Over the years, I’ve had many clients and business owners complain to me about the lack of reach on Facebook because of the platform’s algorthm. Most of the complaints revolve around the limited number of reach on each post for Facebook pages. Over the last few years, Facebook’s algorthm has evolved to show content of a Facebook page to a very small amount of its fans once posted. For example, if a Facebook business page has 2,000 fans, each post could reach as little as 60 fans if the post garners zero engagement ( post likes, comments, and shares). This is extremely frustrating for Facebook page admins and creators who worked dilligently and spent hard-earned money on Facebook Ads to acquire new fans but ultimately cannot reach those fans when posting the actual content. Because of this, Facebook is now rolling in the dough with the (fairly) new algorthm that forces Facebook Page admins to place Facebook Ads to reach more users. Although I highly encourage business owners to set aside a monthly budget for Facebook Ads (because they DO work), I thought it would also be helpful to share a list of tips that can “cheat” the Facebook algorthm to produce more reach and awareness for your Facebook page and business.
Tips to Cheat the Facebook Algorithm
1. Use Facebook Insights to determine the best time to post to your page. Each Facebook page is different. They each have different audiences and post different content; therefore, the time of which to post content to each page will differ. To determine the best time to post to your Facebook page, click “Insights” at the top left-hand side of your page, then click “Posts” in the subcategory beneath “Insights”. The boxes and graph below represent the times when the fans of your Facebook page are logged into Facebook. By hovering over the boxes that represent each day, you can see how the times differ depending on the day. Use this data to your advantage and post when more of your fans are using Facebook to increase reach.
2. Invite all your Facebook friends to your page or event with a click of the button. When starting a new Facebook page or creating a Facebook event for your page, the general idea is to invite as many people (who have interest) to the page or event in hopes that they will like or join the page or event. Unortuantely, though, Facebook does not offer a “Select All” button when sending these invites, which makes it a laborious process having to select each name out of hundreds or thousands. There are 2 simple solutions here that allow you to invite all Facebook friends at once : 1) Install the ‘Invite All’ extension through the Chrome web browser or 2) Copy and paste a code that selects all Facebook friends included in a list. (see instructions below)
- Copy and past the code into the URL bar of your browser after you’ve scrolled all the way down to the bottom of the selected friends list. This may take a couple minutes to select all names. Also, some browsers automatically remove the word “javascript” so be sure to re-type the word if it disappears before entering the code into the URL bar.
- For Facebook pages, use this code: javascript:var inputs = document.getElementsByClassName(‘uiButton _1sm’); for(var i=0; i<inputs.length;i++) { inputs[i].click(); }
- For Facebook events use this code: javascript:elms=document.getElementsByName(“checkableitems[]”);for (i=0;i<elms.length;i++){if (elms[i].type=”checkbox” )elms[i].click()}
- Warning! Facebook will only allow you to invite a small number Facebook friends to an event or page at any given time so you may have to do this several times. Also, if you invite your Facebook friends to events often, your page could be at risk to be shut down so use this technique sparingly.
3. ALWAYS post a photo. Sure, text status updates may receive more organic reach out the gate but it’s photo updates that receive more engagement and shares. Photos are more likely to be seen by the eye than just posts with all text. It’s much easier to scroll by a post with all text rather than a visually appealing photo or graphic. Posting multiple photos in status updates actually increases post reach significantly compared to a post with just one photo. When posting multiple photos within an update, your fans have the option to scroll through these photos similar to that of a slide show. This increases more post views (because there are more photos to view), which results in higher likes, shares, and comments.
4. Post multiple photos to Facebook. Ever since Facebook has added the ability to post multiple photos within one post (NOT a photo album), I’ve noticed that these type of posts have a significant larger reach compared to posts with just one photo. Facebook users see these posts in their timeline but are not able to see all photos at once. This sort of post looks like a slideshow to the user; therefore, more users will click on the post to view all photos within the slideshow. When possible, pique the curiosity of your Facebook fans and post several photos at once!
5. Tag other Facebook pages. Tagging other Facebook pages sends a notification to the admin of that page. The admin of the page could then share your post with their fans which would increase your reach of that particular post.
Do you know of any other tips to increase your Facebook page reach? Let us know in the comments!
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