Facebook is my favourite social media. Everything I need can be found on Facebook and all my family & friends hang out there. I also love it for my business needs. Although lately, Facebook is getting a bad name, and, at times, can be very frustrating.

Recently I wrote how Facebook is decreasing its organic reach. The definition of organic reach is the updates/posts that reach your followers for free. Facebook is telling you, if you want your posts to be seen more regularly, you need to pay for this. This angers a lot of people. But it’s true. You do need to start paying to reach your followers. You can read what I wrote here on why this is happening.

Facebook is still the most popular social media platform. If you’re a Facebook user, you know that people are not on Facebook to buy products or services. (this applies to all social media) People are connecting with their family and friends…being social. Business has changed so much that it isn’t your customers’ job to find out about your business. It is now your job to be accessible where your customers are hanging out, so when they become ready to buy, you are top of mind.

So why the big change with organic reach?

Facebook stated, “People are connecting and sharing more than ever. On a given day, when someone visits News Feed, there are an average of 1,500 possible stories we can show.

As a result, competition for each News Feed story is increasing. Because the content in News Feed is always changing, and we’re seeing more people sharing more content, Pages will likely see changes in distribution. For many Pages, this includes a decline in organic reach. We expect this trend to continue as the competition for each story remains strong and we focus on quality.

As the dynamic nature of News Feed continues to follow people’s patterns of sharing, Page owners should continue using the most effective strategy to reach the right people: a combination of engaging Page posts and advertising to promote your message more broadly. Advertising lets Pages reach the fans they already have and find new customers as well. The fans you have matter. In addition to being some of the most loyal customers, fans also make the advertising on Facebook even more effective.” You can read the full news release here.

Now that you know why this happening, here are 4 things you can do to stay in front of your audience.

1. Don’t buy Facebook Fans –

Buying fans will not put you into the news feed faster. What happens, these fans that you have purchased, are never your target audience. They will never interact with your page because they are not interested in your product or service. Facebook has even been known to delete fake fans.

 2. Be more active –

You absolutely need to be posting more often. Once a month, once a week or even three times a week won’t cut it anymore. Ideally, it should be 1-3 times a day. At minimum, 4-5 times a week. Don’t just post Monday – Friday 9-5. You need to be posting when your audience is online. That may include evenings and weekends.

3. Have fun –

Include a variety of different types of posts. Always include relevant information about your business and your industry. Mix it up with link posts, text and photos. Find what works for your business. It’s okay to add some posts that may be outside your business, but is still relevant to your audience.

For example, if your audience are mothers with young children, you may want to have posts that are of interest to them and their daily lives. Maybe it’s a humorous joke, or a recipe. Perhaps it is a post on how to save money by creating healthy popsicles at home.

4. Spend some money –

Facebook has repeatedly mentioned organic reach is decreasing. You cannot trick Facebook into sending your posts into the news feed of all your fans. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Although the more you spend, the more your posts will be seen. What if I told you to get your posts seen you could spend as little as $20-$30 per month.

My client just had his Facebook post boosted for $5.00. With the right targeting that post was viewed by 1,079 people and 47 people clicked on the post in their news feed. He received one new page like and there was a video link in the post. 57 people clicked on the link and watched his video. It doesn’t have to be expensive to be effective!

Now that organic reach is decreasing and possibly decrease so much the reach will be zero, should you stop using Facebook? That really is up to you and your business needs. You must be where your audience is. If they are on Facebook, then you need to be there. Maybe it is time not to put all your social media in Facebook. Maybe it’s time to add one or two more social media networks to your marketing. I know Facebook still works. I see success stories every day on Facebook.

If you know me, you’ve heard me say social media is a marathon and not a sprint. It takes time for your social media to become effective. 

[Tweet “Social media is not about the quick sale. It is about creating relationships with your audience.”]

Facebook is still a great platform for creating relationships and engaging and interacting with your customer.

Are you concerned your business page is not reaching your audience? I would love to hear from you.