8 Easy Steps to Get More Engagement on Facebook

Recently, there has been a lot of speculation about the declining reach of Facebook. However, through insights such as the one shown in the image below, we are able to see that it is not all that difficult to increase your organic reach, as long as you know what you’re doing.

The insights above are from a genuine small business that has grown an audience of over 930  engaged followers. This page regularly obtains a reach of  3K (with no Boost!), these insights for the business’s posts are nothing unusual.

When I shared this image as a post on my Facebook page, there was a clamour from tech-savvy followers who really wanted to know more. As a result, I decided to share with you my 8 top tips to help boost your page and let your business grow naturally through amazing engagement and great reach.

1.) Post regularly 

The business shown above is not a prolific “poster”, in fact they only post twice a week on average, and usually on the same day. The key is that they post without fail every week, so their audience knows what and when to expect it, whilst also knowing that they are going to find the content relatable and interesting.

2.) Quality rather than quantity 

This is not only relatable to the number of followers you have, it is also relevant to the number of times you post. To begin with, you may need to deliver great content four or five times a week but as you engage your audience, you can comfortably post two to three times per week – as long as you are consistent and the quality is good.

3.) Post ‘behind the scenes’ images

The mentioned business posts great images of what life is really like behind the scenes. Think of the bigger picture in your business: do you go out of your way to help your customers? Do you support a charity or are you interested in sport? Maybe you attend trade shows? Letting followers find out more about your business ethos lets them really connect and understand you.

4.) Show a sense of humour

For years, businesses have been conditioned to write with a formal, distanced style, putting the customer/follower at arms length and leaving little room for a relationship to be established. Social media changes all the rules. This is a place where your business must show its personality if it is to succeed. In the social world, there is no room for stuffiness or sales speak.

5.) Know your audience

Everyone likes a happy post, and you don’t want to take yourself too seriously. However, this doesn’t mean you have to be a comedian and you don’t want to push the boundaries. The main thing to remember is to constantly be positive, as if you create a ‘sunny’ page your customers will expect to have a ‘sunny’ experience when they meet you in person!

6.) Be pro-active

Some business posts are more like a short story than a quick ‘newsflash’, and they are often very amusing. However, this won’t necessarily work for you; the key here is that this business understands what their audience likes to see. This business always responds to comments, answers questions and is genuinely happy to help.

7.) Find a formula that works

The trick here is to recognise that this business knows exactly what works for them. They have found a formula that works by doing more of the things their audience responds to and less of the things they don’t. They persevere when others give up, and post great content, regularly, without fail. So take some time to really study what your audience responds to and make a note of the type of posts that get good engagement. These are your clues to really beginning to understand your audience.

8.) Follow Facebook advice and trends

The savvy social media followers amongst you may have noticed one key difference in preference for posting! Look at the insights in the example at the top of this blog. The highest reach has been achieved through posting a video!  

My advice here is to listen to Facebook, earlier this year they warned of reduced reach for standard image based posts and told us that rewards for further reach would be given to native video content.  As you can see this is exactly what is happening this short video posted on a brand new page received organic reach of almost 6K.

 Let us know your top tips for gaining great reach. What makes your Facebook post sing?