There are reasons it’s getting harder to see results with organic reach. The sheer amount of content on the internet is growing daily. Facebook has 1.23 billion users worldwide, and sharing information is as simple as whipping your phone out of your pocket and tapping the screen a few times. Your post about a movie being bad because the movie theater puts too much salt on their popcorn is just a drop in the pond. Actually, if you’ve ever seen Waterworld with Kevin Costner, it’s more like a drop in that.
Each time you log onto Facebook, your News Feed shows you a string of pictures, videos, statuses, and ads you may or may not care about. According to Facebook, there are 1,500 possible stories that could make it to the average user’s News Feed when they log on. If you have a boatload of Facebook friends and like lots of pages, that pool of stories increases to 15,000.
Most people aren’t going to sift through 150 posts every time they check Facebook, let alone 15,000. So you are only shown a few of those potential stories in your News Feed. There’s a lot of content out there, so there’s a lot of competition for a post’s organic reach. Here’s the low down directly from Facebook:
Of the 1,500+ stories a person might see whenever they log onto Facebook, News Feed displays approximately 300. To choose which stories to show, News Feed ranks each possible story (from more to less important) by looking at thousands of factors relative to each person.
There are other social media platforms that choose to display all content in real time. At first glance, this seems like a better approach for getting organic reach. However, there is still so much content being posted constantly, that it can still be hard to get the reach you want. If you check Twitter at noon, you might never see that post from 11:30 a.m.
This isn’t too concerning if you’re just ranting about salty popcorn, but if you’re posting for your business, this has probably thrown you into a tizzy. How are you supposed to increase your organic reach? What does it take to get people to notice you splashing around in the gigantic pond that is Facebook?
Well, the best way to increase your organic reach is still the same as it’s always been. You want to share high quality content. Provide useful and interesting information and deliver in a way that is engaging.
Don’t just share a page for the sake of sharing it. Make sure that it is something that people want to see, and offer some type of insight or useful commentary. You want posts to offer some type of value to as many people as possible. People like to share useful information, and shares increase the reach of your posts.
This means you have to know your customer. Don’t talk to yourself and your colleagues — talk to the people who want your goods and services. Post things they’ll want their friends to know about. Post things that will make them like you and see you as a good resource for what you have to offer. Post things that will tempt them to engage with you. But also keep track of your KPIs and make sure that you’re on track for your goals. Content that gets shares might not be the same as content that gets sales. Work to find the perfect balance.
In addition to making your content as useful and engaging as possible, you should explore multiple social media platforms to maximize organic reach. Don’t just stick to Facebook. Post to Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. The more places your content can be found, the higher the reach.
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