Facebook comes in at number three among social media sites that correlate to a high Google search ranking.
Clearly, it’s safe to say that raising your Facebook game should raise your Google rankings.
However, Facebook has been gradually changing the rules of their game, which gives rise to important questions, like: what are the newest rules, and how can you use them to retain visibility and increase your reach through 2016? How many of Facebook’s 1.4 billion members are you reaching now?
The New Rules for Facebook News Feed
First, here’s a heads-up on what has changed, and why you’ve noticed that things are not quite the same in the FB universe.
- December 2013: Facebook announced that organic reach for individual posts would be gradually reduced to make room for more paid advertising. As a result, building fan acquisition would lose some of its value for enhancing organic search. Instead, gaining fans would become a means to build social context for more effective ads. As an added reward for creating greater social context in your ads, Facebook promised to lower ad cost.
- News in the form of articles from publishers was set to gain more space on the feed, further intensifying competition for space, particularly on mobile delivery platforms.
- October 2015: the latest Facebook announcement unveils more personalized search suggestions, and the ability to search for public posts, as well as friends’ posts. The new searchability for public conversations is a way to improve user experience, in effect offering a quick link into widely shared public conversations.
- Perhaps the clearest indication of more change ahead is the opening of Search FYI, a new place to access ongoing updates to the Facebook search framework.
5 Great Tips for Extending your Facebook Reach
Given these new rules of the game, you need to be prepared to buy more ads, learn new ways to make the most of them, and avoid any downside effects. Here are our 5 favorite hot tips for growing your reach in the new FB environment.
- 1 — Send a personal post to everyone who knows you, inviting them to like your page. Now you’ll have a core group of “Likes” who are the best candidates for conversion when they see your ad.
- 2 — Add a FB “Follow” button—it’s more effective than collecting “Likes” for increasing the number of “Shares” you earn. Now, everything you post will show on your fans’ news feed.
- 3 — Create multiple personal FB pages, then search for people with the same interests and ask them to be friends. All posts will show up for them. Keep in mind, there is a limit of 5,000 friends. If you hit that limit, open another page under a new name.
- 4 — Schedule your posts through Bufferapp.com, to post automatically to all social accounts. Some reviewers find their set-up more user-friendly than competing sites, like HootSuite. The service has options for multiple contributors or users, and different tiers for the number of posts each month. You can also add their content creation functions and use their analytics (only for groups and agencies).
- 5 — Keep up your posts, preferably once daily. Once per week has been shown to be inadequate, losing that vital connection to your audience. On the other hand, more than once or twice daily can border on intrusive, and who wants to be that guy? Big brands post an average of once daily.
About Ads on Facebook
- Go to Facebook.com/Advertising, click on “Create Ad.” When you have finished choosing options, click Place Order. Return to Home page and click Ads Manager and Reports. You’ll be able to check Audience Insights to identify the most successful groups. Target future ads and messaging to these groups.
- Target ads toward your Likes, and others with whom you have a relationship. These are your most highly qualified group.
- Most Likes will come in organically, from your Blog—add a FB Like Box at top of your Blog page.
- The Facebook Like Box has optional features you can use, like uploading an image, or including a value offer, such as a free eBook or report. You can also adjust the size and colors of the box to reflect your page theme.
Bonus Tips: Useful Facebook Plugins
- Use the “Like to Unlock” plugin from WordPress6 to hide part of your article or other feature, until the viewer Likes your page to reveal the rest of the feature.
- The “Share to Unlock” plugin is similar, allowing you to hide a part of your post until it gets shared. Examples: create a list with the “top 10 ways to increase Facebook shares,” keeping the last 3 hidden until “Shared.”
- Go to Tynt.com to download the Speedshare plugin. If someone highlights text on your post in order to copy-paste, a popup asks them to share it, and allows them to do so quickly by using the FB click, for more viral juice.