Are you an architect of amazing Facebook posts that have translated into virtually no leads? If you peruse your Facebook Analytics, chances are you’ll see your organic reach has not only stagnated, but declined. Between January and July 2016 alone, publishers realized a 52% decrease in organic reach as Facebook pushes businesses to invest in paid advertising by burying your posts so they are rarely seen. How does one counteract this inevitability in the short run? The best way is to follow our tips for curating and creating superb posts that actually get engagement. Once you’re a posting savant, the next step is to utilize Facebook’s algorithm to increase your followers and the odds of them actually seeing your posts. Read on to learn our suggestions for getting people to really “like” you…
Facebook’s algorithm is designed to recognize and share posts with more engagement and increase the chances of these posts (and all other posts by that business page) being seen, kind of like people wanting to befriend the most popular kid in school. The way Facebook can tell if you are cool enough to warrant more attention is through the post’s engagement (likes, comments, and shares). This works both ways, and if you have been posting a large number of low-engagement posts it can hurt your “popularity.” You may have to artificially increase your engagement to undo the damage of those poorly performing posts.
1. Start With The People Closest To You
Some people, luckily, already “like” you. Have your friends, family, and your employees engage with your company page and posts. If you learn nothing else from this newsletter, at the very least, have your employees watch your videos, click your links, like and share your posts, and get engaged in an authentic way. Most employees are happy to help and just need to be reminded. Others need a little incentive to participate.
Have your employees follow these steps to see your business page posts first:
- Go to your Facebook Business Page
- Click the “Follow” button
- Click that same button & click “See It First”
That’s it! Now the first thing your employees will see when they open up Facebook is your business page’s posts, and they can like & share away. Further, when appropriate, encourage them to comment and converse on the posts as Facebook will see the post is popular and often increase viewership. Additionally, you and your employees can link to your social media within email blasts and in your email signature, and cross-promote your Facebook page on your other social media accounts.
If your employees are still too cool for school you may want to incentivize their activity. Offer a gift card or prize at the end of the month for whoever engages the most. Consider creating a “Social Media King/Queen” of the month, who gets a prize for engaging the most. It may seem trivial, but we have seen firsthand the kind of engagement garnered when companies have the support or their employees.
2. You are Invited
So you posted a picture of your staff holiday party, tagged your employees, and received numerous likes from non-followers. Don’t miss the opportunity to gain them as followers.
- Go to your Facebook business page while logged into the administrator account
- At the top of the page click the link that says “Go to Business Manager Page”
- Underneath each post you will see the thumbs up, heart, laughing face, etc. symbols and a number or list of names next to it in the form of a link
- Click that link
- A pop-up will appear that shows you if these people are following your page and if they aren’t you can invite them to follow you by clicking the “Invite” button next to their name
3. Name Drop and Shout Out to Get More Attention
When posting, you should be tagging or hat tipping (using the @ symbol next to their Facebook username) anyone that is relevant to the post – the writer and publisher of, or business referenced in an article you’re linking to, or the creator of a product you’re talking about. Hat tipping creates a notification for the person being shouted out, letting them know that they were mentioned in a post. This increases the chances of them sharing your post, following your page, liking your post, etc.
4. Like Other Business Pages from your Business Page
Take advantage of liking other businesses to attract their followers and staff. For example, if you own an online ski-wear company, like other businesses that are likely to interact with your product – ski resorts and community pages for common ski locations, for example.
Still confused about how to become the cool kid in school? Reach out to us at GetTheScoop@iScreamSocialMedia.com to learn more about how we can help increase your visibility.