Ruby Rusine October 7, 2020 
According to Pew Research, “As of July 2020, the U.S. has over 190,000,000 million Facebook users. The United States ranks second to India in terms of the number of users.”
In fact, Facebook remains “the primary platform for most Americans because around seven in ten U.S. adults (69%) use Facebook“, also from Pew Research.
No wonder why 90 million small businesses are on Facebook because they know that their clients are there.
And hear this: all these business pages are vying to get seen by a Facebook audience that has thousands of other contents beckoning them on their news feed.
Facing this challenge of being one of the millions of companies using Facebook page, what do you do to stay visible?
This business guide focuses on how to get more people see your Facebook page.
Table of Contents
- Basic tips to get more people see your Facebook page
- Keep your fans talking
- Really (!) keep your fans talking because…recency
- Dressing up your “About Page” for Google
- Get on the Facebook map
Basic tips to get more people see your Facebook page
The business guide covers basic and intermediate tips so you get seen not just by your audience but also by others that may look for your product and service.
Shiny personality
Please bear with me for a bit because I will let you know after this section why this is important.
You will never get seen if you are doing exactly what the rest of the Facebook business crowd is doing. Get out of the template-crowd to stand out.
If you really want more people to see your Facebook page, give your Facebook business profile a personality.
How does that work?
Now, if you were to describe your Facebook business page as a person – what are your distinctive qualities?
What characteristics make you unique? What does your Facebook business page say about you?
Is your Facebook brand personality funny or serious? Is it adventurous and fearless or careful? Is it conscientious or brash? Is it snarky or witty? Is it altruistic or self-absorbed? Is it bold or reserved?
Your Facebook page personality has an affective influence on how fans see you perceive your company.
Can your Facebook page fans easily distinguish you from your competitors?
The problem of not having a defined Facebook page personality…
With an undefined personality, often a social media strategist brings with him/her personality when posting on your Facebook business page.
The problem comes when that person leaves, the “personality” goes with him/her.
I have seen this happen in social media often. I could sense a switch in the tone and of engagement because the “personality” has changed.
You owe it to your company to get this defined early on.
Besides, it really helps with consistency in the tone and of the message you want your Facebook fans to see.
Keep your Facebook business page visible
Visual images
Want people to see your Facebook page?
Visual images are a surefire way to get seen by your audience – and more.
Did you know? When people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information- three days later.
However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people keep 65% of the information.
Visual contents are very powerful engagement tools.
It can be used to better connect with Facebook fans.
Also, it can help educate your audience about who you are and what you do.
No wonder why some of the best Facebook business pages use social media visual images to convey their message, and to make their brand visible.
So how do you use social media graphics to get seen more?
Facebook Page Cover Image
Use your Facebook cover image to demonstrate value.
Why value?
A Facebook user typically follows a brand because they liked something about it; hence, to them you are adding value to their life.
Now, since the audience scans information on Facebook, use your business page cover to catch their attention by including values relevant to your desired audience.
2 key areas of your Facebook cover to remember:
- Spell it out on your cover image. You couldn’t do that back in the day when Facebook pages just started; now, you can. Use it well.
- This is one space that is often overlooked by some Facebook pages: reinforce your unique value by adding more context in the description section of your cover image. I often see this blank when it appears in the news feed because someone forgot the description.
Chubb North America, “the world’s largest publicly traded property and casualty insurer’ used this as their cover image (visited their page on Oct 1, 2020). It shows that they care about their community; not only that, they added a narrative that helps viewers better understand the context of what they are doing.
Did you forget yours?
Facebook now allows business users to use other forms of media instead of just one.
Cover photo visual types:
- Single image;
- Video; and,
- Slideshow of up to 5 images (note: this does not auto-play).
Which type of Facebook cover is the best for your company?
IMHO, any Facebook cover photo that shows value is the best Facebook cover to me.
Videos…and what you didn’t know
I have said this before and I am going to say it again: a video is the Facebook algorithm’s darling.
It gets pushed at the top of your audience’s news feed.
Hence, if you want more people to see your Facebook page, create videos.
Did you know? Overall Facebook page post engagement is 3.6%, but with Facebook video posts it’s almost twice that.
Shouldn’t that be a powerful motivation to include video content in your marketing strategy. ?
Live video or recorded? Test it.
3 things to remember about Videos:
- Tone of Voice
The tone of voice could be a deterrent for 75% of consumers to not buy a product because the voice annoyed them.
83% of consumers prefer an informal and chatty tone.
wyzowl Report: State of Video Marketing 2020
- Video Length
Length matters, too, in video marketing.
Vidyard reports that 68% of people would watch a video in full as long as they need not take more than a minute to do so. However, the figure drops by 18% if a video is 61 to 120 seconds in length.
- Sound off
Facebook users watch 85% videos without sound
I did a survey about this on Instagram, and here is what my followers said about the audio.
