So we are going to talk about the ever-elusive reach on Facebook and the diminishing algorithm that doesn't allow us to get our message to our full audience anymore. A quality message will always trump quantity any day of the week. So, here are the 5 ways that you can increase organic reach on Facebook.
1. Know Your Audience.
It is so important that you understand their needs, their wants, their desires, their pain points so that you can provide a solution, so that you can provide discourse and discussion around those things because you know that it interests them. You know that they're looking for answers and you want to be that solution. So when you know your audience, you know your customer really really well, really really intimately, you can create content that resonates and they will come back to every time because you solve their problem. You answer the questions that they're asking before they've ever even asked them. So to go a little deeper with this, a way to make this very tangible on your Facebook page is to poll your audience. Ask them things. Don't make it complicated. You'll often see on my Facebook page that when I ask people for help when I ask questions, I'll give them two options and two only. I'm not trying to make their life difficult, I'm trying to interact with them. I'm trying to understand them and I already understand them to a certain level so this is me just trying to get that little bit more depth. Keep it simple but get to know your audience. Another way to get to know your audience better is to write down all the frequently asked questions you get. Now, if you're someone that hasn't had a lot of clients or a lot of customers yet, every single question you get? Just write it down and you'll start to see where it doubles up. That's the kind of information that you can address, that you know people are wanting with the product or service or app or whatever it is that you have to help them solve their problem.
2. Use Incredible Visuals
I know that's gonna freak some people out because you're gonna be like 'I'm not creative, I'm not arty, I don't know how to use Photoshop' - it doesn't matter. The simple fact that tweets with images get 3x more retweets than those that don't and that posts on Facebook with images get 2.3x more engagement than those that don't, tells you that you need to be on that train and on that game. So, how do we create amazing visuals? There is a tonne of tools out there that are for anyone from beginner level right through to expert level. So if you're a beginner go for something like Canva, go for something that is super simple, drag and drop. There's Pic Monkey as well and then there's those of you who are probably already using something like Photoshop but use eye-catching colors, brand things, use your brand colors.
If you can and I know this is not exactly something everyone feels like they can do because maybe you have a company and your logo is essentially the face, please remember that humans connect with humans. People want to see people and people connect with people. So if you can get a face in there, if you're creating a video and you have some on camera, if you can put that face in the branding, it's going to do a lot better than a straight-up image of your logo and a title or a quote with no context, no person, no voice behind it. Remember one of the reasons that visuals are so successful is because they're easy, they tell a story without having to read a whole bunch of text. A sunset contextualizes the time of day without me having to say 'hey guess what it's 6 o'clock in the afternoon and its sunset' - bare in mind also that visuals don't just pertain to solid images but they pertain to emojis as well. Emojis are such a fun way to engage. They're a really great way to ask people to respond to something, like, which do you like better? Use this emoji for this. Use this emoji for that. They are a great way to encourage engagement and therefore get more reach on your end piece of content.
3. Teach Your Audience To Turn On Their Notifications For Your Facebook Page
The more people that do that, the more that are going to be notified when you go live, when you post something or when you do anything on your Facebook business page. So get them to turn it on so that it appears at the top of their feed and they never miss a piece of content that you put out. So all you need to do is go to your Facebook Business page and if mine looks a little different it's just because I'm gone in through business manager so don't worry about that but you just need to click on the 'following' button here or even just mouse over it and you'll get this drop-down menu and then make sure that 'see first' is selected and that way your content is going to populate at the top of their feed whenever you post something new and whenever they hop onto Facebook.
4. Avoid Stock Photos
Avoid Stock Photos as much as you possibly can unless you're making fun of them. People are immune to stock photos these days and if you have to use them, like I have to use them because we have clients and we don't have a backlog of photos around their company or around their business so I do have to go and find stock photos that are relevant but what I do is I personalize them. I put copy on them, I put a headline on them, I might ask a question on them, I might even just put one word on them but I try and personalize it in such a way that it's not just a straight-up stock image with no context that looks like a stock image and that people know that company hasn't produced themselves. There's something a little bit inauthentic about stock photography and I'm not saying it doesn't work for every business, I'm not saying it's a bad thing altogether but I do think that when it comes to Facebook and you're trying to get reach and you're trying to actually connect 1:1 with people that you're better off having your own inhouse photography, your own inhouse pictures - if you've got people in your company, having those people in the pictures then to have a fake board room picture with people looking at a laptop going *gasp*. So just avoid stock photography.
5. To engage
If you post something like a video or long-form content or whatever you post, try and hang around for 5-10 minutes so that you can immediately respond to those who take action straight away. It's really important that people see somebody on the other end engaging back, otherwise why will they keep doing it? You know, some of our best clients that get the best results are simply because when we post for them, we create the content, we post for them, they sit around and they engage with those people and they are loved and adored and those people come back and they are hardcore fans because that person took the time out to connect with them. Sometimes I even go back to old posts to ensure that I haven't missed anything and I connect with people because as your page grows, people are going to scroll back through posts and engage on older posts especially if you've asked a question or you've put out a video and it's really interesting and they want to participate in that. So you need to go back and actually see what people are saying and connect with those new folk that are on your page and who actually want to start a relationship with you and your business. That's your job. It's one of your most important jobs and it's also one of the best ways to train your audience to engage with you. Engagement drives reach which increases your brand awareness so don't forget that.
Now, this has only been 5 ways to increase your audience.
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