Fb ebook

ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM: Reaching Your Followers In Spite of it All By: Stephanie Jones

Stephanie is our social media manager. Queen of all things social - she keeps our clients in touch with their fans, followers and connections. Armed with a good amount of research, she pins, tweets and Facebook’s her way into the hearts of their target market.

2

CONTENTS ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM

3

Introduction /4

Know Your Algorithm /5

Are People Actually Leaving Facebook? /11

My Business Isn’t on Facebook. Is it even worth it? /17

Keeping It Spicy: Tips for Making the Most of Your Organic Reach /22

Conclusion /28

4

Introduction

The organic reach of Facebook’s business pages has been tweaked so much that the organic reach is way down, as low as 2 percent for some of the largest brands. That statistic is very scary for small to medium-sized businesses that rely on using Facebook as a free means to market their business and connect with their clients or customers. While Facebook’s algorithm seems to favor paid ads, not all who use the social network to market can afford to pay for those ads. It is more than likely that at some point a business will have to pay for Facebook ads. Many small and medium sized businesses are still reaching a large amount of their followers. Why? They are consistent, reliable and engaging. Facebook can be rather unlovable. We have some tips that may just turn your glasses into rose-colored ones again.

ORGANIC REACH & THE FACEBOOK PROBLEM

CHAPTER ONE

KNOW YOUR ALGORITHM

6


Before we dive into just HOW you can better reach your followers – those followers you so rightly earned and have spent time on – we need to first explain why your organic reach may be dwindling. Allow us to introduce you to EdgeRank, an algorithm created by Facebook that controls what users see in their news feeds from their friends and the brands they follow. In the most simple of terms, EdgeRank was designed to find good content and make sure it is seen. In the words of EdgeRank.net, “EdgeRank is like a credit rating: it's invisible, it's important, it's unique to each user, and no one other than Facebook knows exactly how it works.”

“No one other than Facebook knows exactly how it works.”

7


During its 2010 F8 Conference, Facebook revealed 3 parts that make up the algorithm:

This is the closeness of the relationship between

the user and the source of the content

What type of action was taken on the

content

The newness of the content

All of these factors play a role in what your followers are seeing from your business.

8


Armed with a solid understanding of the algorithm tucked in your back pocket, let’s discuss how this is playing a major role in how businesses are marketing on Facebook.

9


At the end of 2013, Facebook started making tweaks to its algorithm to favor high-quality content over images such as memes. By February, brands who once had a high organic reach to their followers were now down to reaching just 2 to 6 percent of their followers.

10


The declining rate is not only an issue for well-established brands, but is really hitting newer businesses hard. Newer brands don’t get to start at the glorious 16 percent organic reach. Rather there is heavy competition with other brands to get liked and get seen. You can probably see now why some brands are falling out of love with the social media giant. And brands are actually breaking up with the network. That’s right! One even wrote a break up letter to Facebook. So, let’s talk about why people are saying their goodbyes.

CHAPTER TWO

ARE PEOPLE ACTUALLY LEAVING FACEBOOK?

12


Thinking about breaking up with Facebook? You’re not alone. As mentioned before, many brands with over 500,000 fans are the ones seeing the biggest drop in their organic reach. These brands are getting angry. Not only has their organic reach dropped drastically in a short amount of time, but they are also being asked to pay in order to reach their fans. That doesn’t jibe well with some.

“…many brands with over 500,000 fans are the ones seeing the biggest drop in their

organic reach.”

13


Take Eat24 for example. The food delivery site decided they were fed up with their reach being so low and they absolutely refused to pay to reach the fans that they had already managed to get on their own accord. So they wrote a letter. And it goes a little something like this…

Hey. It’s Eat24. Look, we need to talk. This isn’t easy to say since we’ve been together so long, but we need to break up. We’d love to say “It’s not you, it’s us” but it’s totally you. Not to be rude, but you aren’t the smart, funny social network we fell in love with several years back. You’ve changed. A lot.

14


Rainn Wilson from The Office left Facebook, too, along with a bunch of other brands that were fed up with their declining reach. Beyond losing engagement with their fans, brands are leaving Facebook because…

They refuse to pay for ads to reach their current fans Not reaching the folks that they paid ads to reach in the first place

1

2

15


People are feeling a sense of betrayal from Facebook and while they may be losing money by not reaching the followers that they already paid to reach, it seems that some aren’t looking at the big picture. Facebook is a business. It’s that simple. But if the only way to get in front of people is to pay for ads, is Facebook even a valuable marketing tool anymore? Yes! Let’s talk about how businesses are succeeding on the platform.

16


So, should you take your business off of Facebook? I will answer with an emphatic and resounding no. While you may not want to pay for ads, there are still opportunities to be had for businesses on the site. Is your business B2C? On top of the numbers, another reason to stick around is your followers. A Like is not easy to come by on Facebook and you managed to get a number of people to choose to follow your brand. They actually care about your services and appreciate the content you provide. Don’t leave them hanging, man!

According to Social Media Today, 83% of B2B marketers invest in social media to increase brand exposure; 69% to increase web traffic; and 65% to gain market insights.