As it turns out, social media users prefer to scroll a video in silence.
80% of users are annoyed when videos auto-play sound, and it gives them a negative impression of your brand.
Facebook.com
Now, with the video sound off, it is essential that the image of your video is eye-catching.
If there’s dialogue or narration in your videos, adding captions makes it more accessible and increase engagement.
Keep your fans talking
While recency is a criterion in the algorithm’s ranking system, Facebook is, also, adjusting the signals it uses to identify contents that might be of immediate interest at any given moment, and keep users talking.
The more people talk about your post, the more people will see it. It also means that if a post from your company page keeps people talking; then the higher the chance that more people will see your page.
With a lot of company vying for prime time to get a Facebook user’s attention, do not create contents that suck.
Create eye-catching & engaging posts such as:
- Image with a quote from your blog instead of plain texts as status,
- Images of a product/s or service/s, single photo or carousel,
- On-topic funny posts,
- Videos – experiment with short and long videos,
- Posts from your own community; and,
- Helpful linked posts from your site (and your community)
Really (!) keep your fans talking because…recency
Out of sight; out of mind.
Unkown
As stated above a post’s recency is now a factored in by Facebook’s AI to determine what to show its Facebook users first. That could mean that the more recent the post, the higher the ranking of that post.
With the ranking algorithm on Facebook having a mind of its own, here’s the ugly cycle of this:
- The less you post; the less your fans will engage with your company page.
- The less they engage; the less the chance of people seeing more of your Facebook page post in the news feed.
- The less your company appears in the newsfeed; the less the chance of becoming “top of the mind” of your audience.
So what do you do to get seen on Facebook?
- Keep your Facebook page posts content fresh to get it shown to more.
- Produce content regularly and keep on bringing new ideas.
- At the very least – post once a day, NOT once a week.
You can’t err on over-posting at Facebook. Now why is that so?
People on Facebook are not on Facebook all the time.
Space out your post timing.
Besides, if you are posting posts of value to them, I don’t think that will turn them off.
Dressing up your “About Page” for Google
Facebook business pages are like public websites; and Google and Bing searches Facebooks pages like any website.
To get your Facebook seen in search results, there are 2 places in your “about page” that you can optimize:
- Additional information. This is your 10,000-character space to demonstrate who you are and what you are as a company to your Facebook audience. Note: formatting here is super ugly as of this time, so use this space with that thought in mind.
To optimize your Facebook page for search to get seen by more, see the blue arrows below:
Give your keywords primacy here. That’s what optimizing for search means.
I have heard it said often that, “Search is dead.” Not true.
Search is not dead. If search is dead, then Google & Bing should be dead too, right? It is just that optimization the way we know it is dead.
Pro-Tip: Search engines, like Google, look for keywords; your fans look for value.
Get on the Facebook map
If you try looking for a company or business on Facebook, will your Facebook page company information appear in the search results?
That MAY BE be because you have not added a business address, or a local phone number?
Not a “local” business?
That’s not a problem! You can still use Facebook’s address location by just adding your city. You may not be serving companies locally, but people in your geographic location may know someone that could use your products and services.
“Beyond Basics” to get Your Facebook Page Seen by Even More
Facebook as a paid platform?
Long gone are the days of posting and knowing that many, if not most, of your fans will see that content.
If you have been managing your Facebook business page for some time now, you most likely have noticed a decline of people viewing and interacting with your post.
“The harsh reality of Facebook today is that only about 1 out of 50 people who are already fans of your page will see any single post you make on your Facebook business page.”
Source: wordstream.com/blog/ws/2018/07/02/facebook-marketing-for-small-business
That is because too many Facebook business pages are producing too many content for fans.
That means competition for visibility on the news feed is high.
In order to get seen by more in their news feed, and to stay top of the mind, complement your organic work with paid Facebook advertising.
Facebook’s ad targeting capabilities has gotten better over the past few years. You can now pay to get your page seen by your ideal persona based on demographics, interests, web behavior, and more.
Additionally, there are tools and features inside Facebook ads that can help you maximize the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns.
If running ads is something that you are not sure you can tackle, there are Facebook ads specialists, *cough* like me, that can help you set it up, train you or manage and monitor it for you.
Right Facebook audience is not enough
You may already have established who your Facebook audience, I suppose.
But getting the who RIGHT is not enough, you also need to understand what they are going through. Know your audience’s present context.
This is true not just for Facebook but for other social media platforms, too.
Getting this insight need not be expensive, and it need not be complex.
As an example, according to Google during the height of COVID19 when people were still learning the ropes of being cooped:
As consumers face challenges in both work and leisure, they’re looking for ways to stay positive. We’re seeing more and more people turn to humor-searching for jokes, sharing GIFs and watching comedic content.
Think with google
Judgment and discretion are absolute musts when doing marketing.
There’s no excuse not to better understand the audience better.
Do you know when your audience may be in a better mood, hence off-guard, to watch your ad, or your Facebook page post?
