If you manage a Facebook page for your business, you have probably noticed it already. Posts that used to reach a good share of your fans now reach far fewer. The page has more likes than it did a year ago, and yet each post seems to be seen by fewer people. You are not imagining it, and it is not because your content suddenly got worse.
Facebook has been changing how the news feed decides what to show. In December it said it would show more of what it considers high-quality content, and since then many page owners, big and small, have seen their Facebook organic reach fall. Facebook has also been fairly open with advertisers that pages should expect free reach to keep declining and that paid promotion is the dependable way to reach people.
This affects almost every client we work with, so we want to explain what is going on and what we are changing.
Why this is happening
Think about it from Facebook’s side. Every person has friends, family, groups and dozens of pages they have liked over the years. There are far more posts competing for their feed than anyone could scroll through. Facebook has to choose, and it chooses based on what it thinks each person is most likely to care about.
As more businesses joined Facebook and started posting several times a day, the competition got fierce. A page that collected likes through contests in 2011 now has thousands of fans who don’t really remember why they clicked. Facebook can see that those people rarely interact with the page, so it shows them fewer of its posts.
There is also a business reason. Facebook earns money from ads, and promoted posts are an ad product. We don’t think it is useful to be angry about that. It is a private platform and it sets the rules. The practical question is what to do now.
What we are changing for clients
1. We are posting less, and making each post count
For many pages, we were posting once or twice a day because that is what everyone said you should do. We are cutting back. Three or four good posts a week usually beat seven average ones. A good post is one that a real customer would stop scrolling for: a proper photo of a new dish, a useful tip from your doctor, a short note about a change in timings, a photo of your team on a busy day.
What we are dropping: the “Good morning” posts with a sunflower, the “Happy Friday!” with no business reason, and generic quotes that have nothing to do with you.
2. We are watching reach and engagement, not page likes
The number of page likes was always a weak measure. It is even weaker now. In Facebook Insights, we look at how many people each post reached, how many clicked, commented or shared, and whether any of that led to a call, a booking or a visit to the website. A page with 2,000 engaged local fans is worth more than one with 40,000 likes from people who will never visit your shop.
This also means we are telling clients to stop buying likes or running “like our page to win” contests just to push the number up. Those fans don’t engage, and a large number of uninterested fans can make each post look less popular to Facebook.
3. We are setting aside a small, steady budget for promotion
For most small businesses, the budget doesn’t need to be large. What matters is that it is planned rather than an emergency boost when sales are slow. We pick one or two posts a week that matter, such as an offer, an event or a new service, and promote them to a defined audience: people near the business, of the right age, sometimes only existing fans and their friends.
We would rather spend a modest amount every week on the right posts than a large amount once a quarter. It also gives us steady data on what people respond to.
4. We are pushing harder on things you own
Facebook can change its rules again, and it will. Your website, your email list and your customers’ phone numbers are things you control. So we are adding simple ways for people to stay in touch outside Facebook: an email sign-up on the website for offers, an SMS list for a restaurant’s regulars (with their permission), and a clear link from every important Facebook post back to a page on your site.
Your Facebook page is a shop on someone else’s street. Keep it tidy, but make sure customers also know where your own front door is.
What kind of posts still travel
We don’t have a magic formula, and we are wary of anyone who claims one. But a few patterns hold up fairly well. Posts with clear, well-lit photos of real things do better than designed graphics with lots of text. Posts that give people a reason to comment, such as asking regulars which dish should return to the menu, do better than announcements. And posts that are useful, like holiday timings, road closures near the shop or a simple explanation of a treatment, tend to be shared because they help someone.
Videos are worth testing too. Facebook seems to be giving more room to video in the feed, and a 20-second clip shot on a phone can be enough.
What this means for your budget conversations with us
If you are a client, you will hear us talk more about a small monthly promotion budget alongside our fees. We know nobody likes paying for something that used to be free. But the alternative is spending time and money creating posts that very few of your customers will see.
We will also be honest when Facebook isn’t the right place to spend. For some businesses, a better website, a well-maintained Google+ Local listing or a stronger presence on Zomato or Justdial will do more for enquiries than any amount of Facebook posting.
Facebook is still where a huge number of your customers spend time every day. The free ride is ending, that’s all. Pages that post less, post better and spend a little with intention will be fine.
