#15 Experts Reveal How To Explode Your Organic Facebook Reach

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15 Experts Reveal How To Explode Your Organic Facebook Reach

By Joe Elliott

You fire your next Facebook post into the universe, you start to quiver, this has to be the one that will answer all my traffic prayers.

A day later…

Nothing, not even from your mom! Mega face plant! What did you do wrong?

You created an epic piece of social goodness.

This is a familiar story for most people sharing content on Facebook. The organic reach of most Facebook posts is just not what it used to be. Does that mean you should pack your bags and head for Twitter?

Nope, the truth is that everyone is in the same boat. Facebook released their Edgerank algorithm back in 2010 and this has been killing organic reach for most. 52% of statuses posted from Facebook Pages have taken a massive hit according to Marketing Land.

That is quite a hit, but that also means that 48% of people posting on Facebook are nailing it!

This is good news.

You are in luck because I have put this question to the social media experts…

“What is the best way to increase your organic Facebook reach?”

The truth is you really can take control of your organic results. With these tips, you can stop waiting and get your content the exposure it deserves….

1. Andrea Beltrami, The Branded Solopreneur

The best way I’ve found to increase organic reach on Facebook is to drive people from other channels (or areas of Facebook) to posts on your page.

For example, post a question (i.e. about a current struggle you’re having) with an image on your page, then grab the link to that thread and share it with your Facebook group and/or with your email list. Expand on the post a bit and then ask your peeps to pop over to your page and join in the convo.

This same strategy can work if you want feedback on a new course name (or any other poll) if you’re looking for someone to hire, or even if you just have a fun prompt like a photo challenge to share.

I’ve had great success doing a post like this once or twice a month. It not only has increased the reach of the posts I share with my peeps, but it has also increased the reach of my page in general because I’m constantly growing my following at the same time.

Win/win, baby!

2. Neil Patel, NeilPatel.com

Freshness isn’t just Google’s ranking factor. The life of a post in the Facebook News Feed is also dependent on recency. If you publish timeless content, then it will be useful for your audience for longer periods. They’ll keep liking and commenting on your post.

Due to this increased engagement, the Facebook algorithm will ensure that your post gets distributed further and that it appears in feeds for longer periods. Boost post durability with evergreen content.

But, what if you, the business owner, don’t want to do the legwork of finding your evergreen posts? Then, use a social media scheduling tool like Edgar. Here are some great examples of evergreen content by HubSpot. Although they are talking about blog posts, you can model the ideas for Facebook posts as well.

3. Brian Carter, Brian Carter Group

I would recommend no one go completely organic – ads are essential. But if they do, our data across thousands of pages and ad accounts says likes are more essential to visibility than shares. It seems Facebook’s algorithm releases more views when people like your posts. Facebook Live gets you more views for now.

Check what kind of posts your audience prefers – some like images, some videos, some even prefer shared videos specifically! After that, the secret is to discover what your particular audience loves, through Facebook audience insights and through testing post ideas, then repeatedly analyzing your post engagement rates. We use an optimization cycle: Analyze-Create-Test (ACT) to get more ACTION from customers, in this case: likes.

If the thing you sell is kind of boring, then tie it into other things your audience loves. Every audience is different. For example, PayPal fans love The Walking Dead, so their most organically viewed video was a zombie-focused one. In our Carl’s Jr campaign we found that their customers love bacon. Our staffing client’s customers love animals and vacation photos.

Keep looking at the idea, thinking up new ideas and testing. And try BuzzSumo’s Facebook search if you run out of ideas.

4. Syed Balkhi, WP Beginner

The best way to grow your organic reach on Facebook is to use a mix of content (links, images, and video).

I also spend money boosting at least 1 or 2 posts a week to my targeted audience which helps increase the organic reach because the boost will get some engagement.

This pleases the Facebook algorithm and our organic reach increases.

5. Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media

My best tip for optimizing content for social media, works on Facebook or any social network: It’s collaboration.

