Having a well maintained Facebook page is an important component of your company’s digital strategy, especially if your target audience is consumers. It used to be that when you posted an update to your Facebook page, most of your followers would see it. Now, it’s not so easy. Since 2012, reach has gone down from 16 per cent to often less than 6 per cent. The challenge becomes how to reach more people without spending an arm and a leg on advertising.
How Can Your Small Business Reach More People on Facebook?
Facebook is a great way to reach and influence your existing customers and to reach new audiences through them, and there are a few ways to do this without having to dip into your budget.
4 No Cost Ways To Reach More Followers on Facebook
- Share Great Images – Get creative. Share photos of what is going on in your company, team, pets and events. Infographics and motivational images also get lots of likes. We’ve also noticed that sharing photos through an album gets more likes than simple sharing on your timeline.
- Good Content is Huge – Posting quality content that is interesting and compelling for your audience is a great way to drive more interactions. Remember the more people that interact, the more their friends and followers will see your posts in their own timeline. Beware using incentives like ‘click to like’ or ‘share this’ though, as this seems to be detrimental to views. Often content that is textual without a link is the best way to go to get the highest reach.
- Get Social –Share and like content from other pages in your community. Ask questions and encourage people to comment and interact. Make your posts conversational and write in the first person in order to humanize your company’s presence.
- Post Often And Time Your Posts Right – The best time to post depends a lot on the age of your audience. For younger audiences, you should be posting several times a day. Older followers with fewer connections might find that overpowering. Remember that many companies do not allow staff to use social networks at work so try posting in the evenings. Determining the best time to post takes some trial and error and is ongoing.
Paid Solutions to Extend Facebook Reach
If all else fails, there’s always the paid option. You can target your ads by location, demographics, interests, behaviours and connections. You also have different campaign objectives to choose from (find out more about that in my next post). We’ve found that the simplest way to engage your existing followers is to pay to promote posts on your page. For a few dollars, you can reach more of your followers and get them to engage on your page. But, there’s on catch, you have to do it consistently to see the ongoing benefit.
Always Try New Approaches to Keep People Enagaged
Facebook is constantly changing its algorithms so the tactics that work today, might not be effective tomorrow. It’s important to try different approaches and see what works for you and your audience.
What works for your page and audience? What campaigns have you implemented that have grown your reach? We’d love to hear about them in the comments below.
Social Media and Online Marketing Tactics
Learn more about social media strategy and the opportunities available to help your business grow with Mhairi’s Mastering Social Media to Grow Your Small Business seminar, here at Small Business BC.