5 Proven Tips to Boost Your Facebook Organic Reach
This is the goal of every marketer - increasing their Facebook organic reach.
Social media has changed the way businesses market their products and services on the web. A trend we keep watching. social media site that has been successfully leading the pack for a long time is Facebook.
There is no doubt that Facebook is a strong social media presence for your business. Mainly because this is where everyone is - including your target audience.
According to the favored annual report by Social Media Examiner, 62% of marketers named Facebook because the most vital strategy in their marketing strategies.
This should not come as a surprise, because if you look at the figures, Facebook has…
Over 2.41 billion monthly active users.
Its Messenger app has 1.3 billion users
There are quite one billion active users on Instagram
Since Facebook has the widest user base, it makes it easy (and in some cases even cheaper) to succeed in your target market and make the proper connections.
However, if you are not using appropriate strategies, funneling targeted traffic from Facebook to your site can be very challenging. No wonder "Facebook marketing" is still an enigma to many brands.
One of the strongest reasons is that Facebook marketing is not working for many people because they may fail to stand out from the rest.
When you are marketing on Facebook, you are basically competing with many other similar businesses in your niche that are targeting the same audience as you.
Your competition, like you, wants a piece of Facebook. Which constitutes the largest slices of the social media pie.
Unless and until you focus on being different from others in your approach, you will have a hard time connecting with your target audience.
But is it so?
No. As the competition grows, you also have to give your prospects a reason to leave Facebook and visit your site.
In other words, you need to impress them with a proposal that is very difficult to resist. There is something that makes them want to take action. And this is possible only when people are actually in touch with your proposal.
This is where Facebook comes into organic reach. Because ultimately, it all boils right down to what percentage of your audience actually gets to ascertain your updates. And if you are not using Facebook ads, it can be very difficult to increase your page.
However, if you'll work on improving your reach and build a loyal set of viewers on Facebook, things may look different. And many more in your favor.
Now, before we can do this, you must first see it…
What exactly is Facebook Organic Reach?
Facebook organic reach is basically the number of people who come in contact with your content without advertisements or without paying.
Sponsored stories and promotional posts, on the other hand, fall under paid access. Meaning users who view your content due to paid promotion. Which users actually get to ascertain this content depends on the sort of ad targeting options you select .
But is it so easy to reach your target audience on Facebook? Or is there more to it?
Many brands today attempt to believe Facebook's organic reach to make an in depth marketing strategy to make sure that. However, to their dismay, they do not see the results they want to see after posting the content on their Facebook page. Even after putting in a real effort to create and share great content, there is neither too much traffic to report nor engagement.
When this happens, brands are forced to rethink their Facebook marketing strategy or simply conclude that their audience is not really liking their content.
However, the truth is far from it.
Most of the time it has nothing to do with its content or time. But more to do with Facebook organic reach. Gone are the times once you could just post an update on your Facebook page and obtain most of your fans to ascertain it.
Today, things are different. Thanks to the ever-evolving Facebook organic reach and changes to their core newsfeed algorithm, even a number of the foremost popular brands have a tough time reaching their audiences.
In a recent survey, it was found that 60% of the market has a staggering belief that Facebook has gradually become a consistent "play to pay". In other words, unless you are buying ads on the Facebook platform, your content will not be shown to most of your fans.
In a study conducted by Socialflow, it was found that brands experienced a 42% drop in their Facebook organic reach in the first two quarters of 2016.
And when he analyzed the data from the third quarter of the same year, he noticed that the brands saw a 52% drop, which is huge anyway.
What's more, when Social @ Ogilvy analyzed 100+ Facebook pages from different brands, they found that the average Facebook organic reach of published content was just 6%.
And it was even more surprising to see that large pages (with 500,000+ likes) experienced over 2% reach. Which clearly means that social media giants want to rely largely on Facebook's organic reach rather than investing the brand in their advertising products.
Especially now that Facebook recently announced that they're going to update the way they filter repeat organic impressions for his or her Facebook pages. According to his spokesman: "This isn't a change in distribution, but a change within the way we repeatedly filter organic impressions within a quick period of some time ."
In addition, in another statement, he said the update is designed to: "Make it easier for businesses to compare across paid and organic channels."
After the update it would be like this: "If an ad is on the screen and someone scrolls down, and then scrolls back to the same ad, it counts as 1 impression. If an ad is on 2 different screens in a day, it counts as 2 impressions. "
Tip # 1: Share Engaging, Native Video Content
There is little doubt about the continued decline of Facebook organic reach; Every experienced marketer accepts this. Despite this, native video content is being given more priority by Facebook.
