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How I Survived the Facebook Reach Apocalypse, and You Can, Too

(Part 1 of a series on social media strategies for higher ed)

About a year ago, my Twitter feed was filled with articles warning of the great “Reach Apocalypse” (reachpocalypse, in some portmanteau-obsessed circles). Facebook was throttling brand pages. No more free organic reach. The only way for fans (and non-fans) to see your content is if you pay to play.  Well, at a public institution like mine, our budget for all social media activities is zero dollars and zero cents. Paying to play wasn’t a viable option for us a year ago (it still isn’t, honestly). So, we didn’t. We shifted our strategy instead.

If Facebook is only going to show our content to users (fans/non-fans) if the algorithms think it’s valuable (receives engagement, especially shares), then we’re only going to focus on creating valuable content.

At this point, you should be thinking, “If your content wasn’t valuable, why were you trying to post it in the first place?” Well, dear reader, the answer is simple: what is “valuable” to the institution is not necessarily what is valuable to your audience. 

In higher ed comms, especially social media, it’s typical to get bombarded with requests to promote events or stories that may be interesting or important to the person/org hosting the event or writing the story, but for your audience? Not so much. When they’re spending some down-time scrolling through their Facebook News Feed, do you really think they want to see a dull piece of institutional news wedged between a funny photo of their friends and timely national news article (or BuzzFeed listicle)? They don’t. They’re going to scroll right on by.

Think about the kind of content you interact with in your own Facebook News Feed—it’s personal, it’s funny, it’s interesting/educational, it’s emotional, it’s inspiring. Content that makes you feel. Content that draws you in. Content that you can read 5 minutes after it’s posted or 5 hours (or even 5 days) and get the same value. 

Save those “this event is happening today!” posts and the press releases for Twitter, where that immediate event info and straight news-y content is highly valued by audiences. It doesn’t belong on Facebook anymore.* 

This shift in strategy—only post valuable, quality content—worked for our school. Despite Facebook’s “reach apocalypse” algorithm changes in early 2014, (and again in spring of 2015) our overall reach per post has actually grown in most cases. In fact, for the “Commencement season” (April–May), our cumulative reach increased 47%, yet our number of Facebook posts decreased by 42%. So, with a little rounding, that means our reach nearly doubled, from only half as many posts. 

The best part is, by focusing on quality (and by that, I mean “has value to the reader”) instead of quantity, we were freed from the convention of trying adhere to a posting schedule. If there’s no mandate (official or unofficial) to post to Facebook 3 times a week, instead of scrambling to put together 3 mediocre posts, you can use that week creating 1 truly valuable piece of content. And really, everybody wins. More people actually see the great things at happening your school, and your audience is excited by or finds value in your content. Trust me, that makes them like you even more. 

Here’s how I did it, and you can, too:

Quality over quantity. Make it your mantra. 

Prioritize. I’ll talk about this more in another post, but determine what the priorities are for your social media communications (recruitment? fundraising? reputation building?), and focus on posts that help you reach that goal. Make those the priority, and then figure out ways to fit in everything else.

Know your audience. Look beyond the demographics from Facebook Insights, what kinds of posts does your love to engage with? I know you’re thinking, “pretty pictures of campus!” It’s true, everyone loves those. But, have you thought about why? It’s not purely aesthetic (of course, that helps), in most cases, it’s emotional—nostalgia of remembering when you walked those steps, excitement about attending your dream school, or even the reminder to take a break from daily student life to appreciate the beauty around you. How can you capture and share those feelings in other posts? What kind of stories/images/videos can evoke those same feelings?

Platform segmentation. As I mentioned above, reserve Facebook for your top shelf content exclusively. Use your Twitter account for updates that need repetition or have a time-sensitive aspect. Use your Instagram for “in the moment” photos and visual event teasers. Use Facebook to share a special moment or stats from the event afterwards, when there’s something valuable to share with your audience.

Invest in video content. Facebook’s algorithms now favor video heavily, so lean into that trend, and create fun, interesting, emotional and short video content. Videos can reach huge audiences, even if they’re as simple as a hyperlapse campus tour! It depends on the topic, but attention spans for video on Facebook are extremely short. Keep that in mind, and make sure the most important messages in the video come first. (Just like the old news story model— lead with the most important/engaging element.) 

If you were paying attention, you might be thinking, “Wait, invest? But you said you have a zero dollar budget!” It’s true, by invest, I mean place value upon this skill. We did so by hiring student interns (one at a time, for 15hr/wk, a position we already budgeted for) who help write most of the content for all of our platforms, but who also have well-developed video skills. We picked students who can do more than just write pun-filled tweets (though, they’re really good at that), and give them the time to create high-quality videos for Facebook (and YouTube). If I have to pick up the slack for daily post/engagement on social media while they edit videos, that’s what we do. It can be hard to find students who can do everything (they exist! I’ve hired two in the last year!), so consider splitting your student position so it’s 10hr/wk for one student focused on writing posts and engaging online, and 5hr/wk for a video student. There are ways to make it work. Be creative; it’s worth it.

That’s all the tips for today. The point of this post is simply to say, organic reach is NOT dead. All you have to do is create stellar content your audience wants to see, and they will. Work with the Facebook algorithm bots, not against them. It worked for us, and I’m pretty sure it can for you, too.

