Creating A Social Media Strategy That’s Right For YOU – Part 2 (Facebook)
Welcome back to our social media marketing deep dive! If you missed Part 1, be sure to check it out here, as Part 2 will be building on what you learned in the last blog and focusing on the social media platform that started it all: Facebook. Love it or hate it, your business can almost always benefit from establishing a presence on Facebook. It is the most widely-used platform in the world, with more than two billion people using it every month (almost a third of the world’s population) and over 65 million businesses using Facebook pages. You should be one of those 65 million.
Once you have created your own Facebook business page, you can control what, when, and how you post. We already discussed the need for creating good content, but once you have your content, how do you make sure that it is seen, much less seen by the right people? You need to be aware of Facebook’s algorithm- or, the process that ranks your posts in a user’s News Feed based on how likely that user will have a positive reaction. And of course, you want to rank at the top.
The fact of the matter is, Facebook’s algorithm is changing all the time. We recommend using the Insights tab on your Business Page to view your posts’ analytics; this will show you important stats like Post Reach (the number of people your post has reached), Post Engagements (the number of times people have engaged with your posts through likes, comments, shares, etc.), and other valuable insights so you can gauge how your content is resonating with people. The higher the reach and engagements, the more successful you can consider your posts.
While most social media platforms are now “pay to play” platforms, meaning the more money you put behind your strategy the more visibility you will get, we can provide you with some knowledge and tips to help boost your organic ranking.
The first five minutes from when you publish your post is the most crucial according to the algorithm. If you get a lot of likes and engagement during this time period, Facebook will recognize that post as being relevant and important to users, therefore it will push it out to more users, increasing its reach. Certain days and times also get more engagement than others, and it can be helpful to keep this in mind. While the best way to determine your optimal posting time is to review your own analytics and see when your particular audience is online, there are some general guidelines. Recent research suggests that the best time to post on Facebook is between 12pm – 4pm, and the best days to post are Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Currently, Facebook Live gets the most reach of all posts, most likely because it is a newer feature and Facebook wants their users to utilize it. If you can find a relevant way for your business to work it into your strategy, you may see some benefit from it.
Another thing that most people don’t realize is that adding links to posts tends to lessen your reach. This is because Facebook prefers to keep users on their platform, and a post link will take them off their site and onto another. However, that isn’t to say that you should never include links. For example, a wedding planning company may want to post a link to an article about local venues because they know this content is relevant and useful to their audience. If they post this article and lots of people engage with it, Facebook’s algorithm will not automatically lessen the reach solely because it’s a link. It understands that people are seeing this link and reacting to it, marking it as important and overriding how it would typically rank a link post. So, don’t be afraid to include links if you think the content is valuable!
Lastly, you always have the option of boosting your posts in which you’re essentially paying for more visibility. You can choose to push the post to people who like your page and their friends or people you choose through targeting. The latter will allow you to select the location, age, gender, and interests of those you wish to reach. It is a simpler way to target than diving into the actual Ads Manager which can be overwhelming for beginners.
As long as Facebook is around, it will continue to change and evolve, and marketers will always be on its tail to make sense of its newest features and mechanics. Take everything with a grain of salt and remember: the most important thing is that you put out thoughtful, engaging content. The rest will follow.
