Facebook organic reach is not dead, but you will need to work harder to get eyes on your pages. Here’s a rundown of what experts are saying will help you reach your audience. Facebook is still the top social media platform that marketers use and where consumers tend to look for and follow brand pages. So don’t despair!
Those running Facebook business pages have been seeing ever diminishing returns on their effort at getting their content in front of their audiences and fans, especially since around 2016. Yet Facebook remains the #1 platform for building an audience. Once upon a time, Facebook was incredibly fertile soil to grow our entrepreneurial and creative gardens in, at little to no cost to us. Many businesses are seeing a drastic reduction in reach, meaning that a tiny percentage of people are seeing our posts, even among those who follow our pages.
Have you ever heard something like, “The first one’s always free; that’s how they get you”? This has long been a business philosophy to hook prospective customers, used by savvy marketers and drug dealers alike. Facebook went and took that to the next level, introducing an easy-to-use platform where almost anyone could find and engage with their target audiences of customers, fans, members, and more.
Of course, there had to be a reckoning, and now that Facebook has more than 2.6 billion active monthly users worldwide, they continue to change the rules. Consider the amount of users and the amount of posts being made, and it makes more sense that Facebook tries to narrow the audience for any single post to a reasonable chunk. Otherwise, our brains would explode (okay, my words, not an actual medical opinion). Really, you don’t need to reach everybody, because not everybody is interested in what you’re offering. You need to reach the right people who are going to engage and build a smaller, engaged loyal group of diehard customers.
Community is key
Here are some of the latest tips and best practices to increase organic reach in 2021, provided by Facebook pros. Mark Zuckerburg keeps bringing up the concept of community, and the algorithm favors engagement, not only on Facebook, but across platforms. Nobody wants products and services constantly jammed in their faces.
This is a conversation, not a one-way portal into your customers’ brains and wallets. A constant barrage of salesy content, urging people to buy buy buy, grows real tedious real fast. “If you build it, they will come.” Only instead of a baseball field in the middle of nowhere, work to build a community.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Are you creating conversations?
- Are you using your platform to act as a resource and provide helpful or inside information in your niche or area of expertise?
- Are you asking your audience what they want and would like to see more of from you?
- Are you taking current events and trends into account, reacting to local/national/world news at all, and creating timely posts?
- Are you using a variety of post types (photos, videos, links) and taking advantage of Facebook’s built in post tools?
- Are you taking data into account for what content people are responding to favorably and when?
- Do you ever invest in Facebook ads or boosted posts for important content or events?
Find the answer to these questions to reevaluate your strategy, work on promoting a dialogue with your audience, and ideally you will see more engagement on your pages, fruitful interactions that ultimately lead to loyal customers and bigger sales.
Create Conversations
Zuckerburg himself comes back to this point repeatedly in his regular updates on the state of all things Facebook and how the algorithm works, saying Facebook will “prioritize posts that spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people.” Not every industry lends itself to deep thoughts, but it can be simple enough to engage your audience with community questions. People love giving their opinions or talking about a shared interest.
Community questions can be fun, lively, and create fun interaction between your audience and the business. A simple This or That question posted on one of the background color templates can get the conversation started. If people don’t have to invest a lot of time to answer, then great! Depending on the industry, these can be easy one-offs: Red wine or white? Beach vacation or mountains? TikTok or Reels? Mac or PC? Harley Davidson hogs or Kawasaki crotch rockets? Early bird or night owl?
Hot takes, unpopular opinions, are another way to get people chatting. I’m not espousing trying to stir up controversy here, unless that is appropriate for your business, but people get emotional as all get out for something as simple as pineapple on pizza or beans in chili. What’s a popular or common opinion in your field? How can you introduce a hot take to get people chatting? For an entrepreneurial page, you could put out a hot take on a cluttered desk, or making lists, or standing desks.
Sure, these conversations may start out superficial, but who knows? When people begin interacting on your page more, they begin seeing more that you post, and that’s when you can introduce something a little weightier, asking them to share their expertise or advice on a relevant topic.