Find people who create content themselves (possible future SEO benefit) and people who have a relevant active social network (immediate social benefit)

Invite them to contribute a quote. The post doesn’t have to be a round-up like this one for the tactic to work. You can add quotes from contributors to any post, just as a journalist adds sources to an article. It makes the article stronger and more likely to get shared. And those first few shares will increase organic reach.

Add the quote in the article along with as much love as you can: a face, title, business name, link, etc.

Once it’s live, let them know with a short email and link to the post on Facebook. In the post, add a thank you and mention for everyone who contributed. They’ll likely share it almost immediately.

Content optimized for social includes people! Collaboration is key to organic reach…

6. Brooke B. Sellas, B Squared Media

The focus of our organic tactics on Facebook surrounds:

Publishing posts using links, text-only content, photos and/or videos (with no advertising behind them)

Sharing the posts of others

Engaging; liking, commenting and thinking conversation (our fave!)

Using and encouraging the use of emoji (since they rank higher on FB than a “like”)

Though we put a huge emphasis on these things, they often don’t provide a return on investment (ROI) or even produce qualified leads. Being that the average organic reach for businesses on Facebook is a mere 2%, we really think it’s best to combine organic and PAID efforts.

Can you have organic Facebook tactics without paid advertising or paid ads on Facebook without organic posts? Sure. But the best outcomes usually appear when you apply both. Not to say that organic efforts aren’t needed; they show off your personality and style and help your would-be consumers get to know you. However, paid advertising helps bring those would-be customers to your Facebook Page or website.

The truth: They (organic and paid efforts) work best in tandem.

7. Patrick Coombe, Elite Strategies

This is a huge question, and something I get asked almost on a daily basis. Here is my best tip: tag people. But don’t be reckless about it. Don’t just tag random people that pop up when the @ symbol comes up, tag people that you know will get amped up about the post/comment. If you can get someone excited, angry, or passionate about a subject it will create conversation, and if you can create conversation you’ll naturally trigger Facebook’s internal algorithm to make it show up in more news feeds.

Tagging people in comments is also helpful. Make a comment within the original post and tag someone in it. Ask them a question and tag them in it, it’ll almost demand their attention.

Sadly, without having a budget to “boost” a post on Facebook, it is getting harder and harder to promote a post. With the right initiative and tools, you can get some great reach on Facebook without having to spend the $$.

8. Talia Wolf, GetUpLift

My biggest tip (which works every time) would be creating a private Facebook group with your biggest advocates in it. Each time you post something you can reach out to them and ask for their comments. The idea here goes beyond just getting Facebook likes or comments but continuously engaging with the people who already believe in you, who’ve purchased with you or converted in some way and turning them into ambassadors for your brand. The private group is also a great way to get feedback from your customers, offer exclusive deals, post surveys, get profound quotes, reviews, and testimonials.

In addition, I encourage my clients to post in relevant Facebook groups that care about their type of content. To start discussions, engage with the community and comment on other people’s content too (not for the sake of commenting but for truly growing your community).

One other way to get more engagement on your posts is by tagging relevant people and inviting them to share their opinion.

9. Jenna Soard, You Can Brand

To increase your organic Facebook reach I would create a separate account for your business. When you do that your personal feed will be more business-centric. These people are more likely to engage which will push your post further.

Just be cautious not to over promote, think value!

Keep family and friends news for your personal account.

Next, reach out to groups that you can join. You want to make sure they are interested in your product or service. Start posting content that is educational and valuable. Ask them questions or create surveys, these are your target audience… get to know them!

Lastly, try and get these people onto your Beta testers list so that you are not cannibalizing sales by beta testing on your customer list!

