This post is the second post in a two part series dealing with Facebook’s latest algorithm changes. To read part one, click here.
5 Tips To Increase Post Reach
In 2019, Facebook conducted surveys asking users various questions like who their close friends are, which type of media they like to engage with, what kind of posts they value most, which of their groups are most important to them, and their level of interest towards specific pages.
It is apparent then that the 2020 version of Facebook’s algorithm is solely intended to give the user control of what they see and not necessarily what brands and marketers want them to see. At least, not for free anyway. So, how can brands and marketers get their messages out to their intended audience without incurring the wrath of the new algorithm? The answer would be to work with the algorithm instead of against it.
Simply stated, they should provide users with what they want and not what they think or feel they need.
How should they go about doing this? By incorporating the following five tips into their regular Facebook posting strategy.
Tip 1: Promote Engaging Content
One of the things the new algorithm looks for is whether or not a user has previously engaged with a particular page before.
If users have liked or shared posts from a particular page before then, the algorithm will give extra points for that page’s posts.
If, however, the page is engaging with users for the first time, it might take a while before Facebook collects enough evidence to award it this ranking signal.
Brands and marketers should offer genuine content and not “click-bait” headlines that make enticing promises but deliver lackluster information.
In other words, the page needs to post genuine content related to its brand.
This does not mean that the post should not be inspiring, funny, curious, or entertaining because all those things are what Facebook users value most in their News Feeds. It just means that a page’s posts should pertain to the brand itself and should be targeted to those users who are interested in the brand’s message.
Without this, it does not matter how funny or entertaining the post is; users will not interact with it, and therefore the entire page could get penalized to the point that Facebook refuses to show even a small percentage of its posts to its followers.
Tip 2: Avoid Flagged Content
There are some particular forms of content that Facebook flags automatically. The following content will cause a page to be down-ranked immediately by the 2020 algorithm:
- Scraped/Stolen Content
- Offensive Content (does not have to be prohibited to be considered offensive)
- Fake News
- Misleading Health Information (includes fake cures)
- Videos Tagged As Misleading (checked by third-party fact-checkers)
Such type of content is considered click-bait anyway and will not bring any real long-term relationship between the brand and its followers, so it is best to avoid them entirely right from the start.
Tip 3: Leverage Facebook Groups
Brands who want to increase their reach on Facebook should consider starting a Facebook Group. Besides the fact that Facebook’s algorithm now lays a great deal of emphasis on which groups a user interacts with most, the platform itself has come out with its “F5” design, which gives prime real estate to a user’s current groups on their page for easy access.
Starting a Facebook group will ensure that more pages and group posts appear in user’s News Feeds.
How much does Facebook value its Groups feature?
Facebook stated at its 2019 F8 developer conference that Groups are one of the most valuable features of Facebook. They encourage a great deal of engagement, which is one of the main reasons it has included Groups as a high ranking signal in the 2020 version of its algorithm.
Tip 4: Reach Out & Educate Followers
There is no shame for brands in reaching out to their followers and asking them to like or share their posts if they found it of value. Now that Facebook is giving more control over to users as to what they see in their News Feed, it is more important than ever to educate followers on the power they now possess. Brands should let interested users know that if they wish to receive more content from them, they need to follow, like, or best of all, check the “See First” preference, which lets the algorithm know that they want to see more posts related to the brand.
Tip 5: Pay For A Boost In Reach
Although most of the tips discussed above focused on how to increase News Feed reach through organic means, brands who have even the slightest of advertising budgets should supplement their organic Facebook marketing with paid ads. There is no better way to build strong relationships on Facebook between a brand and its audience than providing quality organic content. However, there is no better way to increase Facebook audience size than with Facebook ads.
Facebook ads include targeting options that are so granular that it is almost a given that a brand’s message is going to reach the right audience at the right time as long as their targeting strategy is correct.
If a brand does decide to supplement their organic reach with paid advertising, it should consider using content that has proven to get lots of organic engagement in the past. In this way, the chances of that content getting shared and liked are high, and so they will benefit from the added exposure their audience provides them with.
Final Note
Given Facebook’s history with its algorithm updates, brands and marketers can be sure that future ones will continue to rollout. The one thing they can do to make Facebook’s algorithm updates their friend instead of their enemy is to stay on top of what the latest algorithm values most and try to provide that value in spades. The above five tips were created to make sure that brands get as much reach out of their posts as possible by tailoring them to suit the 2020 updates.