So I was watching a webinar last week that made some great points about Facebook’s business pages. (Yes I continually listen to and watch webinars on the unrelenting changes that happen to all social media and digital marketing, I must admit that I am not all knowing without research. Phew, it feels good to get that off my chest.) Anyhow, did you know that your content is only shown to 1.6%-2% of the people that like your Facebook business page? Content that you planned and worked hard to generate may only be seen by 2 people out of 100. Don’t worry though we can make that better by working through a few of the different ways to post and get things seen.
Facebook listens to its users and when they made the change to allow advertising, things were bound to change. They have quite a bit, some that is better for businesses, but mostly they want to keep their users happy and not bombard them with promotional material all over their newsfeed.
So Rule Number 1: Make sure that your posts are not overly promotional and know that Facebook has an algorithm to monitor this. They look at your content to see if there is an offer in there or sales pitch. This is an easy fix. Social media is not supposed to be a constant sales pitch. Your Facebook page should be mostly about being social with your audience, share your personality, something fun that happened, your services and let that lead people to contacting your business so that you can make that sale.
Yay! Our business is more social and we are generating comments and likes, but it is still saying I’m only reaching 100-200 people and I have over 1000 likes on my page.
So, here are a couple of other things Facebook would like you to do that will keep your content on people’s newsfeeds.
Rule Number 2: Keep people on your Facebook page. Don’t include links to your website in every post your have on Facebook. I am not telling you to never have a link to your website on your Facebook page. I am a big believer of having it in front of people for easy access by including it in your images and keeping it visible but don’t always have a link in your posts. Facebook includes your link in your About section and also allows you to keep a button leading to your website at the top of the page, with a sticky call to action button.
Rule Number 3: Share videos! Create videos for your business and share them specifically on your Facebook page directly, not through a YouTube link. Facebook knows that people love video and they are giving priority to those that are shared directly to their site, especially using those using Facebook Live. (They know that people want authenticity of your business and less edited versions of us or our business. It builds trust and showcases who you are working with in the business. This is why when you go live they let everyone know through a notification!)
Rule Number 4: Don’t use a third party service. As we have said before Facebook likes Facebook so when you use another service to schedule your posts it takes a bit away from your reach. Using services to schedule your content is more convenient and we do not want to tell you to go away from that completely because it is great to save time. Facebook now allows you to schedule posts in advance. It is an extra step but with a well planned media strategy it will not take you much more time to do your Facebook posts separately and directly through your page to get that extra reach.
Finally Rule Number 5: Set aside a small budget to use on Facebook ads. I am not talking about boosting a post. (Please be very very careful about boosting posts on Facebook as it generally does not reach the people that you want it to and is not targeted.) If you notice the second post on your newsfeed is now a sponsored ad. This could easily become your business with a well targeted message for your consumers.
Facebook has done a really good job of taking care of both its business pages and consumers which is how it is has grown to over 2 billion users a month. Do not give up on utilizing this wonderful marketing tool. Just start thinking through the strategy and work with Facebook to reach your audience.
We would love to hear what you think, how Facebook has helped your business and what strategies you have used. Comment below or give us a call to talk about your company. We love learning new things and strategizing to help businesses grow.