10. Zac Johnson, ZacJohnson.com

When it comes to increasing organic reach on Facebook, you need to give your audience something they are interested in, so it actually starts going viral with the minimal organic reach that Facebook provides. We all know that FB continues to push back the “free” organic reach that FB posts, pages, and groups provide, but there are a few things we can do to help increase these numbers, such as:

Create custom images that match the size of Facebook updates, so everything is viewable to the end user and also grabs their attention. This is something that should also be done with all social media image sizes.

Write your own unique titles and descriptions. Don’t just let FB pre-populate these fields for you.

Segment your audiences into different pages/groups based on their interests, location, and sites.

Ask a question to your audience? This is a great way to immediately increase engagement, while also getting others to respond as well.

It will take some time, work and effort, but if you want to increase your organic reach, it’s definitely worth the investment. Once you’ve mastered all of these elements, you can then start messing around with Facebook Ads and “Boosting” your posts.

Since you’ve already done the best hands-on optimization for your FB updates, paid advertising on top of this should result in even more traffic, engagement and clicks back to your site.

11. Sue Anne Dunlevie, Successful Blogging

The best way to get organic reach on Facebook is to engage. That means not just blasting your blog posts and images of your posts every day. (Hint: If you want to share your posts, create 3 images and 3 different titles for each new blog post for Facebook so people don’t get tired of seeing the same image/post over and over)

Engagement – share other’s blog posts as you read them and like and comment on others Facebook posts. Your fans will enjoy your newsfeed and you will actually get people who want to buy what you are selling!

12. Mike Allton, The Social Media Hat

One of the keys that I’ve found to being successful on Facebook (if we’re defining success as being able to dramatically improve and increase our organic reach) is the use of Rich Media in every post.

Facebook recognizes that most Facebook users prefer to engage with video or images. They look at the various types of shares across the board and see engagement levels drop precipitously for text and link posts. And for good reason. Plain text updates tend to be boring (which is why Facebook is testing coloured backgrounds to try and spice things up), and link shares take people off the Facebook platform entirely (which both Facebook and the users tend to dislike).

But images and video are nice, appealing, and right there on the platform. It’s easy to like or share an image or video. You don’t have to click off Facebook and read some long article before you can determine whether you’d want to share it or not.

Say, for example, you decide to share a link to your latest blog post in the morning. That afternoon, you share a funny meme. We already know that the meme image will get more Reach than the link share, but how much more? When you shared that link, it probably reached 4% of your Facebook Page fan base. Out of that 4%, how many actually engaged with the share? Let’s assume for the sake of argument it was 10% – or .4% of your total fans who liked, commented, shared or clicked on that post.

The other fans who saw it but weren’t interested enough to engage with that post? Facebook noted that and the next time you share a post – that image meme – Facebook may choose not to put it in the feeds of that 3.6 % of fans who weren’t interested earlier.

If you make sure that every share you create is an image or a video, not only will their individual post reach improve, but your Page’s overall reach will as well.

I tested and documented this Facebook Hack extensively and can tell you that, when applied consistently, you can improve your Facebook Reach by as much as 10x! My own Facebook Page averages just 2.2% Reach for link posts, yet consistently achieves 24% Reach for images!

13. Maddy Osman, The Blogsmith

From a tactical standpoint, I think video is the (current) secret for expanding organic reach on Facebook. It’s still somewhat of a novelty, and not every brand has the budget or foresight to create content on this medium (even though low-budget production is just fine!). Those that use video easily stand out and Facebook users take notice.

From a marketing standpoint, the easiest way to expand organic reach on Facebook is to make sure there’s a call to action at the end of your post. For example,

“LIKE” this post if you agree!

Tag a friend who’d love this.

Comment with your vote

You get the idea. As with any type of marketing, if a person is not sure what their next step is supposed to be, they likely won’t take it. It’s our job as content creators to guide them.

14. Ravi Chahar, Blogging Love

From the past couple of years, Facebook has evolved more as a business platform, and marketers and bloggers are really into getting more exposure. Most of the people are using ads but to increase the organic reach, you should always focus on consistency,

You may have seen a few Facebook business pages which get updated every single hour. It’s because they know the importance of showing their regular presence.