Original video content is growing rapidly on Facebook and is known to help build genuine engagement. This is the reason many brands are trying to focus on it. When compared to other types of content (links and photos), video becomes a much safer bet.
If you look at the figures, more than 8 billion videos are being watched on Facebook every day. As found by Buzzsumo, higher viewership naturally increases the number of videos that are shared on social networks.
From a Facebook perspective, there are two main reasons why video content is considered more important:
Reason - 1: Previously, Fotos ruled Rustom on Facebook. Which obviously pushed business pages to post more pictures as they also helped them stand out from the remainder of the content.
This forced Facebook to reduce the amount of photos being shared by business pages. Because at the end of the day, it's about keeping their users happy. The social media giant did not want users to sprinkle the same type of marketing content.
Original video, on the other hand, is a brand new media type that is more difficult to create for brands. And so less is created and shared by business pages. Which automatically gives it a far better Facebook organic reach.
Reason 2: Everyone knows that video content is gaining an edge over other types of content. It is being coined as a media type that will dominate the web in the future. It is therefore no surprise that Facebook wants to be seen as a top video sharing platform - even above YouTube.
In a study conducted by Impulse Creative, it had been found that Facebook video posts reached 90% more people than link based posts and 40% more people than photo posts.
Even socialbakers found that they had a 135% increase in their Facebook organic reach by selecting video content over photos.
So if you would like to extend your Facebook organic reach and add video to your social media content strategy.
But make sure you are not making a video, its just a hake. Even if you are sharing videos, you need stellar content for positive long term results.
Here are some tips to make your Facebook videos stand out from the crowd and attract more views / engagement.
Make square videos instead of landscape videos as they are known to perform better.
Get your audience's attention within the first 3-5 seconds.
Add meaningful captions to your videos as 85% of people watch Facebook videos without voice.
Make your video around a central point instead of several points.
Make your title descriptive and clear by making it short.
Add a strong call to action that helps you get more feedback.
Tip # 2: Take advantage of the power of Facebook Live
FB Live Video was launched in April of 2016. Since then it has helped many businesses connect with their followers on a much higher level than other types of content.
That's right, Facebook Live can help you achieve higher engagement! Which can equalize better Facebook organic reach.
If you want to increase your presence on Facebook, you cannot ignore the power of Facebook Live. You have to start experimenting with it.
When regular video content is compared, people spend 3X more time broadcasting content through Facebook Live. It is one of the most effective broadcasting tools we have on the web right now.
Due to the potential of Facebook Live and its ability to bring high engagement rates, it gets more brownie points than Facebook. As a content type, it gives you more eyes because Facebook makes it as a priority in its newsfeed.
When Wishpond experimented with Facebook Live, he saw his Facebook reach increase by 300%.
When socialbuckers paid attention to the performance of their content in the Facebook newsfeed, they noticed that their Facebook live video outperformed all other post formats.
Every time he posted a live broadcast, he saw his Facebook organic reach going up. If you check out the chart below, you'll see that by just posting a live video they got a true boost in their viewership.
Here are some basic steps you need to launch your Facebook Live Video:
Step 1: Find a topic for your live video that is not only relevant to your target audience, but also quite interesting.
Step 2: Spread the word about your upcoming live video by creating an event on Facebook with sessions and times.
Step 3: Download the Facebook page app for streaming your live broadcast.
Step 4: Make a thick outline of your live video so that you are clear on the kind of information you are sharing.
Step 5: Arrange the right camera equipment and test it well in advance.
Step 6: Make sure you choose a room with adequate amount of lighting in any glare / shade.
Step 7: Open your Facebook page app and start recording by clicking the "Live" button.
Tip # 3: Study what is working for your competitors
Most of the time when you focus on analyzing the performance of your own content, you forget to look around and see what your competition is doing.
It is good to monitor your own content. But watching your competitors' practices gives you an edge. This not only helps you create better content, which resonates with your audience, but also helps you to upgrade your marketing strategy.
The good thing is, Facebook makes the whole process of walking in the park easy. As long as you are clear about who your immediate competition is.
You can check the "Top Posts from Pages Watch" feature of Facebook to know about others in your niche.
The above report is an example of what data you might have seen after adding your competitors. You can easily add all your competitors by clicking the "Add Page" button at the top.
Once set, you will be able to closely monitor the top content from your chosen pages. This gives you a fair idea of how their content is performing in terms of engagement.
You can further analyze each post by clicking on the link provided in the report. And understand their content and context with none guesswork.
The idea is to add only pages that are targeting the same audience as you. The more relevant you are to your audience, the more valuable insights you gain. Which you can start implementing immediately to improve your content strategy.
