Ever Feel Like Facebook is Not Your Friend?

If you have a business page on Facebook otherwise known as a a LIKE page, you may be feeling like Facebook is not your friend. Chances are that even if your content strategy is amazing, you are reaching less than 2% of the people who are following your page. Think about that. If you have 500 followers, only 10 or so followers will see your posts show up in their newsfeed. That’s if you have a highly active and engaging page. Most LIKE page posts reach less than 1.6% of their fans.

You are not alone

If these figures frustrate you, you are not alone. There are over 65 million businesses with LIKE pages on Facebook that are struggling to overcome the LIKE page restrictions. Over 5 million of them are buying ads to improve their reach. But many of them are also frustrated by poor results with boosted posts too.

Please don’t give up

We know that it may feel like Facebook is trying to make it impossible for businesses reach more people but in reality it’s quite the opposite. Facebook knows that about 60% of consumers visit a business Facebook Page before visiting a location or website. They also know that 80% of consumers who research a business will review the business Facebook page, profile and customer reviews. Facebook actually wants to be a resource for businesses and is constantly creating tools for LIKE pages. These tools are designed to help businesses provide better content and ads to strike a balance between helping businesses advertise without spamming up the special media.

The method to the madness

Facebook knows that if they let businesses blast people’s feeds with too much sales content, audiences would not enjoy the social media as much. People visit Facebook to connect, get informed and to be entertained. But we all know that if given the opportunity, businesses will be inclined to run sales content that people don’t want to see. That is the main reason why Facebook does not give free reign to LIKE pages in the media. Instead they have created algorithms that favor content and creative strategies that give people more of what they are looking for. That means that the key to growing on Facebook is to play to those rules and to understand how to take advantage of the rules and tools that Facebook has set up for businesses.

Simple game changing tips

1. Clean up your graphic design. Rather than posting designs that look like fliers or newspaper ads use attractive photography with minimal text (less that 25% of your images should consists of text)
2. Share content that ads value. It’s okay to ask for the sale but don’t let that be your main strategy. Give your audience interesting, entertaining or shocking content. That will increase the likelihood of likes, shares which will encourage Facebook to present more of your content on people’s feeds.
3. Write meaningful text. When you share an article, image or video make sure that the descriptions you use are detailed, interesting and accurate. This will increase the likelihood that your posts will come up in searches within Facebook. Using key words such as locations, names etc can help.
4. Ask people for reviews and check ins! Interactions with your page improve engagement scores and positive reviews will also help increase the likelihood of conversions from people visiting your page.
5. Use private messenger. Private messenger is one of the most overlooked ways to improve your page engagement scores. Facebook actually tracks messaging and is more likely to present your content to someone you have had a messaging conversation with.
6. Use the posting tools for more targeted posts! You may have noticed that Facebook now allows you to get more specific with the types of posts you make. You can post a job, write a note etc. This feature actually helps Facebook help you. Facebook knows what feeds to put certain types of posts in for better engagement. So if your post is specific, Facebook can help make sure it gets to the most receptive audience.
7. Run targeted ads rather than boosts. Facebook has a lot of insights on what people are interested in and they actually make it available is the ads manager tools. Studies show that ads that target people according to things they are interested in are more effective. Using the interests and characteristics data to target you ads is Facebook’s way of equipping you to match up your business with the most receptive audience.

Remember that what may feel like censorship is actually intended to give businesses game rules to help them run better pages and ads so that people continue to enjoy Facebook.

Want more tips like this specific to your business? Contact us for a FREE consultation!

<p style=”text-align: center;”><a href=”https://360marketingplus.com/terms-of-use/”>Terms of Use</a></p>