if there’s no call-to-action in your Facebook posts that triggers your community to act after consuming your content. It could be asking them to tag a friend, leave a comment, visit your website or sign-up to your mailing list - whatever your call-to-action is, make it clear and concise to trigger an immediate response.
A good call-to-action can not only encourage engagement and increase your organic reach, it can also build brand awareness, generate leads, increase sales, grow your database and drive traffic to your website, so it’s definitely worthwhile.
Vary your content
Variety is a good thing when it comes to Facebook content, so don’t be afraid to experiment with different medias. Your Facebook content should be a mixture of text, imagery, links and video updates, so focus on creating a wide range of content first, and then test how your community reacts to each piece. You’ll discover what media gets the most engagement on your Facebook page, and then use that insight to amp it up in the future.
Discover your prime time
You absolutely must find your prime time – the time when your Facebook community is most active and engaged. Think about when your followers are likely to be online – is it while they are commuting to work or after the school drop-off is done? Is it late at night before bed, or on the weekend when there’s time to consume and engage with Facebook content. Once you understand when your followers are online, it’s easier to get them to see your content without it getting lost in the crowd.
Take advantage of your facebook insights
Did you know that free Facebook insights and analytics are available for your business page? Your Facebook insights show you what posts get the most engagement, post reach, engagement stats, information on your followers, referrals and more. Just click on the “insights” tab when you are on your business page and you’ll see all of the insights.
Tag other people and brands who feature
If you ever mention another business or share a link on someone else’s page, be sure to tag them because that immediately increase the reach of the post. It also opens up the opportunity for other businesses to engage with you and share your content, which would result in increased brand exposure and has the potential to attract new followers.
Use hashtags
While everyone says that hashtags on Facebook aren’t a thing, we’re here to tell you that they are wrong! Start using hashtags sparingly in your Facebook posts by including one or two highly relevant hashtags in each post. Why does it work? It exposes your content to more people, and helps relevant people find your content and Facebook page.
Don’t give up!
If you’ve tried everything and you’re still only reaching a tiny portion of your community, don’t give up! A lot of businesses still see Facebook as driver of decent click-throughs despite low organic reach. If that’s you, keep your page active and update it regularly because users will refer to it when they come across your business. Whatever you do, don’t give up on Facebook just yet.
Still want more reach? If you’re not getting the reach you want on Facebook organically, perhaps it’s time to consider pumping some money into your Facebook page. Check out How To Boost Your Facebook Post In 5 Simple Steps if you’re looking to implement a paid campaign to ensure you make the most of your investment.
What are your tips for increasing organic Facebook reach?
