Are you fed up with a low reach on your Facebook posts?
You’re not alone.
Across the board, around only 4% of a Facebook Business Page’s followers will actually see their posts on a regular basis.
That’s right, that means that if your Page has 100 followers, only 4 of them (yes, 4 of them!) are likely to see your post.
Which sucks.
Especially when you’ve spent time carefully crafting the perfect piece of content!
Unfortunately, the bad news is that this low statistic isn’t going to change.
You see, Facebook wants its platform to be all about the ‘social’ element of social media.
Which means that the ‘powers that be’ want to prioritise the content created by real people – as opposed to the thousands of businesses registered on the platform.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t so good when it comes to businesses like you & us trying to market on there.
But, it does mean that Facebook is keeping its millions of users happy & online. Users who we can try and market too!
What’s organic?
First things first, let’s tackle the terminology.
In the context of digital marketing, ‘organic’ can simply be described as content that you create and publish for free.
(Not to be confused with organic food… 😂)
The opposite of ‘organic’ content on Facebook would therefore be a ‘boosted’ post or a Facebook advert.
What’s reach?
When it comes to Facebook, ‘Reach’ is defined as:
[A] measurement of how many people were exposed to your message…
So reach refers to those 4% of your followers who see or are exposed to your post & your brand on the platform.
Why focus on organic reach (rather than paying money)?
We’re focusing on organic reach in this case because it doesn’t involve money changing hands.
And, let’s face it, none of us has pockets deep enough (nor are we fool-hardy enough) to pay money every single time we post something on Facebook!
We’re also focusing on organic reach over paid-for advertising because there are ways that you can optimise your posts on Facebook to help them reach more than the 4% statistic.
In this blog, I’ll be giving you 10 top tips to help you boost the organic reach of your Facebook posts.
Have a read & try them out for yourself!
Create dialogue 💬
Don’t just talk at your audience. Create a dialogue that includes them.
This could be a question, or a piece of advice included in your post that encourages your followers to want to take notice of your content.
This opportunity for genuine dialogue can encourage engagement or interaction from your followers that can, in turn, increase the reach of your Facebook content as more & more people begin to get involved!
Quality over quantity
Another way to reach more people with your Facebook posts is to focus on providing quality content for your audience.
Don’t just post as much as possible to help drive your reach, think about how you can create content that will make people want to stop, view and interact with what you’re posting.
This can be a frustrating piece of advice – especially when you consider how much time we can devote to creating Facebook posts.
But your audience will appreciate the effort you’ve put into your content.
And, over time, you’ll be able to notice this appreciation as your audience interaction also starts to shift!
Educate your fans on how they can see more of your content
One way you can increase the reach of your Facebook posts without having to focus on how you create your content is by educating your fans on how they can choose to see your content first!
They can do this by visiting your profile & under the ‘Following’ section, select the ‘See First’ option.
This will help them see more of your content on their newsfeed; as they’ve actively chosen to see your posts first in their feed when they log into Facebook.
Follow live trends 📈
We’re all interested in real-time news, trends, or stories.
So, if you get the chance (and, if the topic is somehow relevant to your brand!) then think about trying to use one of these trending topics as content for your Facebook Page.
This could help you create a trending or viral post, which will likely increase your usual reach and could even drive traffic to your Facebook Page.
Show your face!
People buy into people – especially when it comes to business.
So if you’re not showing you on Facebook, why not?
Your customers will feel more comfortable and trusting of the brand if you’re happy to show them the real people behind the content and the products/services.
I know for a fact that we tend to get a much higher reach & engagement rate if we share content that includes the Hypestar team & our recent activities.
Why not give it a go yourselves?
Be transparent
I briefly mentioned the concept of sharing brand activity in the point made above.
Well, if you’ve not thought of it already, why not take this a step further & think about creating ‘Behind the Scenes’ content for your followers.
This could include how you make products, or who is involved in providing your services and so on.
This kind of content is genuinely valued by your audience and they’ll really appreciate the fact that you’ve let them in on exclusive knowledge of how your brand works/runs!
Value that should, in turn, help you to boost your post reach.
Click-bait, Like-bait, Fake News
Fake news (literally as it sounds – stories or claims that are made up or false) is something people are really beginning to hate online.
And because people are showing their disapproval towards it, Facebook is too.
The platform is now actively reprimanding any pages promoting fake news by preventing them from reaching a large audience.
And, just in case you forgot what this blog was all about, that’s literally the opposite of what we’re trying to achieve here!
Create more video
People are watching more video content than ever before.
But how can creating video content help boost your post reach?
According to ‘Meet Edgar’:
[F]actors like the average amount of time someone spends watching a video can impact its reach.
Meet Edgar
But how long do people have to watch your video to influence reach?
As it turns out, if someone watches a video on Facebook for 3 or more seconds, it will count as a view.
Meaning that if you’re creating video content that educates, inspires, or engages your audience for 3 seconds or longer. Then your video content will likely begin to positively affect the reach of your Facebook content!
Not only this, but because video tends to be able to tell a story more effectively and more emotively than an image or text.
There’s more likelihood that your followers will be compelled to ‘Like’, ‘Comment’, or ‘Share’ your video content above a regular post!
It’s a win-win for sure!
Influencers & allies
Encourage your staff or business contacts to share your Facebook content so that it gets in front of more people!
Don’t get me wrong, people won’t be willing to share your posts every single day.
But if you have big news and want the world to know, then to get the ball rolling you can always ask people you trust to spread the word for you!
‘@’ mention
Another way you can encourage business allies to get involved in your Facebook content is by ‘@’ mentioning them in your posts.
If you do this, then Facebook will send them a notification to tell them that you’ve included them in your post.
More often than not, this encourages them to get involved & engage in your content – boosting your overall post reach!
Watch the video below to see how this is done:
Get more engagement
Throughout these ‘Reach’ boosting 10 top tips, I’ve been mentioning engagement – more specifically, the idea of boosting engagement to drive your reach up!
The reason why engagement will help you increase your post reach, is because whenever someone ‘Likes’, ‘Comments’, or ‘Shares’ your Facebook content. Their community will be able to see that they’ve interacted with you.
This, in turn, can encourage them to get involved. Thus, helping you reach more (new!) people on the platform and push your Reach up!
But how do I get more engagement?
All of the top tips given in this blog are great ways of helping you to increase your engagement – that’s why they can be so effective in boosting your post reach too!
But there is one thing you can add to your Facebook content to try & encourage your followers to engage in a certain way.
That thing is a ‘Call To Action’.
Call to actions (CTAs) are digital signposts that tell our audience what we want them to do.
For instance – ‘Book Now’, ‘Comment Below’, ‘Get in Touch’.
You should always think about including a CTA at the end of your Facebook Post to help guide your followers to respond to your content in a particular way.
This simple addition can be incredibly effective in increasing your post engagement. Give it a try!
Have you given any of these a go for your social media success on Facebook?
Let me know in the comments below!