Become a resource
Whether your business is a science journal, digital marketing, interior designing, or a Texas Hill Country resort, your business and your audience is unique. Real estate agencies have become good at this, so we’ll use them as an example. If you are selling or leasing properties in Austin or San Francisco, sell the area. Don’t only post the properties you’re selling or agent profiles. Post those, yes, but also post industry news and local attractions.
When people are interested in moving to a new city or a new neighborhood or investing in opening a business there, they need to know why the area is attractive. What is the business climate? What are the financial perks associated with living there? What is the area known for (local restaurants, live music hiking trails, swimming holes, no traffic)? Has the area made a list for quality of life, affordability, great job prospects in X industry? Sharing blogs, articles, infographics, videos, and photos highlighting any of these can help your page serve the interests of your target audience. This is a good thing.
Ask your audience
This is a simple tip for keeping things closer to your audience’s interests, helping you identify areas where your page may be lacking–and opportunities for growth, and keeping the conversation going. Be careful not to overuse this one, but it’s an important tool.
- Try a simple question, such as “What would you like to see more of on this page?”
- Create a poll, which is much faster to answer, and helps you narrow answers down to what you really want to know.
- Similar to the community questions, ask them to share something that has helped them. A classic example would be “What is the best entrepreneurial advice anyone has even given you?” Or “Please share some tips to fight procrastination.” Or “What is the top time-saving tool you use in your business (or for scheduling)?” Having your page followers (and hopefully others) chat with each other this way is helpful for them and for your organic reach.
Take current events and trends into account
This one’s simple: Read the room. This goes both ways. If there is renewed interest in, say, downtown lofts or sea shanty dances on TikTok, can you use this momentary heat to bring interest to your page? On the other hand, if there is a natural disaster, tragedy, or financial crash that has caused great suffering in an area? That’s a good moment to review your scheduled posts and delete or postpone anything that could be unintentionally triggering or offensive.
Some types of businesses are better suited to jumping on the latest trend. Do you have a bar or restaurant with a fairly young, social media savvy crowd? Go ahead, Photoshop that Bernie-Sanders-in-mittens image sitting on your patio (only if you can do it as the trend is hitting). Are you targeting an area that has recently been hit by extended power outages? I’m sorry to tell you, but this is not the time to promote that popup restaurant where diners experience eating in the dark.
Mix it up and use native Facebook tools
Of course you want to stay on brand, but please don’t get caught in a rut where all of your posts are one type. Consistency is one thing, but beware that this doesn’t turn into monotony. Assess where you can change things up. Add photos, videos, links to relevant blogs and articles, or community questions. Different people respond differently to different types of input. Use all the tools at your disposal to generate interest, draw people in, and get them reacting to and engaging with your page.
Facebook and all social media platforms have built in tools. They want you to use them. Often, this is a Facebook effort to capitalize on a similar, competing app. Trust me when I say, you will get brownie points (higher reach) when you take the time to use these native tools. Facebook Watch, Facebook Live, Facebook Stories, even using a background color template from the Facebook options, are all ways to show Facebook you’re paying attention and want to optimize the tools they are giving you.
Use provided data
You need to be able to look for patterns, evaluate the factors that made a particular post popular, and know when your customers and followers are likely to see your page and interact with it. Facebook provides a number of insights in the platform, but there are numerous external marketing tools you can purchase or sometimes use for free (depending on how many pages and platforms you are running, and how in-depth you want your data to be).
Posting willy nilly is not the most effective way to be. Decide what data is useful to you and make time to study it, and be willing to make changes to your content strategy based on the data. Like many other aspects of marketing, expanding your organic reach is a mixture of art and science, a balancing act of intuition and cold, hard numbers. Use them.
Consider paying to play
I know, I know, this story is about organic and not paid reach, but the fact is strategically paying for a Facebook ad or boosting a post to highlight a launch, event, special deal, or other important news will bring more people to your page. If the other tips, tools, and best practices referred to here are in place, once they find your page, you have the ability to keep their attention through organic means.
Keep on truckin’
These tips should help you expand your page’s organic reach. More importantly, they should help you build and support a community, earn loyal followers and customers, and generate positive buzz about your business. Keep working on becoming a resource and sharing helpful information. Have fun with it and experiment with new media and types of posts. Know yourself. Know your audience.
