It’s a new year and the Facebook changes to privacy settings — how others interact with you and what you see — are now in full force. You can read about these changes here in a December post here on Indies Unlimited.
Now that things are different, how do we get the most from our Facebook Pages? As we know, Facebook has crushed organic visibility for Facebook Page owners. It’s quite simple why — they want you to buy ads.
Let’s talk about how we can increase our visibility within our Pages and maximize your exposure while playing the Facebook game.
Increasing engagement and visibility on your Facebook page is not impossible, just very difficult. Here are a few strategies to chip away and build organic growth.
Engage with other Pages – A real communication with other Facebook Pages in your niche will go a long way toward building relationships. When looking for the “right” Pages to engage, try to break out of our writer circles. We are all comfortable engaging across very common lines, but rarely do we engage with the real niche. You see, our niche is not other writers; our niche is baseball, cancer, dogs, truck drivers, and millions of other subjects. Make a pledge to seek out one or two Pages that focus more on the content that you’re interested in rather than hanging out with other authors.
Facebook is a tool – Many people are literally trying to run their business ON Facebook. Think of Facebook as a leased copy machine in your business. You own your website; that’s where you want conversions to occur. Get people off Facebook and into your domain. Quality blogs, interesting conversation and calls to action will keep people engaged to your website.
Build your email list – Hand-in-hand with “Facebook is a tool,” getting targeted Facebook users onto your mailing list will help you build your business faster. We can’t control what happens on Facebook, but we do control what happens in our domain. Use email marketing newsletters to deepen your connections and build long-lasting relationships with your readers.
Facebook Post less frequently – Huh? Did I just say that? Instead of posting more often, focus on high quality, thoughtful posts on your Facebook Page. Less is more. People get burned out. A friend of mine posts daily. I really want to support him. Alas, you can only do so much. Three hundred sixty-five posts a year might be a great accomplishment, but no one can keep up with the content.
Steer away from specific Keywords – The rumor is that Facebook is focusing on certain keywords in order to demote posts. Words such as buy, like, share, download found within the content or the text of a link will destroy your visibility. Stay clear of these sure-fire self-promotion words and you’ll have a better shot at growing organically.
Keep in mind that Facebook changes all the time. You may or may not have experienced changes to your visibility. Just know — it will happen eventually. Put into play a couple of the above suggestions and you should see a blip on your Facebook EKG.
Jim,
I agree with your point about posting less, and about moving people, gently, to your own platform. I didn’t realize FB was flagging certain words. Thanks for the info.
Thanks, Lois!
Less is more? Well, at least I’m doing something right… Great info about keywords. Thanks!
Thanks, Julie. Keywords are … wait for it … KEY!
+1 for #4!!
I’ve been experimenting with posting less recently. Much less. And it works. The decay seems to be less drastic when posting less. So you post only your most relevant content every 2 or 3 days, and that way you get better reach for important stuff.
Eric, thanks for sharing your results. Great insight on better reach for the important stuff.
You brought up many good points. I, personally, have had better response only using my author page on Facebook occasionally and pointing people to my personal Facebook page. I only use my author page for an occasional blurb about my progress on a book. I had noticed that if I put a link on my author page on Facebook to read a blog post etc.it seemed as if Facebook was blocking it from reaching the people who had liked my page. You brought up a good point, I need to get better steering people to my permanent website and having them to sign up for updates. This means I need to get better with my call to action. Thanks for the information.
Your welcome, Nan. We’re always tweaking the process.