Last fall Facebook tweaked its algorithm and many businesses have seen a decrease in reach as a result. To combat this change, we focus on earning more engagement. More engaged users on a post will yield a higher reach. Here are 7 quick tips to increase your Facebook engagement and reach in 2021:
1) Post when your fans are online
You can find the most opportune time to post to Facebook by clicking “insights” in the left panel of your page on a desktop and then look for the “engagement” section. Click the graph to expand to 7 days. I recommend making a cheat sheet for every day to save time when posting in the future. Make sure to update your cheat sheet regularly.
2) Engage and reply to comments
Facebook favors posts that receive engagement from the author. Especially if they are longer conversations. Anytime someone comments on a post you created, try your best to have a personalized response for everyone. At a minimum, react to their comment to show you “heard” it and value their communication.
3) Use Facebook Stories
Using features such as Facebook stories will give your brand a bump in the algorithm. It’s also another way to gain exposure outside of the Facebook feed. Facebook stories have 500 million active users daily. Why not tap into this audience for free? It’s also fun to create a story! Our suggestion is don’t be intimidated by Facebook stories and dive right in. You must consume and create to learn!
4) Use emojis
Emojis can be scroll stoppers and users tend to gravitate to a post cleanly written with emojis. Check your feed. Have posts with emojis received a bump in fan engagement? Personally, I love using emojis when pairing with micro-content, as bullet points, as an introduction to a post, and or on both sides of a word or short phrase to grab more attention. My only tip is to don’t go overboard and muddy up your verbiage with 20 emojis cluttered about.
5) Use videos
Which post types receive the most reach and engagement? VIDEOS. Videos have earned the most reach and engagement for all of my clients. If you are curious to if a video, photo, status update, or link provides results for your business this can be found in the same section where you found “when your fans are online.” “Post types” is the next tab to the right.
6) Avoid links taking users off of Facebook
In most cases, pages posting links that take users off of Facebook are penalized by the algorithm in terms of reach. Your engagement may increase if it is a link to a news article announcing something huge for your brand, however, you won’t see nearly as much reach as the article should deserve. This is because Facebook wants to keep users on their platform.
7) User-friendly content
Lastly, none of these tips will work to their full advantage if you are not producing the right content for your audience.
We’re not talking about paying $2000 for a product photoshoot. Actually, quite the opposite. Use content that looks like it was created by a user. Stand out by blending in. Users are served with so many polished ads daily that their eyes favor content that looks like it was created by a fellow friend. Keep product positioning, good lighting, and quality equipment in mind and see what you can come up with. An iPhone 11 and some lighting off Amazon can get you pretty far.