A study made by Professor Keith Wilson of the Columbia business School revealed that, “When you feel low or sad, ads that are high energy are difficult to watch so you spend less time watching, and the ad is less effective.”
Apparently when people are in relaxed mood – and hence are happier, they are more likely to click an ad.
How well do you know your audience? What are your audience’s biases? What do they like and dislike? What are they interested in? And how are you going to lean into that?
Run experiments on what your audience prefers. And if you know already, what they prefer is not set on stone, it is a moving target. This is also the reason why measuring multiple metrics matter (see below).
Language in Context
Understanding your target niche on Facebook includes knowing the common terms and jargons your customers use.
If your target market are younger adults, at least be knowledgeable about the words they use or possibly the latest trends they are talking about in relation to your product.
The more you understand your fans on Facebook — the easier it is to craft better content that speak to them.
Mix multiple metrics
If you are doing Facebook pages for fun and as a hobby (lucky you!), then you don’t have to read this part. This is the hard part for many, so they do not do this.
But if you are using Facebook pages for business and planning to grow it, then tracking Facebook Insights is a strategic task.
Example: your team is trying to figure what content to produce. How do you know the right content to post on Facebook so you get seen by more people?
I already mentioned above that engagement rate for Facebook pages is 3.6%.
If a Facebook post of yours has an engagement rate that is higher than that, then that post is above average, and that is the post you should keep publishing.
(NOTE: The lesser the fans, the higher the engagement rate; the more the fans the lower it is).
That said, mix short term metrics you regularly gather from Facebook with your other business metrics.
That way you get a bigger picture and better understanding of what is happening in your market.
And being armed with that information, you can make a better judgment if:
- you are reaching the RIGHT people – so you would be seen by more right people;
- you are creating the RIGHT content and message;
- Facebook page is the right place for your company, or not, after you have given it considerable time and strategic efforts;
- you can use your other [observed] data to test it on Facebook; and,
- results on Facebook fit with the rest of what you are doing.
Don’t just collect data. Measure to change.
I wrote about social media metrics here and why you must measure efforts if you want to know more about social media metrics that you can mix.
Connect using your stories
Don’t get too buttoned-up here when communicating with your engaged audience. Share narratives that fit your message instead of a slick sales sheet.
Stories make your company more relatable – and engaging.
The more people engage with your company’s Facebook business page; the chances of getting seen by more are likely going to be better.
Go behind the scenes; share it.
Feature a success story from one of your clients.
Share what your company stands for and why.
These stories you share on Facebook shape the perception that users have of your business.
So the next section is something that we all can relate.
Genuinely Human
Sharing your company’s stories on Facebook does not have to be technical to the core.
It’s more about staying true to who you are and your values are as a company.
It’s about being genuinely human – not a product nor a brand.
Share your company’s foibles, mistakes, and lessons that your company learned. Everyone can relate to making mistakes.
After all, Facebook is still a SOCIAL media platform for connections. Family. Friends. Long-lost relatives. Humans.
People connect with people, not brands.
Excel in Providing Value
“The more you give; the more you receive.”
Book of acts adaptation
As people are getting bombarded with “buy-this” and “buy-that” posts from Facebook pages, be the business page that excel in providing value.
How does excellence in providing value look like to your Facebook audience?
- Posting content that teaches your Facebook audience something;
- Sharing content that makes your Facebook fans laugh. But still on-point;
- Publishing content that makes them think; or,
- Posting something that is uplifting to your Facebook fans.
- Giving someone in your community the spotlight on your page.
Every communication on your Facebook business page impacts your brand perception, thus posts you share should provide value.
So, if you want to see your fans keep coming back – and get seen by even more, apply the mindset, “more of them; less of you.”
Facebook pages that know how to get seen
- Toyota Forklift of Minnesota. Who would ever think a forklift company could be funny and relatable, but this company nails it and is consistent in doing it.
- Realtor.com understands their audience and the content their community looks for. They have a mix of contents there for home sellers and home buyers.
- Ford, an automotive manufacturer, identified what makes them unique and has put that on their cover page on Facebook (as of this writing).
- The Honest Kitchen on Facebook is a champ in portraying fun and funny through their posts. They even involve their fans to have fun as well using their engaging posts.
- Dove is true to their own skin. It’s a brand that shares their voice and lets their belief get known.
- Lennar understands what it means to be engaging on Facebook to get seen by more of their fans and followers by sharing Facebook posts that are super easy to digest. No long exhausting texts to read here.
Lastly…
Facebook, like any other social media platforms, changes so fast that tactical strategies have to be reviewed regularly to make sure that you are not left behind.
If you have not reviewed your Facebook strategy for some time now, remember that there are social media marketing strategists, like us, that are ready to help keep your Facebook page shiny to get seen by more.
If I missed anything or if you have more questions on how to get your Facebook page seen by more, leave a comment below.
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