When you are monitoring their content, focus on analyzing three important aspects:
What kind of posts are giving results
What topics are they choosing
What is the tone / style of their material
Now, this does not mean that you copy clearly what others have said. Your objective should be to draw inspiration, add your unique insights to the findings, and do something even better than your competition.
Use these insights as a starting point to effectively connect with your target audience at a high level. Work on creating a smooth plan that is suitable for your own business.
Tip # 4: Say No to # Engagement Byte Type Content
When you post great, relevant content on Facebook that your audience likes, it becomes easy to interact them. And the natural interactions it brings are valuable in the eyes of Facebook.
All the comments in your Facebook posts are part of natural conversations, which can ultimately help you increase your Facebook organic reach. Why? Because these natural conversations allow you to add value and work within the maligned newsfeed algorithm.
The idea is to create a natural discussion. Not on any subject, but only on topics that will help you elevate your brand.
This conversation is as natural as it is good. Because back engagement byte 'type of content will only backfire. This means that you cannot ask your fans to comment on your posts, such as your content, or tags.
Facebook's algorithm works against the cutting positions of engagement because it falls under "forced engagement" which does not add value or meaning to the content.
Even if you somehow see your Engagement Bat 'content seen by your fans, you will only make a bad impression on them. People fall due to busyness these days. Therefore you are only wasting your time and effort.
If you want to connect with your target audience, you need to avoid gaming Facebook and focus on generating natural conversations. Which helps you humanize your brand and make your page more meaningful across the page.
When you should try to produce content that creates genuine discussions in a constructive way, make sure that you avoid content that is controversial in nature or something that can start a heated debate.
Yes, it is definitely not easy for people to talk to each other and interact on their posts. Especially for people with new Facebook pages, trying to get more engagement can seem like a tough fight.
Facebook organic reach
But it can be done, seeing that you are unique in your approach. And taking the right steps.
One advantage of engaging your loyal Facebook fans is that it makes your page more important in their minds. And since Facebook lets people see more posts from their favorite pages (by selecting 'First' in the Newsfeed option), you can actually get more and more of your content as time goes by.
As long as you focus on getting more people to talk to your page, it will be easier for you to increase your organic reach of Facebook.
Tip # 5: Choose quality content over quantity
Due to the increasing competition in the social media sector, brands are always striving to produce and share more content. The focus is always on "more", even if it comes at the expense of stability.
In earlier days, when Facebook was not as popular as it is today, posting more content worked well because it helped you get more views. However today, your Facebook marketing strategy may suffer due to this mentality. Putting quantity on quality is not a smart move.
Facebook has become a very competitive. This is the reason why Facebook organic reach has declined over time. The number of people you are able to reach today is very small.
This just goes to show the place on Facebook, not only being saturated, but more valuable to everyone who wants to get more exposure for their content.
Even though a significant number of businesses are finding using Facebook for marketing, many of them are leaving the stage due to lack of good results. However, not using Facebook is a mistake because taking the right steps can work in your favor.
You need to think differently from your competition in terms of how and when you post your content. You need to focus more on posting low quality content so that it gets more views. This mindset is the opposite of what everyone tries, which is exactly what it does.
When popular social media management app Buffer saw a huge decline in their Facebook organic reach, they decided to shift their Facebook posting strategy in a different direction to reach more people.
He started posting large amounts of content between January and October 2016, translating to over 40 Facebook posts per week.
If you look at it from a superficial level, what was Buffer understanding. Since Facebook had less biological reach in each post, posting more content technically helped them reach more people.
But over time, he noticed that as his daily numbers increased, his Facebook organic reach declined. The more content they posted, the less they experienced.
Buffer decided to revamp his posting strategy to fit the current Facebook algorithm. Instead of sharing more content, they decided to post less often, only that they had top quality content to share.
The result of this change helped him triple his Facebook organic reach and improve his engagement rate to a great extent.
Buffer no longer posts on its Facebook page more than twice a day. They are careful to share only the best and most relevant content with their followers when available.
The bottom line is, you can't take a blanket approach today and win with Facebook marketing. Instead, you need to turn your attention to posting only high quality content, even if it means posting less frequently.
Tips For Using Facebook to Promote Your Business
Getting around
Facebook has definitely become a "pay-to-play" platform. But, like many other online platforms, they want to deliver the best user experience. If your organic content does so, it will be shown to more users.
Follow the tips given to you to ensure some tips given by us till date. So you can start building a loyal following. If you've got a few different tips along the way, feel free to share them in the comments below. We love reading success stories from our blog subscribers!
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