How do you increase your organic reach on Facebook? This is a question marketers often ask as Facebook continues to change the algorithm and make it more difficult for us to reach our audience. Facebook remains one of the most important channels for marketers today, and it is vital that we understand what works and what doesn’t.
Organic reach on Facebook is somewhere between one and 6%. In this article, I’m gonna share some of my best tips with you for how you can get similar results. And read till the end, I’m gonna share with you exactly what not to do on Facebook as well.
First, to get more organic reach on Facebook, we must understand what are the Facebook algorithms looking for? And that is highly engaging content. Facebook wants users to lean in and to feel good about the content that they’re consuming. To have positive sentiment.
Here are my four best content types for maximum organic reach.
1.Publish more video posts.
Facebook wants to become the next generation digital streaming television. And they’re absolutely favoring video content in the news feed. My recommended ratio is 70% video, 20% photos, and only 10% links. Links actually gets the lowest reach and lowest engagement on Facebook. The good news, you can still put links in to your photo and video posts.
2 Facebook Live video broadcasts.
Facebook Live gets six times the engagement over regular uploaded video. You can go live maybe once a week, more if you want. But once a week would be a great start.
3. Host more Watch Parties.
A Watch Party is where you take any public video, including your own, recorded or live, and you’re basically hosting it for your audience as if it’s live right now. Facebook says people are 800 times more likely to comment on a Watch Party video than if they’re watching the video solo. And, remember, it’s all about engagement. Facebook wants us to create more community and connection through video content.
4.Ask simple, short questions.
The key here is relevancy. You could ask, “Where’s your favorite place to go on vacation?” if you’re a travel company. But, that might not be relevant for every audience.
So, make it relevant to your audience. No visuals needed, no video, no image. Just a simple, short question. And watch your audience respond.
Next, let’s look at tips for increasing your organic reach.
Tip Number one
This is counter intuitive. But, I want you to try posting less content. People think if they just post more volume, they’ll reach more people.
That’s counter intuitive. It’s not how the algorithm works. Facebook wants you to focus on really good quality posts and just slow down a bit. Maybe if you’re posting like three a day, try one a day. You’re more likely to reach your audience and get more engagement on that one post than trying to go with more volume.
Tip number two
You can drive traffic from all kinds of other sources to your specific Facebook post. Every post on Facebook has its own unique link. It’s the timestamp, the date and time. If you click on that, that gives you the unique URL for that post. Now, you can take that link and then put it over on Twitter, on your email list, on your blog, on Instagram Stories, and you’re letting people know, “Hey, we have a new Facebook post out.” And as you’re sending more traffic to your individual Facebook posts, more reach more engagement begets more reach and more engagement.
Tip number three
To integrate a messenger chat bot. People will be subscribed to receive messages from you in their messenger inbox. And you can send out reminders and updates. Let them know when you have a new video, a new post, you’re going live on Facebook, and you’ll automatically reach more of your audience.
Tip number four
Is to allocate ad budget for your best performing content. Now I know this is a video all about getting better organic reach. It’s kind of counter intuitive, but it really works. You can amplify the organic reach with even a nominal budget, and you’ll see the reach of that post and your others will start to gain more traction, more reach, and more engagement, even with a small amount of ad budget.
I’m gonna share three things that will absolutely zap your organic reach on Facebook.
1. Don’t even bother posting YouTube links. YouTube is Facebook’s biggest competitor when it comes to video, and the algorithms pick up that you’ve posted a YouTube video, and you’ll hardly get any reach. Sometimes you just never know, and you have to test.
2.Avoid what Facebook calls engagement bait. And that is where you’re trying to cause your audience to engage with you in an inauthentic manner and Facebook actually listens to your video, including your Live while you’re broadcasting for any of those trigger words. Things like comment below, and please like, and please share.
So think of other ways that you can do that. What are your thoughts? What do you think? How have you experienced this? Let us know your thoughts below.
3.Avoid being completely off topic and irrelevant. You know your audience best and what they come to you for. So, try not to stray too far from your brand messaging and your brand topics.
So, bottom line, to increase your organic reach, Facebook is looking for highly engaging content, specifically video posts and Facebook Live, one of my personal favorite ways to reach my audience.