Did you realise that only a small percentage of what you post in your Facebook page will actually been seen by your Fans? This is called 'Facebook Reach' which is the number of unique people who saw your content. EdgeRank Checker published research on 1 April 2014 detailing that organic reach for most Facebook pages currently hovers around 6.5% — down from 17% only 24 months ago. It is believed that organic reach will ultimately decline to right around 1%.
Organic reach is free.It happens in the news feed when your fans see your updates.
Viral reach consists of the people who see your content because one of your fan likes, comments or shares your post. Their friends will see your post even if they aren’t fans of your page. The same is true if you’ve paid to reach larger audiences who may or may not already be your fans. If one of those targeted people shares etc, their friends will see it as well.
What does this mean for your business page? If you want your fans to see important content you need to be very creative with how you present it or pay for this to be seen. We offer in-depth Facebook Training for small to medium-sized businesses that covers how to increase Facebook likes and engagement through viral reach and paid.
With organic reach on the decline ensure your messages reach your Fans by creating highly engaging posts - ones that attract comments, likes or shares. Here are some helpful suggestions to get more interaction.
Photo posts get 39% more interaction
Not only do photos have more engagement than links, videos or text-based updates, they actually account for 93% of the most engaging posts on Facebook. According to Kissmetrics, photos get 53% more likes, 104% more comments and 84% more click-throughs on links than text-based posts.
Shorter posts get 23% more interaction
Writing shorter posts isn’t just for Twitter. Keeping your posts below 250 characters can get you 60% more engagement than you might otherwise see. You can even get up to 60% more engagement if you cut it down to less than 80 characters.
Post easy questions to get comments
HubSpot and Kissmetrics have both shown that by posting questions businesses receive increased rates of comments but fewer likes and shares. HubSpot goes further to say that certain question words attract more comments, with the most popular being ‘should,’ ‘would,’ ‘which,’ and ‘who.’ These types of questions that are easily answered with "yes" or "no" or are multiple choice are the highest attractors of comments. Therefore, if your goal is to generate comments, use questions that are quick and easy to answer.
Engagement rates on Thursday and Friday are higher
35% of Facebook Fans like a page so they can participate in contests
If your in the establishment phase of your Facebook Page or have identified growing your Fan base as a goal, a contest seems like a fairly good way to encourage likes. A report from earlier this year showed that 35% of Facebook fans liked Facebook pages specifically to compete in contests.
Follow these tips and your Facebook Page will have a better chance of improving your engagement levels.
Author Philippa Crick