This has all to do with Facebook’s desire to promote meaningful interactions by prioritising posts from friends and family.
If you’re wondering how to increase organic reach on Facebook, you’ve come to the right place! Keep reading to find out more about the latest methods that marketers use to increase organic reach!
Meaningful Interactions
Facebook Insights is a powerful little tool that is used to analyse your page’s performance. There are more than one different types of reach listed on the platform.
Post reach shows the number of people who had ‘any posts from your Page enter their screen’.
Total reach shows the number of people who had any content from your page enter their screen. This data includes content that’s organic and content that’s promoted through ads.
Organic reach, as you may have guessed, refers to the number of people who viewed your post organically (not through an ad). Organic reach is important because it makes it easier for your content to rank higher on Facebook.
That’s right. Facebook ranks posts, just like Google does. Facebook prioritises posts coming from friends or family as well as posts that seem to receive more comments, likes and shares. The best way to ensure that people engage with your content is to create content that promotes meaningful interaction.
Be More Human
Never forget that you’re creating content for humans. Try to actively engage with your audience by replying to their comments and by getting a bit more personal with your responses.
Watch your style and tone of voice. This is something that many brands don’t get right. People know you’re not their friend, but you don’t need to constantly remind them of the fact.
Stilted language causes a huge disconnect between your brand and your audience. It’s like saying: we’re here and you’re there. But that’s not what you want. Show your audience that there are real people behind it all.
Some brands will naturally adopt a more formal style of writing, and that’s ok. However, you need to make sure that that style doesn’t make it to your comments or messages.
Create and Publish Video Content
Video does great on Facebook. Users tend to scroll quickly through images and posts, but will usually stop for a second or two to check out what a video is about.
You’ve got about 3 seconds to capture your viewer’s attention with compelling visuals and exciting or new information. If you know your audience well, then you’ll know what kind of content would interest them.
It’s always a great idea to focus less on products and more messages and communication. Remember, you want people to leave comments and actively engage with your posts by sharing them with friends and family.
Use captivating visuals and try to elicit a strong emotional response. Remember to publish native videos whenever possible. Facebook favours video content that’s hosted directly on their platform.
Live streaming can skyrocket organic reach. Live videos receive six times more interactions than regular videos and we can see why: They create an environment where people can discuss and debate issues in real-time.
Experiment with different topics to figure out what type of content offers the highest possible engagement. Make sure you actively engage with your audience once you go live. The more you know about them, the better.
Try Different Post Formats
Videos are great, but you should keep your audience interested and engaged by trying out other different post formats too. Mixing things up with diverse content will result in more likes and shares.
Want to know more about the different types of posts on Facebook? Well, the possibilities are endless, but here are some ideas:
- Social photos. It could be a picture with some share-worthy text to go along with it. Think inspirational quotes, interesting facts or helpful tips.
- Question posts. What better way to ignite a discussion? Questions demand answers, and people love to share their views and opinions on social media.
- Polls. Another great way to engage your audience.
- Blog Posts. Share your blog posts on Facebook. Blogs will not fix your organic reach problems overnight, but they do provide users with interesting content that’s highly shareable.
- Stories. Sharing special moments with users could potentially increase organic reach.
Keep your audience’s needs in mind when creating new content. What kind of content would they like to see from you and why? Create a list of different topics and test your ideas by trying out different post types to get your message across.
Get the Timing Right
You want people to view and engage with your content. This will be much easier if you manage to get the timing right. Post when your audience is online for maximum engagement and organic reach.
Thursday and Fridays are the best days to post on Facebook but ideal times vary. Look into your performance data and try to locate patterns of increased interactions. When do users tend to view and engage with your content the most?
It may be that people enjoy your content, but Facebook just won’t show it to them. One way to ensure interested users see your content every time you hit that publish button is to kindly ask that they turn on their notifications for your posts.
Don’t use Clickbait
No one likes clickbait. Facebook doesn’t seem to like it either, which is exactly why you should avoid it if your goal is to win more organic reach.
Don’t confuse interesting and intriguing headlines with clickbait. Word-play and clever titles are fair game. Clickbait is less about describing interesting and click-worthy content and more about tricking users into clicking links that lead to low-quality pages.
Clickbait titles and pictures affect post quality. If your only goal is to get clicks, then you shouldn’t expect Facebook to show or promote your content. Clickbait posts offer nothing to users.
To avoid Facebook’s harsh judgement, ensure that your content screams quality and is free of clickbait.
Follow these tips and you’ll improve organic reach in no time. Head over to our blog for more useful digital marketing tips and tricks!
