Why is it so hard to reach Followers on Facebook and How to Overcome this

Facebook can be a pretty mysterious social media platform for new business accounts. It’s regularly undergoing updates and algorithm changes. In the past decade, due to these algorithm changes, it’s gotten increasingly difficult for small businesses to successfully launch non-paid Facebook marketing campaigns.

Even reaching one’s own followers can prove to be a huge challenge. Though it was once promoted as an ‘organic social media platform’, Facebook is anything but these days. If you’re noticing that your posts are barely reaching an audience, you’re not alone. The average Facebook page in 2018 boasts an organic reach of only 2.6 percent.

As unfortunate as it is, the only way to overcome the lack of exposure is to adapt. Before we got to that though, we must emphasize not to abandon Facebook in your social media marketing. As frustrating as the social media site can be with its limited organic reach, it still carries one of the largest audiences anywhere on the Internet, including approximately 19 million Canadian active users. Therefore, it’s important to tap into Facebook marketing, even with these challenges.

Currently, there are more than 60 million businesses on Facebook. The high level of competition means there’s a lot of content being posted on the daily. The more content posted, the less chance you have of being seen. This phenomenon is in part responsible for the decline in Facebook’s organic reach. The other side of the coin is that Facebook has chosen to prioritize posts from friends and family over those of business accounts.

The answer in how to make the most from your Facebook marketing is to pay attention to what others have done to become successful in this paradigm. For example, building customer relationships is key. Be sure to engage with fans by answering comments, taking polls, starting a ‘share’ based contest, and providing the chance for fans to message you privately. The higher the engagement, the more likely that Facebook’s algorithm will bump up your content to the top of the newsfeed.

Next, use video marketing to tap into Facebook’s seemingly dormant organic reach. Facebook loves video. The Facebook algorithm will prioritize video over other types of content. A recent study concluded that Facebook videos receive on average 135% higher organic reach than photos. Creating high quality videos and releasing them on Facebook is an easy way to boost engagement. Live video sessions might be something else to consider, as Facebook Live videos are watched on average three times longer than regular videos.

Lastly, consider using ‘boosting’ to elevate organic posts. This is a form of paid marketing that allows a business to set their budget however small and then, the platform will boost posts higher up in newsfeeds providing higher engagement. If you have a piece of content that is doing well in engagement or if it’s something you’ve invested a lot in, boosting is going to give it its best shot at maximizing the amount of people who see it.

Since doing away with its organic reach for small business, Facebook has received a ton of criticism and, arguably, deservingly so. There are still ways though to get the word out, share high quality content, and win audiences. If you see your engagement declining or are experiencing issues with your organic reach that go beyond what we’ve mentioned here, consider using these strategies and others to drive traffic to your page.

If you have more questions about social media marketing, Facebook marketing, or how to maximize exposure on Facebook, a representative at Unlimited Exposure would be happy to help.