How to Combat Facebook’s Cut on Organic Reach

If your business has been using Facebook for a few years, there is no doubt that you have seen a drop in the amount of traffic your posts are receiving.  Organic traffic has been in decline since 2014, meaning that the percentage of your followers that are seeing your posts is getting smaller and smaller.

Two reasons have been proposed for this decline.  The first is that Facebook simply has too much content to publish.  With Facebook growing at such a rapid rate, they have had to become more selective regarding which posts will be placed on a news feed and which ones won’t.   This fact leads us to our second reason for post decline, which is that Facebook is trying to ensure that their users are seeing relevant content rather than all of the content.  This is something that larger websites such as Google have struggled with since day one.  Ensuring that users are seeing what they want is a way to ensure that they will visit your site again.  Unfortunately for businesses using social media, this has had a direct effect on their profile traffic.

A study from Edgerank Checker found that between February 2012 and March 2014, organic reach for Facebook Pages dropped from 16% to 6.5%. Research from Social@Ogilvy, meanwhile, suggests that for Pages with more than 500,000 Likes, organic reach could be as low as 2%.  As the trend continued, other studies showed that organic reach dropped 42% between January and May 2016.

So, how can your business begin to combat these dropping organic numbers.  The simplest, and most effective solution is to spend money on boosting posts.  Facebook does make it very easy to target a specific market, so this money is being well spent on qualified leads.  A quick search of the internet reveals just how many experts are speculating that Facebook is decreasing organic reach in order to promote boosting posts and paid ads.  Facebook however, still insists that they are simply trying to make the news feed more enjoyable for consumers.   

Boosting posts may be the quickest solution to your Facebook reach problem, but there are still free solutions that can be found.  The list is long, and time consuming, but patience and studying the results will pay off in the long run:

1. Be selective on what you post and have a specific audience in mind.

As of a few years ago, you did not have to have a particular audience in mind when you created a post.  Everyone who followed you would see the post, and hopefully some would be interested.  With Facebook being more discretionary, it is now more important than ever to have a specific audience that you are targeting.

2. Get fans to click the pages link on the side of their page.

Every once in a while, it’s not a bad idea to send out a post reminding followers of how they can see more of your posts.  With the pages link on the side of their profile, your followers can select your profile and see all the posts that you have created.

3. A simple change in notification settings can allow fans to see more of your posts.

Along the same lines as the previous tip, give your followers a way to see your posts more often.  If they visit your profile page and click on the “Following” link, they can set a preference to see your posts first.

4. Fans that engage with your posts will see your posts more often

Creating engaging posts is a bit of a science. One solution is to publish and broadcast video, which will increase engagement in the long run.  Facebook videos are shared 1000% more than videos that are shared from other hosting sites.

Lifestyle website, LittleThings, has been using video more frequently to combat a loss in reach, and March was its second-highest traffic month of all time, said Joe Speiser, co-founder of LittleThings. (LittleThings also uses A/B testing on Facebook to confirm their strategy.) “Facebook’s made very clear video is a priority,” he said. “You can go through the feed yourself. Video is everywhere.”

5. Use Facebook live to increase engagement on your page and subsequently on your posts.

Facebook Live has been a staggering success for Facebook, and the businesses that use it correctly.  Correct use of the platform can lead to an increase in followers and referrals on your page.

If Facebook is an area that your business could use some help with, feel free to contact us.  Xynergy has years of social media content creation under its belt, and we would be happy to get your social platforms running optimally.

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Contact us for help with your Facebook Promotion.

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For more information, read these related articles below:

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/facebook-declining-organic-reach

https://digiday.com/media/publishers-seeing-another-big-decline-reach-facebook/