Facebook and Instagram (both are owned and operated by Facebook) are important social media platforms to help you engage with your supporters and followers. Who and how many people see your posts is determined by Facebook Algorithms. They change and were last changed in January 2021 We have listed some tips for increasing the value of your posts based on these changes.
1. Users can choose their favourites to see on their newsfeed. Encourage members of your group / page to select your page as a ‘favourite’ – they can do this by selecting ‘Toolbar’, ‘recent and favourites’, ‘manage favourites’, ‘Add friends and pages’.
2. Make sure you’re posting engaging, interesting posts, not posts just for the sake of it because users can unfollow and snooze you more easily now. Create inspiring, funny, positive, interesting posts . Create posts sharers want to share.
3. Some good changes are that you can now reach more people than just your followers and those within your geographical location.
4. Groups can be blocked so ensure you always follow community standards rules. New users will get a warning if your group has violated any.
5. Hashtags!! Don’t use them in sentences in the body of your posts and use less! Between 1 – 2 is BEST! Use popular ones (so make use of national hashtags). Users are using them to search for groups and pages. Choose relevant hashtags based on location, theme etc.
6. Avoid sharing posts, copy and pasting from other posts and links to other websites. All will reduce reach. Repeated posts loose reach. Try to create unique content for each post. Facebook wants you to retain users within Facebook.
7. Avoid engagement bait posts (when you ask users to like, comment and share) = reduced reach
8. Respond to messenger enquiries promptly and you will get a higher ranking within Facebook.
9. Older pages and groups, the percentage of followers engaging, consistency of postings (ie if you post everyday at 10am make sure you do it at the same time everyday), amount of time you engage with your users will all (messages, comments etc) will all increase your pages reach
10. Use (great) images Facebook posts that include a photo see higher-than-average engagement rates. Simple shots work well.
11. VIDEOS – Facebook loves videos, the longer the better! At least 3 minutes long.
12. To help increase your reach, ask friends, family and staff to interact with your posts, share, like etc you page /group. Do this off facebook to avoid the situation in point 7 above. Perhaps an e-mail.
13. Avoid overly promotional posts
14. Don’t waste money on boosting posts, the breakdown isn’t worth it
15. Create an ad to capture info, name and address. Build an email list to get message across too so you aren’t just relying on FB, build your email list!! Newsletters are good way to stay in touch! Remember you don’t own any of your facebook followers and members. What will happen to your group if Facebook deletes your page or group? Better to have a backup.
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