Paula Henry
July 22, 2008 at 8:16 am
Norm – I, too have spent endless hours studying what works, how others have accomplished what i want to and how to rise above mediocrity. BTW – that’s me at the front door, hoping no one will answer 🙂
Please do bore me with the details!
Chuck G
July 22, 2008 at 8:17 am
Um…Norm,
I hate to be the one to break this to you, but your blog is a waste of time. They don’t work. But don’t worry, mine doesn’t work either. And the blogs of the thousands of other AG readers aren’t worth the virtual paper that they’re printed on.
My opinion? Of course not. But it IS the opinion of no less that PropertyMinder, one of the leading agent websites. Check this out:
https://blog.propertyminder.com/imarketing-/bid/4673/Should-real-estate-agents-blog-No
So after you finish replying back to those 5 leads you just picked up from your blog, be sure to make it a top priority to shut your blog down today, and stop trying to creatively use the internet to increase your business.
…because it doesn’t work. After all, I read it online 🙂
Bill Lublin
July 22, 2008 at 8:39 am
Norm; There is no substitute for doing something – whatever that is. As Seneca sai,”Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. ” Or something like that.
Looks like you might have met anopportunity 😉
Norm Fisher
July 22, 2008 at 9:20 am
Paula,
I think there’s a bit of that in all of us.
Chuck,
Yes, but the blog doesn’t slam the door in my face or hang up a phone in my ear.
Bill,
Exactly what I was thinking as I thought about Chuck’s comment, and to be clear, I don’t mean to “knock” other forms of prospecting. Like you, I believe that anything can work with sufficient effort, determination and a desire to get better at it. These are things that I was personally not able to muster for door knocking and cold calling.
The biggest producer in my office does very little online marketing but she’s an absolute star in the open house arena. She does a few each week and rarely leaves without a new client. I know another big producer in another office who still thrives on door knocking. If she has 15 minutes to burn, she does it on someone’s doorstep. All the power to them.
For me, the irony lies in the fact that I found something I enjoy, that works for me, while attempting to avoid those things I hated. At the time, I’m sure my broker had told me I would not succeed without doing them.
Glenn fm Naples
July 22, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Norm – visited your blog and truly like it and the information you have posted there, it shows you are knowledgeable about your market area.
Glenn fm Naples
July 22, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Forgot to close the blockquote, like Dan Connolly in another post said – wish there was an edit function here. 🙂
Norm Fisher
July 22, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Thanks Glenn. Those graphics are easy to do if you use Photoshop or PS Elements. Start with any photo as your background layer. Add a new white layer, and then lower the opacity till you like what you see. Stack your text on top of it.
Justin in Kauai
July 22, 2008 at 3:15 pm
It’s good to hear there’s other people out there with the same passion as me about learning on the Internet. I went to college and majored in Geology. After I got out of school, I realized I wasn’t really that interested in rocks. But the web was awesome, and I’ve learned everything I know about marketing online. There’s a wealth of information there for anybody willing to learn.
Glenn fm Naples
July 22, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Norm – I PS Elements and working to get a good handle on it. Thanks for giving me the steps you have used. Right now my graphs are all excel generated and finished in PS Elements. Will try playing with tomorrow.
Vicki Moore
July 22, 2008 at 10:57 pm
I certainly can relate to what you’re saying. Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m looking forward to reading more.
Joel Ives
July 23, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Justin, you should have went to school for Googeology instead of Geology. Google is by far the best way to prospect for customers but it has a lot of variables to it and a steep learning curve. Good luck to everyone.
Michelle Berry
July 25, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Norm, you are totally singing my song in this post. I read it a couple days ago and went on a profile setting up/beefing up binge all over the ‘nets. You have given me a much needed shot of inspiration! I’ve been blogging for a fair amount of time, on some social networking sites, and had sat in one of Nick Bostic’s classes a few weeks back. At that time I timidly dipped my toe in the pool of social networking, but really stepped it up this week. Low and behold, yesterday I received my first lead from my new efforts. So Norm, you officially rock!
Norm Fisher
July 25, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Hey Michelle.
You rock, cause you did the work. Way to go! Thanks so much for dropping back to let me know of your success. Let’s get to work on the next one. 🙂