5 Tips to Increase Facebook Reach Without Paying For It

blogging business tools social media Dec 16, 2015

Facebook Reach seems to be decreasing at a rapid rate for people who own or manage Facebook Pages….. If you ask most Facebook Page owners, however not everyone is experiencing the same decrease in reach.

Before we get started lets just clarify a few words that I often seen being misused when people are asking for support in regards to their Facebook accounts :-

Facebook Profile

It can have FRIENDS (maximum friends 5,000)
And if you choose to you can also allow followers (unlimited followers)
Is designed for your personal interactions on Facebook NOT business activities (if you read the T&C for Facebook it is actually against their T&C to use your profile for business posts – hence why they developed Facebook PAGES)
You have to use a profile to be able to join Facebook groups
Can be verified with a blue tick – rare but can be done.

Facebook Page

People LIKE your Facebook Page
They are designed for business, promotions and interest groups
You can run Facebook ads from your Facebook Page
You can comment on other pages as your Facebook page
You can NOW join groups as a Facebook Page
Can have more then one person managing the page
- Settings options:-
  - Admin
  - Editor
  - Moderator
  - Advertiser
  - Analyst
A page can be verified
- Blue tick – Must be in Public Figure category and the name of your page MUST be what is on your drivers license / birth certificate
  - You are required to upload supporting documentation that this page is in your real name
- Grey Tick – Must be at this stage a Local business, must have your address and phone number on your page
  - You can apply for phone verification if your business is in the public records
  - Or you can upload supporting documentation that shows your business is the correct name and located at the address on your Facebook page.

Now we have that out of the way here is my 5 Tips to Increase Facebook Reach without Paying for it:-

See First
Notifications
Verification
Posting Regular Content
Be engaging

See First

Educating your audience about how to correctly use Facebook and how to ensure that your posts are seen by those that really want to see them.

Staying up to date with the latest changes and not copying the hoaxes (I am sure you have all seen the copy and paste this status for more reach or you have to tell your audience they have to like your page, share 3 posts, like 5 posts a week or they will never see your posts again….)

Well here is the correct method for them to guarantee your posts are seen.

Educate your audience on how to add your page to their See First section, not only will they always see your pages posts at the top of the news feed it will stand out with a little blue star next to your post to indicate that they wanted to see your posts first.

To set the See First get your audience to click the down arrow next to where they have liked your page then select “In Your News Feed” the below window will open up where they can select their preference.

Check out this video on how easy it is to set up, and how easy it is to show your audience:-

Notifications

As you would have seen in the video above your audience can now turn on notifications for your Facebook Page. As above they are to go to the down arrow next to where they have liked your page, they will then select the bottom option “Notifications” and the below options will open up.

They can chose to get notified every time you post, or when you make certain types of posts. No matter how many times a week you posts the most times they will be notified each day is 5 times so just be aware of that when posting.

Verification

Facebook Page / Profile Verification lets people know you are authentic.

Public Figure Verification:- Blue Tick next to the page name.

This is the fun one, as you even get your own special app “Mentions” to manage your page from. (Mentions app is only available for public figures who are verified on Facebook – you can download it prior but features will not be activated until verified)

Advantages:-

Live Streaming (this is currently in the middle of rolling out to profiles so it will be interesting to see if it rolls out to other categories of Facebook Pages)
Q&A Mode – Where you can interact with your audience
Make announcements
Share across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all in the one Mentions app
You get the features that until recently were reserved for celebrities

How to get verification:

You can apply through your Facebook Page, the Mention App or by completing this form on Facebook to see if your page is eligible for verification.

Local Business Verification:- Grey Tick next to the business name

Advantages of Verification:-

Facebook has advised that verified business pages will appear before non verified business pages in their search function
Level of trust with your audience that you are a real business at the location advised on your page

How to get Local Business Verification

It is really simple, go to your Facebook Page – Settings then it will be the 3rd option down if you are a local business – you now have the option to request a call and they will give you a verification code or you can upload supporting documentation.

Note: some other categories will show the page verification option but will not be approved.

Post Content Regularly

If reach is a big issue for you posting once a week will not be helping your cause. You really need to be posting a couple of times a day. Remember that when you post you will never have 100% of your audience online at that exact time (if you do that is amazing use that time). So when you posts a small % of your audience are online and the chance to see that posts, posting a couple of times a day increases the chances of more of your page likers seeing your page that day.

Always use your Facebook Pages insights to help you decided the best times to post – EVERY page is different, so don’t copy someone elses posting patterns or you might find yourself with no reach because those are times that no one is online from your page.

I also like to rotate my content and timing, most days I will post:-

An image
A shared link to another website or article
A blog post of mine
or a Text only post

Each page is different as well when it comes to what your audience is most responsive to. The Business Classroom page we see pretty even reach across all posts unless it is a hot topic post or a how to, then we see a huge spike in the reach of those posts.

Be Engaging

This one normally surprises me when someone comes to me to look at improving their Facebook page and there use to be heaps of comments from their audience now there is none. I look back and see that everyone was making the effort to comment and share and they were hearing crickets from the page owner – no thank you for sharing, thanks for your opinion (even better if you can engage in the conversation with them – but if you have nothing to say at least thanking them for taking the time TO comment), so of course they have decided it is a waste of time to comment.

Steps to be engaging:-

Always at least acknowledge someone who comments
Try to continue on the conversation – the more the conversation continues the more people that will see your post that are friends with the person you are commenting with (increasing reach)
If they tag a friend – thank them for sharing your content
Check shares – sometimes you can miss out on valuable interactions and comments regarding your content as well as you can have the opportunity to answer any questions people might have about your content (don’t high-jack someone elses page, but if there is direct questions or comments you can always pipe in (as your page of course)
Ask questions – give people something to comment about
Comment on other pages as your page vs your profile