Organic Reach Down 52% for Facebook Pages

Noticed a decline in your Facebook pages’ organic reach recently?

Recent research by SocialFlow has revealed that between January 2016 and July 2016, Facebook pages have seen an average decline of 52% in organic reach. Basically, this means that when you post an update from your business page, the amount of people that will see it has halved…

This isn’t great news for anyone who relies on Facebook to promote their products or services, so what can businesses do to help boost their visibility on the platform?

Paid Facebook advertising

A drop in organic reach can only mean one thing – Facebook wants you to pay for it! A great way to supplement waning organic content is to combine it with a solid paid advertising campaign.

With a minimum spend of just £5 a day and so much user data available, Facebook advertising is one of the most efficient and effective ways to improve your pages’ reach.

Post video content

Back in June, Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook’s vice president of European, Middle Eastern and African operations, stated that in five years’ time Facebook “will be definitely mobile, it will be probably all video.” Over the past year, Facebook has been increasingly shifting its focus to video with the launch of Facebook Live, video autoplay, and its Friends Day feature. This has meant that any non-video content has seen less and less engagement.

You don’t have to pay a professional videographer to produce great video content. Snapchat, Vine and YouTube are all great platforms for creating and sharing video content and only require the use of a smartphone – so find something worth shooting and start sharing!

Friends and family first

In a company blog post, Facebook stated; “Our top priority is keeping you connected to the people, places and things you want to be connected to — starting with the people you are friends with on Facebook.”  Firmly sticking to its roots, Facebook is adamant that it will remain a ‘friends first’ platform – the foundation that the social network was first built on.

However, they also acknowledge that people are worried about the effect this will have on Facebook as a business platform; “Overall, we anticipate that this update may cause reach and referral traffic to decline for some Pages.” “We encourage Pages to post things that their audience are likely to share with their friends.”

So what sort of posts are most likely to be shared by friends on Facebook?

• Videos – Facebook’s autoplay feature means that videos now automatically play as users scroll down their newsfeed. Create an engaging video that will instantly capture your follower’s attention!
• Fun, entertaining content – Facebook isn’t primarily a business platform so don’t take yourself too seriously and have fun with the content you’re publishing.
• Topical content – Have a look at Facebook’s trending topics and comment on events that are relevant or happening right now.
• Quizzes or questions – Rather than shouting at people, ask them for their thoughts and opinions. Create a survey and share it with your followers. The more conversational you are, the more engagement you’ll get back.
• Contests – Reward loyal fans by running competitions and offering prizes or incentives. People are much more likely to interact with your page if they’re getting something out of it.
• Rich media – Photos, videos, links, gifs, and memes are all much more likely to be shared on Facebook than a simple text update. Even the addition of an emoji can boost the impact of your post! Just make sure it’s appropriate and relevant. 

If you have any questions or concerns about changes to your company Facebook page, tweet us @platform_81 or get in touch with a member of our Digital Marketing team for advice!