“Success kisses those who know the value of consistency.”

Interacting with your readers is the master key. The more you engage, the more are the chances to build strong bonds. Human bonds lead to regular inputs which directly increases the organic reach.

If you don’t have enough time to keep the harmony, hire a social media manager who can understand the concept of human relationships and readers’ values.

NOTE: Facebook isn’t like Twitter where you can post every minute. From my experience, one an hour is the best duration for sharing your content.

15. Janice Wald, Mostly Blogging

Next to search engines, Facebook is my Number 1 referrer of traffic.

However, I do not believe in spending money to boost your post or pay for advertisements.

Why not? I had a friend in the humor niche write to tell me she increased her exposure which resulted in her getting new followers by paying to boost her post.

I tried it. Coincidentally, I received many new subscribers that week. However, when I asked how they found me, no one said Facebook. Maybe certain niches do better by paying to boost posts. I’ve tried twice with little results.

So, how did Facebook become such a large referrer of traffic to my blog?

Facebook groups. The support of the groups on Facebook to my blog has been overwhelmingly favorable. By posting my links and a short blurb about my posts in Facebook groups, I’ve received exposure, traffic, and new subscribers. Many have even become my friends.

When people comment or share your post on Facebook, they click “like.” Often, they write praise of your post in the group as well. The Bandwagon Effect takes over. People coming into the group after that will see all the likes on your post and the compliments and wonder what your post is about. That’s why it’s important to post in the group early, as soon as the thread begins for that day or week.

I write for bloggers without a budget. I would tell them to save their money. Type your niche + group in the Facebook search bar. Find groups with sharing threads that way.

Conclusion

As you can see there is still a lot of hope out there for organic reach on Facebook. You just have to think of things a little bit differently.

The biggest takeaway in my eyes is to use images and a link instead of the default Facebook link post. From doing this myself I have seen a huge difference in my reach.

If you are not afraid to get in front of the camera, talk about things that are going on in your post and then add a link. Facebook is really pushing video, so there has never been a better time to get it in your strategy.

Before I go I would like to give a big thank you to all the experts featured. You all nailed it with your responses.

Guest Author: Joe Elliott is the founder of One Man Wiki, his blog that shares tips to help you kickstart your blog. If you are a new or struggling blogger his tips will show you how to get traction in no time at all. Take his exclusive free course that will show you how to leverage the power of influencers so you can skyrocket your traffic and subscribers.

The post 15 Experts Reveal How To Explode Your Organic Facebook Reach appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.

The post 15 Experts Reveal How To Explode Your Organic Facebook Reach appeared first on Make It With Michael.

from 15 Experts Reveal How To Explode Your Organic Facebook Reach

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Organic Facebook Reach Masterclass - 8 Actionable Tips To Save The Day

Facebook defines natural reach as 'the overall variety of distinct people that were revealed your blog post through unpaid distribution'.

Not long earlier, social media sites online marketers saw a steep decline in the variety of fans seeing and/or engaging with their natural blog posts. To be certain, from the year 2012 to 2014, they discovered a 60% decline. This quick decline hinted at Facebook's drive in the direction of making marketing experts divert their focus on marketing on the platform. Once more, the social media-giant dropped copious tips at just how it wanted to advertise friend-family-user-oriented customized content.

In June 2014, Facebook's VP of Advertising and marketing Innovation, Brian Boland attended to the reasons behind the decreasing natural reach discovered by marketers:

I. Excessive material production as well as sharing.

The breakneck rate at which the web content is shared on Facebook surpasses the moment required to soak up the exact same. On a standard, a person's Information Feed has the capacity to consist of as many as 1,500 stories when they log in to the platform. Thinking about the overall variety of Buddies, Pages and Groups that an individual has, it can get to an incredible 15,000 bring about boosted competition on the Information Feed where people and also services jostle for room and focus. With a rise in the Page likes, the competitors is not going anywhere soon.

