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 :

1. 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.
2. 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!
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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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