Tim Mocan — February 20, 2018 — February 20, 2018
If you’ve been running a Facebook page for some time, you’ve probably noticed that – over the past years – Facebook social reach has been taking a hit.
Some like to call it a “conspiracy,” but when you consider the data, there seems to be some truth to this. For example, between January and July in 2016, organic reach for various publishers decreased by approximately 52%.
Plus, this isn’t something that just affects small pages. Even Facebook pages that have over 500,000 likes could end up dealing with an organic reach as low as 2%.
Sadly, Facebook social reach has been steadily declining since a couple of years ago. Some even speculated it was a move on Facebook’s part to get businesses to buy more ads.
It’s not hard to see why. After all, to quote a spokeswoman from Facebook:
“Like many mediums, if businesses want to make sure that people see their content, the best strategy is, and always has been, paid advertising.”
Of course, we can’t just chalk this up to paid advertising alone. The issue is more complex than that, and getting to the bottom of it could provide you with the advice you need.
So, taking all that into consideration, here are 3 more specific reasons why your Facebook social reach might having problems:
1. You Either Post Too Often or Too Rare
I’ve actually talked to some page owners about this, and – to my surprise – few actually knew that the rate at which a Page posts can have an impact on its social reach.
Basically, if you post too often or too rare, your Facebook social reach is likely to go down. What’s more, this works differently depending on what type of page you run.
According to some research, there’s a pretty clear difference between brand pages and media pages when it comes to post frequency. Apparently, media-focused pages have more freedom when it comes to post frequency.
The main idea is this:
- If your page is meant to promote your brand, it’s recommended to stick to just one post per day (meaning around 5-10 posts/week).
- If your page is meant to promote your media company, you’re better off with posting up to 7 posts per day (up to 49 posts/week).
Bottom line – if you’re promoting a brand, you should focus on not overdoing it when scheduling page posts. On the other hand, if you’re an admin of a media page, make sure you don’t fall behind, and that you keep your audience engaged with fresh content.
Speaking of keeping your audience engaged …
2. You Don’t Focus Enough on Engagement
If you run a business Facebook page, it’s not really enough to just to post about your products/services. I mean, just think about it – if you were a potential customer, would you feel like engaging with a basic, dull post mentioning a product/service?
Not really, right? But if it were a post advertising a certain deal or discount on a particular product/service, the reaction would definitely be different. Make it clear the offer is limited to increase the sense of urgency, and you’ve got yourself some decent engagement.
Besides that, you should also make sure that most of your posts have a CTA (call to action) of sorts. A link to an article or landing page is a good way to drive audience engagement.
And yes, this advice would also apply to you if you’re more or less just a blogger, and are not in the business of selling products or services (unless you’re invested in affiliate marketing).
For instance, let’s say you’re a travel blogger.
Well, besides just posting photos of places you’ve seen, you should also try posting polls to ask your audience their opinion on various topics (which country they’d like you to visit next, or which traditional food they love the most, for example).
At the same time, you should also make sure that the posts you publish are not generic. Instead of just adding a description talking about how beautiful a certain city/country was, try talking about more engaging, thought-provoking topics, such as urban/folklore legends, less-known facts, or even a discussion on staying safe/avoiding bad areas (the last one would be a bit of a touchy subject, but one that would generate a lot of responses nonetheless).
Oh, and – whenever possible – try to use videos as often as you can. Generally, they tend to be more engaging than photos. This goes for all situations.
3. You’re Not Targeting the Right Audience.
Generally, this only happens if you don’t brand your page the right way. People need to be able to tell what your page is about, what you’re promoting, or what you’re selling the moment they land on it.
Otherwise, you’ll end up with an audience you can’t really engage with, as you don’t share the same interests. What’s more, your content won’t usually be displayed/promoted by Facebook to users who might be genuinely interested in it.
However, the real problems begin when Facebook pages get involved with buying page followers. Now, I’m not accusing you of doing that or anything, but I do know that – sometimes – Facebook pages (especially business pages) need that extra edge on the market, and are willing to get involved with this.
Well, the plain truth is that it’s just wasted money. Keep in mind that – usually – if people don’t like your page in an organic manner, they will probably not interact with it at all. Also, when you pay for followers, you’re most likely just getting fake accounts, which will eventually be taken down by Facebook.
Here’s a more in-depth experiment that showcases how harmful paid followers are for a page’s reach (not to mention its image).
All in all, if you pay for followers and likes, you’re most likely not going to improve your Facebook social reach since you won’t be targeting the right people (or real people, for that matter).
Know Any Other Factors That Can Heavily Impact Facebook Social Reach?
These were the main ones I was able to come across after plenty of research. In case you know of others, feel free to share them with the rest of us in the comment section.
And don’t forget to share this article if you think it might help a friend, business partner, or work colleague improve their social media reach on Facebook.
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