II. The changed News Feed algorithm.

Facebook's Information Feed is developed to reveal one of the most relevant posts to the individuals. From all the 1500+ stories, just a mere 300 tales are shown on an individual's Information Feed ranked in the order of their importance. This depends upon hundreds as well as thousands of factors, pertinent per individual. Fundamentally, the formula favors top quality web content over Spammy content.

Ergo, the News Feed is more engaging than ever with a focus on individuals' experience and value.

In a circumstance such as this, organic reach takes a backseat.

Understand exactly how to get a grip on your organic reach on Facebook with these 8 actionable ideas to conserve the day:

Include Links with Images

Use Videos on Facebook

Track Content That Resonates

Target Organic Posts

Know When to Arrange the Blog posts

Don't Share Clickbait

Pull The Plug On Extreme Posting

Put Hashtags to Good Use

1. Include Links with Images

According to a Locowise research, posts which include web links have an average reach of 18%. Instead of this, videos as well as text-based messages have the reach of 9%. When it pertains to pictures, this reach is a simple 7%.

Another analysis by Social Baker in 2014-15 took right into account 670K posts on 4,555 brand web pages. It discovered that the ordinary natural reach for the image-based posts was 3.73%. For video clips, it was 8.71% and also for text-only blog posts as well as links 5.77% as well as 5.29% respectively.

This does not indicate you go down the curtain on pictures completely!

Relevant, premium and interesting photos do have an influence on the target market as well as job best when made use of effectively. What jobs also better, is a mix of media that breaks the monotony. Include text-only-post, images as well as videos on the web page as well as specifically enhance the variety of blog posts with links.

2. Use Videos on Facebook

Watch us explode this watermelon one rubber band at a time!

Posted by BuzzFeed on Friday, April 8, 2016

Vice President for Facebook in Europe, the Center East, and Africa Nicola Mendelsohn emphasized on the significance of video material by specifying, 'The most effective way to inform tales in this globe- where a lot info is coming with us-actually is video. It commands a lot info in a much quicker period so actually the fad aids us absorb more of the information in a quicker method.'

Creating and submitting video clips maybe also much work for organisations, yet it is among the most effective ways to enhance their natural reach. And also let's not forget the reality that video clips hold the key to lead generation.

People do watch anything and everything broadcasted on the system be it Game of Thrones season 7 release day trick (3.2 million sights), Buzzfeed's taking off watermelon (11 million sights) or Chewbacca Mom's gigglefest (166 million views).

The astonishing numbers clarify the power of videos!

3. Track Web content That Resonates

Mindless posting of material on Facebook or any type of other social media network never benefited social media marketers.

Replace them with web content that intrigues them and makes them check out the message, provides a need to open up the web link, play the video clip and also share the article, or engages them somehow or another.

Do your research and discover out what kind of material resonates with your target market. Exactly what's more appropriate to them? Which messages they like to see on their News Feed? Which links are they most likely to save?

BuzzSumo analyzed social share matters of over 100 million write-ups for 8 months. Review it to obtain a concept concerning exactly what gets shared the most.

4. Target Organic Posts

Once you know just what web content resonates with the target market, the next (as well as obvious) step is to target natural articles. Here's exactly how you can target natural posts on the system:

Go to your Page

Go to Settings > General

Locate the row with ‘Preferred Page Audience'

Make the necessary changes

5. Know When to Schedule the Posts

Everyone has their own take on the ideal 'publishing time' on Facebook, which could be driven by the audience demographics, region, the system and other factors.

Hubspot claims the best time to be:

12.00 -1.00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays

3.00-4.00 p.m. on Wednesdays

1.00 -4.00 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays

TrackMaven places it at 8.00 p.m. on Thursdays

Buzzsumo takes into consideration off-peak times as the best

Use Facebook Insights to know the basics of scheduling your messages and obtain optimal grip for your organic posts. It's the very best tool to include in your Facebook advertising arsenal!

