My Facebook Page Reach Has Declined! Guess What? It Doesn't Matter!

So your Facebook Page's reach has dropped... not as many of your fans (and even less non-fans) are seeing your posts! It’s not the end of the world, I promise!

Lately I have seen many Facebook Page owners (mostly bloggers and small businesses) complaining or posting about the decline in the reach of their posts. Although this may have an initial significant impact in your growth, it doesn't impact the way your fans interact with your page.

Here are five things you can try, or remember, when it comes to your Facebook Page:

1) What’s so bad about spending a bit of money anyway?

An example of a client's ad campaign, which cost just
over $30.00 for 6 weeks and equated into 65 Actions taken by
fans & potential fans! That's roughly $0.46 per action!

At the end of the day, Facebook is a business. They offer a free service that has changed the landscape of marketing and advertising as we know it. The majority of their services are FREE to both users and marketers, but of course they are going to give the premium services, like extended reach and ads, to paying customers.

This doesn’t mean that everything from this point on has to cost money; it just means that as business owners we have to get more creative or spend a bit of money!

Think for a second the cost of running a newspaper advertisement… upwards of $1000 when you may only be hitting 20-40% of your target demographic. Half of the newspapers printed these days go right from delivery into a recycling box and even the ones that are opened have the ad sections tossed out without a glance. So why are we still spending money on print ads? Because it used to work!

Facebook (as well as Twitter and other Social Networking sites) has developed an entirely NEW way of advertising at a much MUCH lower cost than traditional (inbound) methods.

The reason that Facebook’s initial IPO didn’t perform well is because most business-savvy people saw that, at that point, Facebook was still giving the milk away for free, as it were. By making some significant and some slight changes to their modus operandi when it comes to business pages, their value has gone up significantly due to a much higher cash flow coming from promoted posts, ads and premium services.

Why spend $1000+ on an ad that runs for a weekend in one newspaper, when you can spend $50 on a promoted post that hits far beyond your page’s current reach, and only to people who are relevant to your target demographic?

Every business needs a marketing budget, even if it is only a few hundred dollars a month. Why not use this money in a better way, instead of tossing it in the recycling with the paper?

2) You don’t have to spend money to get the most of your reach!

Being a little creative with your digital marketing can make a huge impact in the way that your audience engages with you. Instead of posting once a day, (or worse, once a week) with generic, product and business oriented posts, try asking questions!

Be creative! Get resourceful!

Only 10% of your content on social sharing sites should be in a promotional context. Sharing ideas, tips, links, finds and resources should take up the other 90% of your content. Research when and how often posting should take place for your industry specifically.

Did you know that text-only posts have a significantly higher reach than posts with links or photos?

Try asking basic questions, fill in the blanks, and looking for ideas from your audience.

Here's a client post that includes an easy-to-answer, yet engaging question
that most fans will answer without even thinking about it!

3) Get Regular!

I’m not talking about your diet here! If your audience knows where to look and what to expect, they’re more likely to follow you on a regular basis and interact with you more often.

Interaction = Higher Edge Rank Score = Higher Reach!

You know your product better than anyone, but getting regular with HOW you post it makes a big difference.

A local vintage boutique creates regular Monday posts that are Male-Centric.
Being a vintage boutique, the majority of their current fans are probably
female. This weekly post is a GREAT way to bring some more male attention
to their brand! Kudos!

If you’re a blogger, consider doing a weekly series. Your fans will start to remember that “oh, today is Tasty Tuesday over at [Your Blog Here] and I should check out her facebook for the recipe!”

Other bloggers may even pick up on the idea and ta-da, you’ve got yourself a bloggy-nomenon!

Have a business that is product-oriented? Say, a clothing store for instance? Change up your window displays every Wednesday (Tuesday night) and post your “Window Wednesdays” on instagram -> facebook & twitter every Wednesday morning! The more creative you get with your window designs, the more interaction you will receive. It may even drive people into your store to see what’s happening with the theme that week!

By creating regular content you put yourself on a schedule and give your readers/audience something to expect.

Don’t be afraid to ask for what you need! If you see your page shares are declining, ask your fans to share your page in a few posts. If you see your comments are dwindling, ask a question in a way that encourages people to comment with their response!

4) Don’t be afraid to get a little edgy!

Whether its blogging, community management or business promotion, sometimes straddling the fence between the safe zone and the “they've gone too far!” zone can come in quite handy. Things don’t go viral for being boring, that's for sure!

Think about all of the best ads you’ve seen in your life. They push boundaries, they make people think.

There’s a little quote that goes something like “The definition of “Crazy” is doing the same thing every day and expecting different results!” and when it comes to digital marketing, it couldn’t be more poignant!

Sometimes you’ve got to piss a few people off to get them talking about you!

Tampon-Talk may not be the most appropriate way to garner fan attention,
but when it relates to your brand (say for instance this post by a local
mechanic shop, sharing a pre-existing meme) it instantly becomes more funny
and more likely to grab people's attention!

Keep in mind that slightly more women use and engage with brands on
social media than men when making "edgy" posts! You don't want your
stuff going viral for the WRONG reasons either!

5) The 3 P’s: Pre-Planning and Passion!

Flying by the seat of your pants might be fun at a theme park, but when it comes to your marketing why aren't you spending a bit more time planning your trajectory and researching your results?

Focus some energy into creating a plan, whether it be weekly, monthly or even daily. When is the best time for you to sit down and spend some time scheduling posts? Would a weekly theme work well in your business? What are some hash tags that would be appropriate for your page and accounts?

Schedule some posts ahead of time (but ALWAYS remember to remove auto-posts in the event of national tragedy!) and then elaborate upon those during moments of virility. For me, I general schedule about 50% of my posts and do the other 50% as I go, ensuring my posts don’t come off as stale and off time.

Not everyone is a genius when it comes to marketing, some couldn't tell you the difference between an impression and an engagement if you held a dictionary in front of them. I get that. That’s where someone like me comes in!

If your passion is painting furniture, or doing hypnotherapy, or being a blogger, you may just not be capable of spending the time, energy and creativity it takes to execute a quality social blast. You may not see the little things that can enhance your space, make it more engaging! There’s nothing wrong with that.

If you want to learn (and certainly you likely do, if you’re here) book a consultation with someone who does this for a living. Shadow them, learn from them, barter with them! Do what you are good at and learn how to do what we’re good at, if you don’t think a full time (or even part time for that matter) social media consultant is in your grasp.

The people who are the best at this stuff, the social media and marketing stuff, are the people who never stop learning. They are constantly discovering and measuring their growth, determining the best approach for their next move. Analytics aren’t everyone’s strong suit, but getting even a small grasp on this aspect of your marketing will give huge insights (pun slightly intended) into where you can focus your efforts for optimal growth.