*I realize there are always going to be compromises on this, and there are days when you’re going to have post that release or tease that event with Facebook because it rises to a certain level of importance or to please certain people internally. And, that’s okay! Do the best you can to make them work, and accept that they may not “go viral,” but you’ll have fulfilled your obligations.

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Social Media Cheatsheet for 2014

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How to use Facebook Hashtags for business

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Our advancement team is fortunate to have some of the best prospect researches in higher ed at our disposal and as part of that, we have heard much about characterizations of different generations. Survey and giving data shows that Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, and Millennials all have different...

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It is easy to turn on a Facebook page. That doesn’t mean it should happen. Because guess what, it is just as easy to delete them. It is just as easy to consolidate.

Interesting read, though I don't completely agree. There are a lot of reasons why a single FB page for a University makes sense, particularly for smaller universities, which Matt Hames explains well in this article. But, there's an argument for segmented pages as well.

I really liked Matt's point (#1) about using targeted posts to reach prospective students, current students, and alums respectively, rather than trying to transition them from one page to another (#11) as they reach those milestones in their college experience. At my school, Admissions doesn't have its own page, so they communicate through our central one, but I, perhaps blindly, hadn't even thought of taking advantage of FB's targeted post options. I definitely plan to do so in the future.

Matt also makes some great points about the poor quality of content produced on those departmental/segmented pages (#4 and #5), and a good solution for that (#13). Also, the things he says about reach, likes, etc. are all true; unless your content is super engaging, no one is going to see it (#3, #6, #9). By consolidating your pages, you should have more quality content to pick and choose from, thus making your central page stronger. Fair point, and probably true. I know a lot of the department pages at my school are producing little if any *quality* updates regularly, though many have one or two solid pieces of content a semester, so focusing on promoting the latter instead of the former makes a lot of sense. However, I disagree a bit with Matt's emphasis on multiple pages being confusing and difficult to market. That's only true to a certain extent, and I think it really depends on the size of the organization and audience.

For example, at a larger school, a separate page for athletics makes perfect sense because its a brand all on its own, separate from the campus/academic-focus of a central page. Certainly, there should be some cross-posting of content, but when you have regional fans of a football or basketball or soccer team that might not even be directly connected to the University, they want a place for relevant sports updates. Segmentation allows your athletics department to post more frequent, and more specific content, to their audience without "annoying" the central page's audience, and allows your central page to continue to speak to your broader audience while incorporating content from the athletics page. Nothing confusing about that, and I'd the say the general public is familiar enough with FB page branding at this point to be aware of and even anticipate this kind of segmentation.

At your school, athletics might not be the only "brand" that rises to that level (at mine, it might be our nationally-recognized sustainability programs as well). Or, maybe you're a bit of a smaller institution where the central brand truly is all-encompassing. It really depends on your situation. Which, I suppose, is the take-away from all #hesm and research articles: the advice you take to heart should make sense for your institution. "Duh," you say, but it's good to remember before you work yourself into a panic about doing something "wrong," or not doing something you "should." (I do that regularly.)

Anyway, thanks, Matt Hames, for pulling those great 13 tips together. Gave me a lot to think about this Monday morning!

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Localizing a National (or International) Story to Your Campus

How do you localize big news for your campus? It's not something you can do for every huge story or piece of breaking news, but occasionally, you can dig up a local connection or expert to contribute something that ties a national (or international) story to your campus. And that's often worth doing for a higher ed social media audience, because while we may not feel a personal connection to such a large story, we do feel intimately connected to our alma maters (lit. "nourishing mother"). If our alma mater can provide a frame for an event or news, it helps us relate and personalize the experience.

I had that opportunity today, with the passing of Dr. Maya Angelou. In general, it doesn't fit into Chico State's social media strategy to do sympathy posts for every major figure who pass away, but, as we all  know, there are exceptions to the rules, and, most recently, we did post something about Nelson Mandela's passing. Usually, we'll try to tie the figure through a quote or photo to education.

Today, with Dr. Angelou's passing, I realized we could do more to localize this for our campus audience. Dr. Angelou visited Chico State twice, once in 1995, and again in 2011, and we have many students, alumni, and community members who saw her speak.

This morning, my colleague asked our Public Events department if they could dig up a photo of Dr. Angelou from one of her visits, and within the hour, I was handed a thumb drive with a few photos to choose from and information about the dates of her visit.

Unfortunately, the backstage photos from 2011 weren't of high quality, so, in an Instagram-inspired move, I applied a black and white filter in Photoshop. With a little tinkering, I had a much classier-looking photo, and to dress it up even more, I added a quotation from one of her poems, And Still I Rise. The result, a shareable image prepped for social media distribution.

I posted the image with simple text (varying slightly by platform) like, "Chico State had the privilege of hosting Dr. Maya Angelou on campus twice. She was an inspiring figure, and will be missed by all. Photo: Dr. Angelou backstage at Laxson Auditorium in 2011."

It's been well-received across FB, Twitter, and Instagram, and prompted some really nice responses from our Twitter followers:

@chicostate And thank you for that. I was there one of those times and seeing her live moved me to my core. @DrMayaAngelou

As a student at @chicostate in the early 1990s, I read @DrMayaAngelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings in an American Autobiography class.

So, is the Photoshop job hokey? Sure (I'm not a designer!). But, this small gesture, a 1-2hr project for me, served as a way to remind folks not only of the innumerable ways Dr. Angelou changed our world at large, but also how Chico State was a part of bringing her to our community.