If you use Facebook to engage with your customers, you’re probably aware there have been changes to the algorithms that prioritise posts in a users feed. These changes were rolled out in October 2019. We immediately noticed the increased time and effort that was required to maintain organic reach for our customers.
The new algorithms are designed to show users more posts from friends, family and groups. This is why there has been a significant decline in organic reach for businesses. When you factor in the increasing competition, getting your post in front of your customers is getting really, really hard.
Does this mean that posting on social media channels is now a waste of time? Not at all. Here’s the good news. You can still reach your audience effectively by working smarter, not harder. Here’s what you need to do.
Take advantage of Facebook advertising
Many marketers forget the simple rule that you can’t generate business with organic reach alone. Facebook advertising is very effective and offers a better ROI than many other forms of advertising. We’re not talking about just boosting posts, we’re talking about using paid posts.
Here’s why a solid ad campaign is so good. Facebook collects a lot of personal information about its users, so this allows you to precisely target large numbers of your ideal customers. If you’re getting a positive ROI, you can scale up your campaign and reach exponentially wider audiences with almost no interference from News Feed’s ranking system.
Use organic posts to engage with your existing customers
Essentially we need to rethink our approach to using organic posts to build a brand. If you’re trying to reach large numbers of = potential customers, you’d have to invest a lot of time into your organic campaign. So much time in fact, that is isn’t worthwhile any more.
So the key is to use organic posts to build stronger, deeper relationships with the people who have already engaged with your brand. The goal is to create meaningful interactions.
This means creating valuable, useful content that resonates with your customers so they want to engage with you by liking it, commenting on it and sharing it with others. Get this right and you’ll build great engagement stats and get a higher priority in the updated News Feed algorithm.
Here’s a list of tips for creating effective organic content
- Create emotive content. The most shared content in social media evokes: admiration, amazement, astonishment, curiosity, interest and uncertainty.
- Use quotes in your headlines that spark intrigue. Quotes are one of the most shared types of content in social media.
- Avoid tacky bait tactics which manipulate users into engaging with you. Facebook is getting better at fighting these posts and will continue to get better still.
- Post videos. Videos have 135% better organic reach than images and a higher engagement rate. Videos have a higher priority in News Feed algorithms so you’re also getting a free bump up.
What does the future hold?
The global trend in digital media is to put content in front of users that they want to see. Facebook is getting better at predicting what users want to see and is using sophisticated tools to do so. There’s no stopping the decline in organic reach, but you can still have a strong Facebook presence with the right strategy.
If you need more information, feel free to get in touch.
