Clear the Fog about Facebook Reach – What and How?

Hey Dad, asked little Tim, How far can I actually throw this ball?

It left Arthur puzzled…

What do I tell him about? The angle, the power or the strength are some factors which decide how far his ball would go?

Like little Tim, there are many who are puzzled about how far & wide can they actually reach?

Within digital marketing, I find many ‘little Tim’s everyday who are puzzled about their everyday social media ventures, which is why I actually thought about this piece.

Now when I talk about Social Media Reach, the first platform that comes to my mind is Facebook. I have seen many Facebook page admins working hard day in, day out catering to the different audience, all of it in an urge to engage.

However, what probably we are not aware or probably choose to ignore, is how far our efforts are actually reaching when it comes to Facebook.

Facebook Reach is exactly defined as the number of unique Facebook users who saw your content.

How does it affect?

Facebook Reach eventually affects every metric that you can imaginably track. To name some they would be : Engagement, Likes, Comments, Clicks, Virality

Facebook Reach and its kinds

1. Post Reach
It is simply the number of people who saw a particular post in their feed.

2. Page Reach
Page Reach is the number of people who saw “any” of your posts, in their feed in a given period of time, say week or monthly.

Now both of these metrics have sub-metrics. The sub-categories of both Post Reach & Page reach are:

Organic Reach – Reach that Facebook gives you based on no. of fans your page has, i.e Page Fans, who saw the post in their news feed + Post, people saw when a fan from your page liked a post +random visitors to your page

*Quick Tip: Since this is established that Facebook organic reach is mainly based on the fans who already like your page, I guess it would be a good idea to schedule your posts according to the time, most of your fans are online.

Viral Reach – Though as per Facebook, viral reach is a part of the organic reach (Read here). Yet I would like to detail it further. When someone who is already a part of your fan base of your page, likes your post and further shares the post by adding their two cents (in form of a title, write up).

Paid Reach – It is simply the number of people who saw you post and engaged to it, through ad posting.

Having explained you all of this, I feel it would be unjustified, if I didn’t tell you, how to actually hike your Facebook reach?

So here are 5 tips for you to work upon,

1. Getting to know your audience

This is more of an obvious point, yet I feel it is very important, since it actually lets you see how your page audience is consuming the content.

a) Is your audience more mobile centric?
b) What is the kind of content you audience like ? If possible try and analyse why?
c) Once you know the kind of posts which are being liked. Try and replicate the success at large.

2. Crisp content works

Please do not try too hard to convince your fans to like posts.

Short & quick, easy to understand, making a point, adding value etc should be some characteristics of an engaging Facebook post.

Trying to hard or begging for likes is a strict no; you may ask how it influences your reach. Well, if the post shows desperation, it has lesser chances of getting shared or liked. It does affect your reach.

3. How frequently  do you post your content?

It is very important to decide when and which frequency should you actually put content across to your fans.

Why?

Well, firstly you would not want to seem as if you are spamming their Facebook timelines. Secondly, you could actually saturate your fans with your posts even if, every post is valuable and priceless.

Let’s keep a normal frequency of 2 posts a day.

Maybe more, but occasionally.

4. Focus on User Generated Content

When you allow, people to put their own content, or maybe tag their friends to it. It will automatically start showing on their friend’s timeline as well.

Which eventually will hike your post’s & page’s reach at the same time.

5. Make Hay, while the ticker ticks

Friends of fans are very essential, since they are your next line of targets for your page. Now when you engage with your fans on a regular basis, their friends can see all their activity in the ticker. It  actually hikes the chances of your page being discovered more and its reach increasing.

Conclusion,

It always better to do A/B testing of your Facebook Page, before you start campaigning at large. What works for me, might not work for you. However, use these awesome tips for your advantage and devise great campaigns for your Facebook Page.