We look at three vital ways of increasing reach on Facebook – without spending a cent on promotion.Â
Here’s a question that doesn’t stray far from the lips of all audience development professionals and social media editors; how do we increase our Facebook reach?
With organic reach now almost negligible (2.6% was the average in March), but posts and engagement with content increasing, it can be a confusing time for any publisher that relies on Facebook for a significant portion of visitors.
There’s no doubt that dollars are behind some of the biggest engagement numbers on Facebook, but clever strategising also plays a key role.
Based on some of what our research tells us, as well as discussions with Spike users, here are three things to keep in mind when pondering your overall reach.
1) It’s All About Content and Tone
Know your audience.
Earlier this year, BBC Sport’s Match of the Day page saw a 6,000% increase in referrals after a review of data pointed to the need to freshen up the tone the social media team was taking with their largely young, male audience.
[bctt tweet=”‘@BBCSport’s @BBCMOTD page saw 6,000% increase in referrals after a new, fresher tone was adopted!'”]
Meanwhile, Bauer Media, a NewsWhip client who deployed Spike as part of a new content strategy earlier this year, saw a 249% increase in social referrals to their network of sites when they switched up the type and tone of content that they were posting on their regional radio stations’ Facebook pages.
“It’s not about cramming everything into social. It’s about using it to get to those audiences, and making sure that your initial offer is really solid,” explained Ali Wilkinson, Bauer’s Digital Content Manager.
The biggest Facebook success stories in our monthly rankings are the ones that are consistently posting what their fans are interested in seeing. From Bleacher Report’s wrestling updates to Vox’s video explainer updates, the successful social publishers are the ones that aren’t shooting blindly into the news feed.
Subscribe to our newsletter for a forthcoming case study on how Bauer Media successfully ramped up their social strategy.Â
2) Analyse Your Own Data First
‘Is post frequency affecting our organic reach?’
‘Should we be posting more in the mornings?’
‘Would more native content help improve our reach?’
These are familiar questions for any social media team wondering why some posts are going viral, others are limping along, and some seem to never get a chance.
When it comes to news feed best practice, there are no hard and fast rules, but careful analysis of the data at your disposal can’t be overstated.
And what kind of factors should be analysed?
A. Post Type: What kind of posts are consistently working for your page? If you’re posting a lot of external links to an audience that’s predominantly on mobile, maybe they’d appreciate a little more content that can be consumed in the news feed.
Maybe you’re overdoing videos – bear in mind that internet connectivity is one of the elements the Facebook algorithm likely takes into account when determining news feed composition.
Find out more in Insights’ Posts tab.
B. Page and Tab Visits: Where do visitors go on your Facebook page? Predominantly the timeline? Make sure there’s a healthy buffet of stories, regularly updated and all with strong social ledes. The photos tab? Start working on your captions and make sure to add links into photo descriptions if needs be. You can check all this information in the Page and Tab Visits section of Insights.
C. People: Who are your fans, where do they live, and what age are they? Insights’ People feature allows you to take a deep dive into the demographic make-up of your audience. Information such as gender, language, city location and more is all available, as well as the ability to identify the number of people who engaged with your content over the last 28 days. This is very useful in giving direction about what content may work on your page.
3) Use the Facebook Tools Already at Your Disposal
While Facebook Mentions and live streaming have been grabbing most of the attention on the Facebook tools front lately, there are already a number of distribution tools available on Facebook to help put your content in front of a wider audience.
When posting in the first instance, it can be useful to make use of post targeting, which targets individual posts based on interests and location. Target fans who have similar interests to the post in question, and consider the location of different readers. For big pages, it’s possible to use Facebook’s geographic targeting feature to post separately for different timezones and regional interests.
If there’s a piece of content that you’d rather remove from people’s timelines (perhaps its out of date), simply remove it from visibility in news feeds. When posting, select the ‘Post End Date’ option in targeting, and specify when you’d like it to stop appearing in news feeds. This is particularly useful with time-sensitive content, such as developing news stories, or sports events.
Elsewhere, live Q&As can generate significant interest on a page, while, yes, live video already seems to be attracting higher-than-average engagement for the early testers.
[bctt tweet=”‘Facebook live video already attracting higher-than-average engagement for early testers’ says @_liamcorcoran” via=”no”]
What other simple tips do you have for boosting reach on Facebook? Let us know on Twitter.
Next:
1) Sign up for a free Spike trial to see the stories, videos and more engaging Facebook right now.
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