All week, along with new content, we'll be featuring Hypebot's best and most popular posts of 2012. This one comes from Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith.
Recently posts on Facebook Pages have seen a marked reduction in reach with fewer people than ever viewing and interacting with Page content. Though it's tempting to consider throwing one's hands up and walking away from Facebook, its power as a tool for fan interaction is still too great to be discarded. In addition to increasing the appeal of one's content to entice fan interaction and the approval of Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm, there are a number of ways to respond.
Facebook Page admins are noticing a reduced reach this month due to EdgeRank adjustments that already deliver only a small percentage of posts to one's following. So what's to be done?
5 Tips to Increase Your Reach on Facebook
1) Improve Your EdgeRank
EdgeRank is a combination of factors that determine which of your posts get the most visibility in your fans' newsfeeds. Positive effects on EdgeRank occur when multimedia content is posted or when fans interact with your content. The key is creating engaging content that interests your fans.
For more on EdgeRank and how to improve the visibility of your content in newsfeeds:
2) Stop Using Third Party Tools
Though third party tools for scheduling posts and posting to social media accounts can make one's day go a lot easier, a variety of sources maintain that such tools negatively affect one's EdgeRank and Facebook reach. Most recently I encountered this mini-investigation of the effect of such tools on Facebook posts.
Depending on your schedule and your need to succeed on Facebook, this may be an area where you have to accept some trade-offs between short-term efficiency and long-term goals.
3) Get Your Likes Up
A smaller more engaged audience is preferable to a lot of superficial Page Likes but Likes do establish a fundamental connection in the world of Facebook. In addition, some Facebook features such as Promoted Posts require a minimum number of Likes before Page admins are given access.
One way to increase Page Likes is through Like-gating in which Likes are given in exchange for access to content such as a free download. A variety of companies offer solutions for Like-gating such as Dotted Music that recently released Music Fan Gate 2.0.
4) Buy Some Ads
Yes, I know. Buying ads to address reduced reach is capitulating to Facebook's attempt to make us buy ads by reducing our reach. That said, if you have something really special to promote and want to reach people on multiple channels, buying some ads can be a smart move.
Facebook has numerous ad options but typically speaking it's the newer options and those with an organic feel like Promoted Posts that will draw the best response and are often priced at an initial discount. Mobile ads are also currently performing well.
5) Keep Building Your Own Website & Email List
Facebook will continue to alter its world based on Facebook's needs. Always be building your own site and email list as core properties that you control and that allow you direct contact with your fans without an unhealthy dependence on third parties.
[Thumbnail photo courtesy Thos Ballantyne.]
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (Twitter/App.net) blogs about music crowdfunding at Crowdfunding For Musicians (@CrowdfundingM). To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
