Is Organic Facebook Reach Dead?
Some say it is, others say it is not. What side do you agree with?
Since you are reading the Social Media Pro blog, and our team consists of a group of social media management and digital marketing experts, let us be clear on our stance.
Organic Facebook reach is not dead!
It might be harder (read: take more effort) to reach your target audience using only organic marketing methods but it can be done; it is not an impossible task.
If organic Facebook reach isn't dead after all, how do you reach your target market without paying for ads and boosts?
Do You Have To Pay To Play on Facebook?
The ‘you have to pay to play' advise many digital marketers give their clients is a tough one to swallow for small business owners with a limited budget.
The question we often hear is “Since we are already paying for a social media manager, why do we have to also pay for ads?”
The best compromise would be to find a balance for their business (and budget) between organic and paid social media.
That might look like 100% organic – 0% paid, or 0% organic and 100% paid and everything in between. Every business owner you, as social media manager, work with has their own idea of what they'd like to spend on ads. It's not unheard of to find small, locally owned businesses without any sort of ad budget. Someone like that might still be in the market to hire a social media manager and you'll have to get creative to get your content seen on Facebook.
How do you manage their social media and grow their audience without an ad budget? Read on.
3 Ways To Get The Most Out of Your Organic Facebook Posts
There are tons of tactics to get the most out of your Facebook posts, boosting your overall organic Facebook reach.
Here are three easy ways to get you started, however, this is by no means a complete list:
- Activate Your Team! Some companies might have a Slack channel, use FB messenger or another method of communicating with their team. When an important piece of content goes out, send a message to the team, asking them to share to any and all channels. Now, companies can not require employees to share to social media on demand. The ‘trick' so to speak is to build a culture within the company of shared ownership of the content so that all team members are proud of each piece of produced content and will want to share!
- Ask Your Facebook Group. If you are the proud owner of a Facebook group, or you are a member of a Facebook group where they allow you to share your own content, asking for shares and/or engagement is a great way to ‘widen' the web. As always, you will have to give a reason for people to click, read and share your content. A good call-to-action will go a long way.
- Post Consistently and Bring The Goods. This might sound simple but it's something that a lot of people miss. Being consistent with posting, say a weekly blog article, a Facebook Live show or a daily quote, builds up trust between you and your audience. Therefore, start publishing several types of content on different days and do it consistently, week after week. Your audience will start to expect that type of content and will start to look for it to share out to their audience.
Now that you have a few ways to boost your organic posts, let's give you 25 content ideas to boost your overall organic Facebook reach.
25 Content Ideas To Boost Your Organic Facebook Reach
We've created five categories to get you started with your own content ideas! For many of these ideas, you, the social media manager, will need a communication plan with your client to secure this content. Without communication and consistent sharing of information, pictures, and videos, creating these types of posts is nearly impossible.
People
- Interview the CEO in an unexpected environment. (gym, beach, car)
- Highlight your awesome support staff by telling your audience the story of how they joined the company.
- Create video testimonials with your best and most loyal customers; do a dance, a rap or a song together.
- Share pictures of how you celebrate holidays in the office. (costumes, food, fun)
- Show videos of real customers using your products.
Places
- Make a ‘before & after' post of your building, office space, city or street. Ask people if they ‘remember'!
- Create a behind-the-scenes video of a venue for your upcoming event.
- Highlight your team's favorite local restaurants, what you eat there and who owns it. Tag!
- Share pictures of your office space, desk, snack stash etc. and aks for people to reveal theirs.
- Ask where (place, state, country) your audience lives, or better yet, have people leave pics and guess.
Plans
- Talk on camera about an upcoming event you are involved with. Share the ‘why'.
- Share a picture of a new product in production. Ask how people would use it.
- Ask your audience what book cover, business card color etc they like best; give them several options to vote.
- Show a bucket list item for everyone in the office. Ask your audience help in which one to complete first.
- Do share sneak-peeks of upcoming visits, talks, marketing materials etc.
Passion
- Ask about hobbies!
- Tell about your favorite sports!
- Share pictures of family holiday celebrations.
- Highlight a local charity or cause you 100% support.
- Post vacation travel reports!
Play
- Run a photo or video contest on your Facebook Page.
- Share funny cartoons.
- Play a scavenger hunt on your FB page or website, or in real life!
- Post memes and GIFs.
- Participate in goofy #tbt and #funnyfriday posts to lighten things up.
Post to Facebook. Analyze. Repeat!
Not everything you post on your Facebook Pages will be well-received, or even seen by all your Facebook fans. However, noting what does and what doesn't will help you focus in on what your current Facebook audience wants to read and what is being pushed out to your fans by Facebook!
As always, do more of what works and none of what didn't!
Don't ever stop experimenting with new formats, new ideas and new posts as the Facebook algorithm changes quickly.
To stand out on Facebook you have to create content that stands out as well.
One last tip: Use the Facebook search function to find wildly popular videos in your industry, and share those to your pages. Yes, it is curated content, but since these videos have already been proven to Facebook to attract an audience, these types of posts can do very well on your Facebook Pages, too!
I am a Certified Social Media Manager, Strategist, International Keynote Speaker, Organic Specialist and Agile marketer! Blogging is my creative outlet. Running, hiking and skiing are how I recharge. You'll recognize me on stage and online by my always present orange glasses, a nod to my Dutch heritage.
