How to Reach Fans on Facebook Part 1

I just set up a business page on Facebook, what do I do now? That was my thought after I set up my page for Endeavors of a Girl. I did the obvious things, filled out as much information as I was comfortable with and posted a few of my favorite blog posts so people could see what Endeavors of a Girl is about.  Then I noticed a little blue button that started a flood of research on my part – “Boost Post”. I wanted to write up a little bit about what I learned. Hopefully this will help anyone else who will or have recently set up a Facebook business page.

Here is where I started: Upon clicking on this “Boost Post” button I realized it wanted me to pay so that particular post could reach more of my fans. Wait, I thought if a person liked my page they would get my posts. Apparently, not everyone. There is this thing called “reach” and it can be “organic” or “paid”. Organic is basically free advertising when it comes to business pages. This is the reach that happens when you don’t pay. Basically the people who are interacting with your page the most will see your post and the people who don’t won’t. That is where “paid reach” comes into play. In order to reach more of your fans, those not interacting with your page, you must “Boost” your posts. I thought this article was very informative and eye opening about what it means to “Boost Post”. I like his closing thoughts a lot.  I have decided to not boost any posts for a while until I gain a little more ground and can start having give-a-ways or some other widespread, worthy-of-spending-money-on posts.

So, if I am not going to pay to boost my post how can I up my organic reach so my posts may be seen by a high percentage of my fans? Let’s take a moment to talk about how Facebook works. Facebook has devised an algorithm that decides what posts a person will see in their news feed (click here to learn about the updates). This takes into account all sorts of factors like clicks, comments, user made lists, what has been blocked/ allowed, etc. It will show you what it thinks you will find most relevant which equates to roughly 300 posts out of 1500. This is a great thing, 1500 post could get a bit overwhelming and cause us to miss the information we are most interested in. However, for small business just starting up, it creates a lot of competition and many pages have seen a decline in their organic reach. To learn a little bit more about organic reach and how it has changed check out my favorite three posts: Straight from Facebook, Forbes’ recap, Entrepreneur’s recap.

Ok cool, again, how do I up my organic reach? Engagement is huge. You must get your fans to interact with your page as much as possible. This will help make your page and content seem more relevant to Facebook’s algorithm. This article on Amy Porterfield’s site has great tips on generating more likes, comments, shares and clicks. You should also post consistently and find the best time to post, like when the majority of your fans are on Facebook. This article has more on these plus 6 other tips. The last two things that I have been learning about are the different options under the “Like” button on pages. What?! There are options under the like button? Yup, they are “Get Notifications” and “Add to Interest List”.  These are my favorite options, however these are up to the fan to complete. I will share a picture tutorial on how to set these up to share with your fans in part 2.

My last bit of advice to you would be to check out this article. It has 15 different article links that explain more about Facebook’s algorithm, how to “Use Facebook Insights” and how to “Optimize Your Content for Better Results”.

I will let you sit and digest this information and share part 2 with you soon!

Hope you have found this post to be interesting and helpful.
Happy Facebooking!

Alyssa

Got your own tips and tricks? Please share them in the comments!

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Mathew 28:19 & 20