Facebook check. 1-2-1-2. Is this thing even on?
Don’t worry, you’re plugged in – it’s Facebook, not you. If you’ve spent any time on your Facebook Business page, you’ve shared the frustration of feeling like no one can hear you. Unfortunately, it’s true – your posts aren’t reaching your entire audience.
Why Aren’t I Reaching People on Facebook?
The short answer: Facebook changed their priorities. Instead of showing every person every post, Facebook uses various filters and an algorithm to show people the content it thinks that they want to see the most, in the order that it thinks they want to see it. Facebook is hush-hush about the specifics of their algorithm, but they’ve made it clear that posts from friends always take priority over posts from business pages.
Long-time Facebook users might remember the changes that Business Pages have gone through over the years. In 2007, when business pages launched, any content you posted to your business page went out to every single person who followed you. As Facebook’s algorithm evolved, business pages began noticing less and less reach on their posts. According to research by Social@Ogilvy, organic posts from business pages only reach between 2% and 6% of their Facebook Page Likes. With the algorithm constantly updating, this number is getting smaller and smaller.
What Can I Do to Reach More People on Facebook?
Before you abandon Facebook as a lost cause, there are still ways to reach your audience, and the engagement you receive is still valuable.
Post Smarter, Not Harder
The silver lining of Facebook’s shakeup is that quality is now vastly more important than quantity. Instead of worrying about posting every single day, you can scale back your schedule and focus your efforts on making each post better quality. The key? Provide valuable content that your audience wants to share.
Take Advantage of Video
Facebook has been moving more and more towards becoming a video platform, and because they’re eager to push video they give video posts more weight in the newsfeed. Even better? Live Video is given significant weight in the algorithm. Followers of your page will see your Live Video, even if they don’t regularly engage with your content. Take advantage by incorporating more Live Video (and video content in general) into your strategy.
Target Your Posts
Did you know that each post on your page can be targeted toward a specific audience? Clicking the target icon underneath the text editor will allow you to narrow your post’s target to a specific audience.
But if you truly want to play…you might have to pay. Boosting posts is an easy way to broaden your visibility. Boosting a post gives your content some extra juice and makes it more likely to show up higher in your audiences’ feeds.
The takeaway from all of this? Social media is an ever-changing landscape. To compete, you have to be adaptable.
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