Facebook over time has made it harder and harder to reach potential customers opting towards wanting businesses to pay to promote posts/products/offers etc. But I think we also have to look at the maths. If you have 250 friends, are a member of 25 groups, like 300 business pages and play a game you cannot possibly see a great deal of content on your feed! It just can’t happen! Fact!
As a small business/blogger it’s really easy for social media to take over all your time, energy and thoughts leaving little room for the activities which pay the bills!
If you want to try and increase your reach then here are a few tips :
- Post regularly : A mix of scheduled and live posts works well. I sometimes pick a theme say Instagram and schedule in content from my blog through the day, then share Instagram related things during the day. Use your insights to give you an idea of what times suit your audience better.
- Share good content : I see what similar pages to mine are sharing and if it has a large number of likes and comments I jump on that bandwagon and share on my own page!
- Join Sharing Threads : Lots of blogging and small business Facebook groups have sharing threads. They all vary, the ones I do ask for a like and comment on a certain Facebook post of your choosing. Although this doesn’t always help with the reach it certainly encourages interaction.
- Facebook Groups : When sharing your blog posts onto other groups don’t be inclined to do this from the blog. Go to your Facebook page and share the blog post to other groups or even your own personal timeline.
- Use other social media : Remind your Twitter followers that you are on Facebook too. Share a picture on Instagram of your Facebook page or recent update.
- Cheat Boost : Sometimes I boost posts. I choose a small amount say £2 in 24 hours. Then once the posts starts to gain interaction, shares and likes I pause the boost, spending around 15-25p.
- Comment as your page : If you see something you like don’t automatically comment as yourself, comment as your page. If you say something people really like/are interested in they will pop over and check out our page. It’s really easy to do click on the square with your profile picture and swap to your business page.
- Be Kind : If a friends Facebook page pops up in your feed then click like! It takes but a second and they will be so appreciative!
My Facebook reach is around 1500-2500, taking on board all the above tips for a week my total reach increased to 6,187 BUT it was hard work and pretty much a full time job! It also becomes a bit addictive and actually takes precious time from other jobs. So my top tip from this experiment would be that these are great suggestions if you post something and it hasn’t had the reach/interaction you’d hoped add it to a Facebook thread, cheat boost but seriously don’t waste all your time on one platform (unless of course this is where all your sales come from then crack on!)
I’d love to hear how you work Facebook for your business and what content does well? How you maximise your reach? PS. Don’t forget to pop over to my Facebook business page and say hi!
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Some really great tips here, Joanne. As you say, if you’re not careful it can take up all your time.
I have boosted posts in the past but never thought about pausing it and then allowing the traction it’s gained to let the organic reach grow. That’s definitely a tactic I’ll test in the future.
Thanks
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Thank you Rachel, glad you found my tips really useful. Let me know how you get on!
Excellent post, has given me some food for thought and I will definitely be using your tips. X
Managed to increase my reach by 4K using these tips but it does take up lots of time so not sure I can keep it up
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“Cheat Boost : Sometimes I boost posts. I choose a small amount say £2 in 24 hours. Then once the posts starts to gain interaction, shares and likes I pause the boost, spending around 15-25p”
Genius! I often boost posts because reach can be so bad, definitely trying this technique out!
Do you have a few small business facebook groups I could join? I have a kickstarter campaign that needs a kick up the backside you see!
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Good Luck with the kickstarter campaign. I will tweet you any suitable groups.
I think it depends on the individual page. I have 74,000 followers on facebook and it is harder to get a good reach on there than it is on small FB pages that I manage. FB presumes that bigger pages have a budget for advertising.
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I think also when you do have such a large number of followers it is hard to know how many are fakes or uninterested people. I just literally changed the name of my page after 5 years and I had a mass unfollowing where people realised they no longer wanted or needed to like my page anymore. Meaning that most of the people associated with my page are really interested and actively engaging.
This is fantastic well done on your success. I would like to increase my post reach too and have been stuck on how to do it.
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Hope these tips help you out 🙂
These are fantastic tips. I really need to grow my Facebook reach. I have always wondered how effective sponsored FB posts are too; might try it out after reading this!
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There are some great tips here, I only learnt yesterday how to comment on posts as a business name and not my own so will have to remember to do this in future.
Great advice Joanne. The one on commenting as your page is a good reminder for me. I do that for brands I manage social media for but forget to do that for my own FB page.
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Some great Facebook tips! This is the channel I have the smallest following on, I guess I should try change that using these tips 😛
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Really great tips, I like the one about sharing from your Facebook page into groups and not direct from the source. I never thought of that! x
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Great post and useful tips, I’m bookmarking this to read again after the kids go to bed.
Melanie Edjourian recently posted..Simple tips for Retaining Heat in the Home
It is really hard work to keep your facebook reach high isn’t it but I totally agree with sharing other content on there for discussion.
Colette B recently posted..The Christmas Adventure at Stockeld Park – Review
Oh wow, now that is an amazing reach and an increase too x
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Great tips. I have a large following on Facebook and I do all you have listed here.
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I really need to give these a try – my social media skills are definitely lacking across the whole board. x
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This is a great post for me, really helped me out as Im struggling with facebook xxx
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Glad you found it useful x
Great post babe!
Awesome tips – Getting Facebook interaction is very difficult.
These tip will help a lot.
Thanks hun
Charlotte x
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Great tips, my facebook reach is shocking, I think I will try some of these to increase it.
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Great tips, I find Facebook so difficult to figure out. I didn’t know that you can boost a post and then pause it so thanks for that.
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Great advice. I am pretty pants at getting the balance right and aside from initially posting new posts on FB, I forget to repost. Great post x
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Comment as your page is something I have not done before and will certainly do…I love support threads too, a great way to collaborate and to support each other as bloggers.
I’ve got more generous with my Facebook ‘likes’ recently as I know how important they are to spread the reach of each post. I’ve also tried to share suitable articles on my page which has worked really well. I think the Facebook reach is naturally higher if you post links to sites other than your own. The likes and comments from these postings has upped the ones from my own site. I’ve gained seven new page likes this week which is a lot for me!
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Awesome! So true as soon as you share other content your reach on other posts increases. Keep up the good work
It is really amazing that you increased yur post reach to 6,187 from 1500 . Also you covered all the possible ways to do that . As my Experience posting useful stuffs on a regular basis is the beat way to get peolple engaged to you blog . If we will become inactive of social media then now one will take a look to us .
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Thanks for the tips! It does help definitely. The only thing as far as I am aware you cannot comment as your page anymore – is that right or am I messing up? I think sharing other content as well as your own helps too!
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You can comment as your page just the option has moved a bit. There are some great tips on my last Britmums #MumsinBiz Round-up including the changes to admin. http://www.britmums.com/2016/04/mums-in-business-round-up-facebook-for-business/