We are well and truly into 2016, and I know that organic reach is one of the things on our minds as we try to make use of Social Media to grow awareness of our brand, and build that trust with our followers. I wanted to give you a few quick strategies that are staring right at us, and totally under-utilised by Business Owners.
It’s really not rocket science, its actually one of the ways we can ‘work smarter not harder’ on our social media profiles as we go about building and interacting. As you scroll your newsfeed on Facebook for example, you will see that certain things go ‘viral’.
The Urban Dictionary defines ‘viral’ as: ‘Short for ‘viral marketing’. An online marketing strategy that encourages people to pass on a marketing message. Amusing and low-budget, a good Internet viral campaign (e.g. “Jerry Tate: Office Linebacker”) will get surfers forwarding the ad to all of their friends to others, giving the company great word of mouth.’
When a video, post or photo goes viral, there is one clear thing that stands out. It’s connecting with people in a way that a salesy business post can ever do. It’s sometimes a little ‘off topic’, sometimes a little ‘hilarious & out of the box’, but these are the things that people are quite obviously taking a lot of notice of, and interacting with. Many times its about connecting in with a certain emotion. I want to give you 3 things to think about.
Take note of what’s in your Newsfeed
Keep an eye open in your newsfeed for posts, videos or images that are already going viral. If they are generating a lot of interaction already, its obviously connecting in with people on a particular level. Learn from what you see is working well in your newsfeed. What type of post is it? When was it posted? What were the hashtags? In what way is it creative?
Get in on booming conversations by sharing stuff to your page
If its something that is acceptable to be posted, or it’s something that somehow ties in with your Industry, share it on your page. I just want to say here as a side note, that some of the posts that have done the best on the pages i manage, have been those that had nothing to do with the Business. It was simply a way of breaking walls down, and having a little fun. There is a fine line, but you will know what you will accept. If a post is already getting high reach, you may aswell benefit from it.
For example, the Today Show posted a video about a segment they had about how Bacon was bad for your health. It was going absolutely nuts with people agreeing, disagreeing, getting nasty, being funny, the post reach was incredibly high. At the same time, I was managing a Facebook page for a Wholefood Franchise, a vegan type of page, and I thought that since it was a ‘hot topic’, I would share it over on the page I was managing. Wow it continued to go crazy! Reach went through the roof, and I didn’t have to fly to Sydney to do the segment myself, get it recorded, it was simply a way of getting in on that conversation and benefiting from it.
Hot topics are ‘hot’ for a reason
On the ‘hot topic’ note, you will notice that at times when certain topics are in the news, or certain concerns hit Facebook or there are certain things trending, it’s a great idea to share that type of post with your followers. I came across an article not long ago that was all about Organic Facebook Reach dying off. I KNEW that this was a ‘hot topic’ so I asked my followers what they thought about this article. And yep, the good the bad and the ugly was discussed, but frankly, it didn’t bother me. Facebook Reach is something we SHOULD be passionate about. I don’t have to agree with every comment, that wasn’t the intention for the post. I just wanted to let people have their say. This particular post gained me over 4000 organic reach in as little as 3 days and boosted my organic reach on other posts.
Organic Reach is not dead, you just need to get creative about how you go about posting on your Facebook Page. This social media platform is so incredibly massive, it’s no wonder we have reach issues. I mean really, what a huge setup Facebook is.
In summary, start to include hot topics, trending material, and outside the box type posts, and your reach will grow, organically.
