If you manage your company’s Facebook Page, you have probably come to expect a declined organic newsfeed reach by now, especially with overly-promotional posts. A while back, I wrote a blog post with some tips for maximizing reach in your fans’ newsfeed, and that post is still very relevant (here it is). But I wanted to give you some additional insight to make the most of your Facebook Marketing today.
Facebook Page Newsfeed Optimization Tips
- Humanize your Facebook Page. In robot voice, “You. Know. What. I. am. Talking. About.” Don’t just post links or text that sound like they are automatically generated from a massive marketing machine. People are coming to your page to interact with you, a person and a brand.
- Although there are exceptions, generally you want to keep statuses short. A few of my favorite fan pages post long statuses on a regular basis (like this one from Mari Smith) and it seems to work for them because of the nature of the content. You need to find out what works for your by trying different things and then analyzing your insights.
- When appropriate, consider posting about a trending topic (these can be found on the right side of your Facebook homepage or via Google Trends). I do not do this often, but for the right page/audience/topic it could be a great way to start a conversation and build comments.
- Know what your fans like and want to comment on. The content that gets more likes and comments will be seen more in newsfeeds. Find out what your fans can relate to and get excited about. Check out your insights to see what has worked in the past.
- If you are not already, post outside of regular business hours. Use Facebook Scheduler and try posting at different times of the day. Find out when most of your fans are online so that you can post some content then.
- Slash the overly promotional posts. The rule I typically use is to make 80% of the content not about your company (but of high interest to your fans) and 20% related to your company/products. I think this ratio can stay the same if the 20% is used very carefully as to not be too promotional or pushy. Remember that Facebook is cracking down on posts that are over-promotional.
- Find your sweet spot in quantity of posts. During special events you may find yourself posting more frequently. Sometimes a lack of good content or inspiration may lead to a week of less posts. At either rate, you need to find that sweet spot to where you are not posting too much (annoying your fans or posting content just to post content) and too little (causing your fans to forget about you). Generally I find posting 5-7 times a week to be a nice schedule.
- Remind your fans that they can turn on notifications for your posts by going to your Facebook page and hovering over the LIKE button, then checking “Get Notifications”. This doesn’t make them seen in your newsfeed necessarily but they will be notified whenever you make a new post and then they can click to go directly that post.
- Create and share more video. Now with auto-play videos in the newsfeed, you can generate interest quickly, especially with to-the-point videos. Have you found yourself stopping to watch a video in your newsfeed, even though it doesn’t have sound? Even a short but interesting video can be very effective getting your fans to act on what they see. Videos that are uploaded to Facebook seem to get more reach then YouTube links posted to Facebook, so don’t count on YouTube videos alone.
- Post organic links to high-quality content. If you find a great blog post or article to share on Facebook, there are several ways to do it. You can use the automatically generated preview or you can tweak that preview to better engage with your fans. For instance, if the preview photos are not satisfactory, upload your own. You can also make the title and description of the article more actionable and interesting to gain your readers interest. Another way to post links is without the preview. You could delete the preview and just use the URL (or a shortened version) and then also add a photo if you wish.
- Before posting a photo to Facebook, make sure it pops! Sometimes your photos aren’t “all that”. But if you upload them into Canva or PicMonkey and add some text or other graphical elements, it can make a big difference. You don’t need to be a graphic designer anymore to create eye-catching graphics for social media.
- Tag your Photos. Although the photo tagging feature in Facebook can be a bit cumbersome, it is a huge asset to getting seen in the newsfeed, as it allows the friends of the people tagged to also see the photo in their newsfeeds. There are some obstacles with tagging, as you will have to be friends with the people you are tagging. An alternative is to ask them to tag themselves in the photo after it is posted.
- Make more real-time posts. If you are at an event with your mobile device, by all means, take some great photos or video and post them immedietly! You are likely to see some great reach and engagement from your photos posted in real-time from you Facebook smart phone app.
With the ongoing changes coming to Facebook, don’t fret. Take a look back at what type of posts worked for you in the past, and try some different ideas in the future. Add in some more rich media and develop a plan for reaching out to your fans more to really build a long-relationship with them this year.
Facebook Newsfeed Ideas
Making Boosted Posts Work for You
Everything you Want to Know About Facebook Ads but are Afraid to Ask
