The last couple of years have been pretty tough for small businesses that are using Facebook to engage with their audience. Due to some changes in Facebook’s news feed algorithm has made many small businesses experience a huge drop in their Facebook engagement and reach. However, it doesn’t mean that you can no longer use Facebook to market your brand and boost sales for free. There are still a few things you can do to improve your organic search.
Why is Organic Reach Declining?
It’s important to analyze the root of the problem and find out exactly why our organic search is declining so we can plan the perfect strategy for our next move.
Basically there are two reasons why organic search is declining in Facebook. First, to avoid overcrowding of content on newsfeed. There are more than 18 million business pages currently competing for your newsfeed space in Facebook. The second reason is quite simple, Facebook just decided that it’s time for Businesses to pay for optimum engagement with their audience and boost sales.
How Facebook Calculates Your News Feed Algorithm
First of all, you should understand that no one knows exactly how it works, but just like Google, with proper analysis we can make a good estimate. However, there are elements of the algorithm that already known publicly, including internet speed and device used by the user, how the user interacts with Facebook ads, posts that are made hidden or reported as spam by a user, also post types that trigger the most interaction whether it’s photos, text or videos.
Then there are also three pillars of EdgeRank that play a very important role in the current news feed algorithm, they are affinity (the intensity of your audience’s interaction with the page), Weight (priority given by Facebook to your posts, mostly videos and photos get top priority), and Decay (The age of your post, the longer it’s been around the less likely it will show up in news feed).
News Feed visibility relates a lot with user behavior. Interactions with a specific post, interactions with certain post types, also positive and reactions shown by users to the post will determine the visibility of your post to specific users.
How To Improve Your News Feed Visibility
Focus on things that really matter – Too many businesses focus on post reach, while it actually doesn’t matter much to indicate success. According to Jon Loomer, the amount of traffic and sales are much more important than reach.
Follow strategies used by Fortune 500 companies – There are 3 main strategies used by Fortune 500 companies to optimize their news feed. First, they show what goes on inside the company. Second, They show availability and allow their audience to easily interact with them. Third, They always try to provide pleasant and enjoyable experience to their customers.
Non peak times are the best to make a post – It’s simple logic, when not a lot of posts being shared online, your post will stand out more.
Create a closer relationship with your audience – This is actually quite easy, you can start by posting behind the scenes photos of you and your team, and you’ll see the positive reactions from the audience.
Post questions – This is a good way to encourage interactions and engagement.
Share self-explanatory photos – People love pictures, so posting pictographics and infographics are really useful to boost your news feed visibility.
