We’re going to be honest, the best way to increase your reach on Facebook is with a combination of organic and paid strategies. If you don’t have the budget for ads, or you’re having trouble getting good organic reach and want to maximize your ad strategy, we have some organic Facebook strategies for you.
First and foremost, organic reach is the number of people who see your post without paid distribution of that post. The best way to get a good organic reach on your posts, is to make engaging content that people want to see, engage with (like, comment, etc), or share! It isn’t just about making great content though, we’ve lined up our top tricks for getting the most out of your great content.
Ultimately, Facebook wants to keep you on Facebook for as long as possible. One of the ways they do this is by using algorithms to promote content that is more likely to keep a user on the platform. The trick is creating and posting content that keeps people engaged and doesn’t lead them to another platform.
A great example of this is if you post a link. If you link to an article on an external site, a user who clicks that link will be taken off-platform, and instead go to another external site. This isn’t going to help you out very much with the algorithm and it’s unlikely you’d see a boost in reach. You might still get a lot of engagement but you probably won’t see a lot of organic reach because the user isn’t staying on the platform.
Now that you know Facebook wants to keep users on the platform, we can talk about the kind of content that does that best so that Facebook will do the work of boosting your posts for you. A great example of posts to make are open-ended questions.
Ask your followers what kind of content they want to see from you, or what they’re excited about this week, even where they call home! Anything that gets a user to comment on your thread that you can start a conversation in is great. Be sure to comment back and respond to everyone, both so that you’re boosting engagement, but also getting to know your followers!
Facebook Lives are a great way to boost your reach because a user who is engaged in your live video will be more likely to stay on the platform. A bonus with Lives is that not only are users staying on Facebook, but they’re actively engaging with it too. Facebook Lives are one of the best ways to do this- users aren’t just passively scrolling and watching a video, they’re usually commenting questions or giving their opinions in real-time.
If you decide to give Facebook Lives a try, it’s also important to utilize other tools on Facebook to double your impact. Facebook event pages are a quick and easy way to boost engagement and awareness of your Lives. Creating an event page, inviting your friends and colleagues, and posting it on the event page is a very efficient way to boost engagement for your Live.
Not only are groups great for networking, finding leads, and getting to know people, they’re also helpful for boosting your posts! Be sure to mark down when groups let members self-promote, and post something! A great idea is to post something that will boost engagement (like an open-ended question mentioned above) and ensuring whatever you post next is something that you want people to see.
If your last post exploded with engagement, your next one will get a boost from the algorithm. This is especially useful if you don’t have a budget- so don’t be afraid to shuffle your scheduling to ensure that whatever you post following a big rush of engagement gets out the content you want to be seen the most- this should probably be something that’s aligned with your business goals.
It’s also important to be helpful in your groups! If you’re super helpful and friendly in the group, people will remember you. They might remember you when they’re looking for help on their next project, or when they have a client they can’t take on and are looking for someone to refer them to. Being helpful will always transcend any algorithm because people will want to re-engage with you. You need to have an audience and people who engage with you before you can find leads, or make a sale with that audience, and groups are a great way to create audience growth.
If you have a limited budget, groups are fantastic for distributing content. If you have one really great video, or a couple really great posts, you can run that content for a long period of time and continuously get traffic on it. Share your great content in groups, on your profile, via email, and on other social platforms to get the most out of your content.
You don’t have to create your own group. You can create your own group, but you can build off of someone else’s group too. Starting one from scratch can be right for some people, but it also takes a long time to build up. In the meantime, you can join a group that’s existing already and help add force and propel that group forward.
Your help might look like offering to moderate. One day of moderating instead of seven days of moderation takes a lot less time and effort, but people in the group will still see you as a leader. If you don’t have time or don’t want to moderate, or even if you want to get your feet wet first, you can share posts and helpful comments in other groups associated with your business.
Find out what days you can self-promote on, mark them in your calendar and paste the URL, and be sure to post in them. Is there a time you can go live, or is there a time someone else goes live that you can join in on? What about a thread for introducing yourself? If you want to get the most out of your groups, being aware of all of this information will keep you from missing out on any opportunities.
If you decide to grow your own group, there are a few tips we have to get you started. Be sure to avoid going strictly for vanity metrics- the amount of people in your group is less important than the quality of people in your group. The more people you have in the group, the more moderators you need, and the more time you’ll be putting into it. This can be great for generating leads or partnerships, but only if it’s with the right people.
That’s why we encourage you to build a group and aim for slow, steady growth. If you think Facebook is sending your content to roughly 5% of the users in your group, and you know that all 5% of those people align with your business goals, then all of that content is worth it. If you have 50,000 people in your group, but a lot of them don’t align with you, then the 5% who do see your posts may not ever take action on them.
Most importantly, whether it’s in your own group or another group- be authentic. Try not to sound like a marketer, and talk about things that are relevant to you and your clients. A great content idea is to remember if your clients always ask you a specific question- try to make content on that so that it’s something that will resonate with your audience.
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Leave us a comment below with any question you have about the Facebook algorithm or about marketing in general and we’ll be sure to get back to you!
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