According to Business Insider, 68 percent of B2C marketers say Facebook is the most important social network with Twitter taking 10% of the vote among B2C marketers.

CHAPTER THREE

MY BUSINESS ISN’T ON FACEBOOK. IS IT EVEN WORTH IT?

The salad days of free Facebook advertising may be over, but there are still plenty of brands reaching a good portion of their followers organically. Yes, it is still worth the time and effort to keep your Facebook page. A photographer friend of ours, Matt Steeves, sends clients and links his Pinterest pins directly to his Facebook page over his actual web site. Why? It keeps the engagement up on his business page in addition to the ease of adding new photos versus updating galleries on his actual site.

18


Creative thinking like this is the cornerstone of good organic reach. If you funnel your traffic to Facebook, your reach is going to stay pretty high. Of course, this tactic doesn’t work for every business. In fact, most businesses have a site equipped with a blog loaded with valuable, educational content to share. In that case, you most definitely want to get that traffic to your site, but where does Facebook come in? What’s the point in sharing this content if no one is seeing it?

19


Here’s a tip: The chances are incredibly high that at least 6 percent of your following is seeing your content. If you have under 50,000 fans, the chance for this is the greatest. On the other hand there was a post by Brian Carter over at Moz where he explains how just $1 per day can increase your reach.

“If you just spend $1 per day on Facebook ads, you will get in front of 4,000 people that wouldn't have seen you otherwise. If you are doing that and your competitors aren't, you win the awareness game in your niche.”

20


Below is a chart from the same article outlining the cost through various media to reach 1,000 people.

21


Purchasing ads from Facebook is a decision each business needs to choose based on their own preferences. It’s high-time to pay for ads if…

Your engagement flat lines. This likely happens because your buyer persona is not being reached. If you’re reaching a bunch of people who could care less about all of your amazing information, what’s the point in putting it out there? If you want to ensure you’re reaching your buyer persona(s), paid ads might be the way to go or…

You’re Brand, Spankin’ New. A friend of mine, a gym owner, asked me if his business should pay for ads on Facebook. He said they had tried all different kinds of posts and posting times, but were getting little to no engagement. Here’s the deal: Having a Facebook business page is pretty darn common these days. There is an oversaturation of content in the average user’s newsfeed. Purchasing ads as a newer business will definitely get you in front of more people and ramp up your engagement.

I can tell what you’re thinking; you’re thinking to yourself, “But I don’t wanna pay for ads and I’m not gonna!” I like those stick-to-your-guns ideals you’ve got going! There are measures you can take to encourage organic reach on your Facebook business page.

CHAPTER FOUR

KEEPING IT SPICY: TIPS FOR MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR ORGANIC REACH

23


In all honesty, marketing a business on Facebook is hard work and it has become increasingly more difficult due to the algorithm changes. There are no speedy quick tips that will increase your engagement over night; there are things you can do to ramp up the engagement, which ultimately increases your organic reach.

Follow the next four tips for spicing up your page to increase that reach.

24


This is a biggie. While Twitter and LinkedIn are the best places to share educational and helpful content, Facebook is the place to woo your followers. This is hard for some businesses, especially those in the B2B category, but there are things you can do to liven up your Facebook page. Behind-the-scenes or Throwback Thursday posts give your followers more of your personality. And while you want to highlight your product or services, it’s a good idea to use Facebook as a casual space.

BE PERSONAL 1

25


Nothing ruins the mood for followers than an inconsistent page. This usually takes the form of a page not posting for a few weeks followed by typhoon of posts in one day, and then going silent once again. It’s annoying to followers because it junks up their feeds, which could cause them to Unlike your page (eeek!!). It also leads people to question the business as a whole. Some might presume if you can’t be consistent on Facebook, why would your business be any different. Be consistent: in your posting schedule, in your voice and in the amount of posts.

BE CONSISTENT

2

26


3

As I mentioned before, your Facebook page should probably be more on the relaxed side of business rather than the buttoned-up side. Part of that is talking to your followers in a social manner. Engage them by asking fun questions or for feedback on a new product. Post amazing inspirational quotes or funny pictures and ask followers to caption it. If you are engaging your followers, the conversation won’t be so sales-y and one-sided.

BE ENGAGING

4

27


Since Facebook’s algorithm favors high-quality content, it’s time to follow suit and share just that. You can find awesome content through news aggregator sites like Digg, Reddit or Alltop, all of which post the most shared stories from across the web for the day. These sites are great resources for kooky or business related content. You can also create your own for your blog. Don’t like to write? Outsource that stuff with an agency or a freelance writer.

FIND OR CREATE SEXY CONTENT

Conclusion

28


It is true Facebook tweaks their algorithm to benefit themselves – they are a business and a successful one at that. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t frustrating for those either trying to make a name for or market their business using the social platform. Making sure you arm yourself with remarkable content and knowledge about what your followers want to see; this will keep them engaged and could even bring in new followers. In short, all is not lost for businesses on Facebook. Not yet, anyway!

Fb ebook

Internet

facebook ads

facebook problem chapter

high organic reach

contents organic reach

good content

business pages

business isnt

mediumsized businesses