Getting the facts

Facebook is the social media platform that everyone can benefit from. Whether you use it for fun or to market yourself and your business, Facebook has the opportunities you need to succeed but only if you apply the proper techniques. The fact of the matter is the more people you can reach the better your brand will be and only you can take the initiative required to truly see success. Today we are not only going to cover the tools you need to implement but we will also cover how and why they are important to both your brand and goals and most importantly why boosting your organic reach is one of the most important ways to properly market yourself in this fast paced industry.

1. Staying Active and Posting Relevant Content

Finding the proper amount of posts per day specifically for your business can certainly be a tricky process but there is a clear baseline. You absolutely need to have multiple posts per day. Whether that means two or six will need to be determined on the relevance of what you post. When you post classic concepts then a timetable of how long that post may affect your reach expands. The average Facebook user will follow enough content pages to have as many as 1,500 posts per day all fighting to be seen and if you want your posts to be the ones being seen then you need to post the content people want to see. Sharing your content is not the only way your followers introduce your page to their friends and family, as when one of your followers likes or comments on your posts it bumps your posts into more timelines; that is the base of how organic reach works.

So your goal is to post multiple times per day every day content that people want to see. That sounds simple enough, right? Well Facebook’s algorithms complicate it more than that so simply posting content is just the first step in an active and engaging page.

2. Variety 

There are many different types of content you can post on your Facebook page and each option seems to affect organic reach differently. Posting a wide variety of content helps keep your page fresh and engaging.

• Photos

Photos are perhaps the easiest type of content to post. A variety of content is both easy to find and make, which makes photos the most popular content on Facebook. Unfortunately this means that while they definitely can reach a decent amount of people, it is definitely not the most engaging content you can post.

• Videos

Videos tend to take a lot more effort to make and are significantly more engaging for Facebook uses to enjoy. Facebook automatically plays videos as users are scrolling through their feeds which tends to immediately grab the attention of most people. Photos are easy to scroll past but a video that immediately displays movement and plays sound is much harder to ignore.

• GIFs

GIFs tend to be a nice medium in between photos and videos. The automatic movements will grab people’s attention in the same manner videos do but are typically short and work well with user attention spans. They also require a medium effort to make and find. Unfortunately, they tend to not be shared as often, especially since their availability on Facebook is still relatively new as an option.

• Links

Links can be a vital and important way to extend your business outside of the Facebook universe and can also be the way you collect income. Unfortunately they can be the harshest on your reach so balancing out other quality content is extremely important

3. Quality

Facebook has implemented an algorithm designed to make certain types of content and posts increasingly difficult to reach more people including like-baiting, excessively circulated content, and spammy links. While there are ways to ease around Facebook's aggressive anti-spam techniques (which we will cover later,) it's hard to say what Facebook will penalize you for. The good news is that posting quality content is an easy way to avoid the issues to begin with.

You're probably asking yourself now, "so, what is quality content?"  Well, quality content is most often directly related to the theme of your page and business and encourages follower interaction. Quality content may be several things from intriguing to eye catching to humorous.

Facebook's algorithms determine quality content to boost in user newsfeeds by evaluating likes, comments, and shares so quality content encourages those responses from followers.

So remember, the more your followers are engaged with your posts then the more likely they are to keep coming back, and the more they keep coming back, the more Facebook helps your page and your content reach more people.

4. Engaging Your Fan Base 

It is not uncommon for your followers to comment on your posts and interacting with your followers not only helps boost your organic reach but it builds a relationship with your potential customers.

Ways to Engage Include:

• Liking people's comments: this will send a notification to the user which can remind them of the post. Naturally, being reminded of the post may bring them back to the page to see other posts or come back to where they commented to further engage with you and your page or even tag other friends.
• Replying to individual comments: every time you reply directly to an individual you open up the opportunity for a conversation and every engagement the follower has with you and your post directly increased the chances that your post will appear in more timelines.
• Adding comments to the post as a whole/addressing everyone: this gives everyone who sees your comment an invitation to engage. As well, when you comment on your own post then those who have already commented previously will get a notification and that brings them back to the post. Bringing your fans and followers back to your posts and your page increases opportunities for interactions.

Liking and replying to comments is directly engaging your followers and here is how this helps you:

• Every interaction on your post naturally increases the probability that others will see the post, which is your primary goal in boosting your organic reach.
• Putting a personality to your brand builds a natural relationship with your business and your customers. If your customers associate positive interactions with your business they are more likely to want to continue to interact with you
• In addition to boosting your organic reach you are building trust in your name and reputation

5. Scheduling Posts

Scheduling posts is a guaranteed way to ensure that no matter what comes up in your life that you have activity on your page and just as important as having that activity is making sure that it is consistent and being posted at optimal times.

Postblazer gives you the best tools to manage your time and energy when scheduling posts efficiently. With a user friendly system that allows you to drag and drop content and quickly schedule when you want your content posted, Postblazer slashes the time you'd spend making sure your page stays active. Automatic posting to multiple social media accounts makes your time easy to manage.

Scheduling posts is a key ingredient in combining time management with boosting your organic reach but don't forget to visit your own page regularly to interact with your followers!

6. Growing Your Page

Growing your page can seem like a daunting experience but the process works hand in hand with your organic reach. As you boost your reach, your page grows, and your growing page in turn will boost your reach. This circular relationship is like a snowball rolling downhill, gathering momentum as it continues down. There are multiple ways you can grow your page:

• Building community connections: Community connections may include creating a group for your page and linking other social media platforms to your page (such as Instagram and Pinterest.) Creating a group for your page and linking your other social media accounts to your Facebook page expands your ability to reach more people more frequently. Someone who didn't see a post on your page may see it shared in your group or on your Instagram and find their way naturally back to your page.
• Sharing your content with similar pages: Finding other pages who share a common theme and sharing your content with them can help expand your opportunities, especially with larger pages that have already established a large fanbase and solid reach.
• Paid promotion: Facebook gives you the option of paying to boost posts of your choosing. They've streamlined the process which gives you amazing control. You can set your budget (and directly see how many more people you'll reach with that budget) and pick a demographic of people ideal for seeing that specific content. You can choose friends of your current followers or target more specific demographics including location, age range, and even gender.

In summary, boosting your organic reach may seem like a daunting task but implementing the process outlined here for you is a guaranteed way to see success. Using the tools available you can absolutely watch your page and business benefit from an ever expanding organic reach!