6. Don't Share Clickbait

Clickbaits are low-hanging fruits with a bum rap. To counter them, Facebook already has a system that finds the clickbait links and reduce the number of pages which share them regularly. Come just what could, keep away from clickbait and also consider impactful web content that has the potential to go viral!

7. End On Too much Posting

Keep a look at your uploading regularity instead of 'shoving' all the messages down the target market's throats! While it relies on the organisations and also the number of followers, it's a good method to be mindful about the blog posts' high quality and also not the quantity.

Don' t fail to remember that Facebook being a user-based system provides users the option to reject your posts/ads anytime they want with 'Hide Advert' and also 'Conceal Blog post' options.

8. Put Hashtags to Good Use

  Perhaps this is one of the most unimportant of all the tips given here, however making use of appropriate hashtags with your messages go a lengthy means in getting to out to your target audience. Nonetheless, don't eliminate it with as well several hashtags!

Bonus Tip - Know Thy Algorithm

Did you understand that there are regarding 100,000 variables affecting the Facebook algorithm?

Study Facebook's Information Feed Algorithm, see just how it has actually altered as well as developed throughout the years as well as maintain an eye on upcoming social networks updates. This will assist you recognize Facebook mechanisms better and aid you in producing an excellent advertising strategy!

Sum Up

There's no 'wonder drug' for raising natural reach on Facebook. You need to follow your instincts, the vital metrics and also identify what works. Keeping that, you'll have the ability to tailor a content circulation project to boost your (organic) get to on the platform.

Need more social networks marketing pointers with workable takeaways? Keep watching this space!

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The quickest ways to grow your Facebook page

Let’s face it: everyone is busy these days. In the marketing world in particular, there are many things that we ‘should’ be doing but there just aren’t enough hours in the day to make them happen.

So surely in the fast moving world of social media (where viral hits can travel the world and back in a day) there must be some way for the time poor to instantly boost their Facebook following?

Well yes … and no.

As the title promises we’ll share with you some quick and easy ways to boost a Facebook page, but heed our warning: these quick action tips work best within a stable long term plan. Yes you may drum up likes and followers quickly but if you want to do anything useful with them (including retain their interest) you should also put some time into making a robust social media strategy.

What is Facebook organic reach?

Organic Facebook reach is quite simply the number of people who see your posted content through means other than paid distribution. Typically this means people actively seeking out your content by searching your page, following you or receiving your content shared by friends.

If you’ve been following social media news at all, you’ll know that there’s been a growing fear around the decline in companies’ organic Facebook reach. This is a result of changes to the ranking algorithms that determine what people see in their news feed.

There are two main reasons that this change was made:

Facebook’s mission, which is to provide relevant content that produces quality person-to-person interaction. The platform therefore rewards content the appeals directly to user interests as well as produces connections between users. In a platform that is designed to connect friends, it’s not surprising that advertisers are going to struggle to achieve this.

Content production has grown exponentially, so there is no longer the space to publish everybody’s post on everybody’s news feed. As a result ranking has gotten more selective.

Should you go organic?

There is no real doubt at this point that Facebook is pointing the way towards paid advertising over organic. There have even been some suggestions that organic reach could reach zero per cent (a severe fall from the pre 2012 golden ages of above 16 per cent) in the future. However there is still a compelling reason to keep an eye on building your organic platform alongside paid search:

Successful organic reach is lead gold dust

Authentic organic conversations drive real tangible results for businesses. If people are genuinely engaged with your brand and find you through organic channels, they are highly likely to become converted customers.

Essentially organic reach is lead generation at it’s best and it’s where social media has a real USP over normal advertising channels. When done right an organic strategy builds two-way relationships with customers and is an invaluable source of information and engagement, To add a further incentive, it’s also much cheaper than most other forms of marketing.

Though your organic reach may be lessening, the people you do succeed in reaching are well worth it.

When it comes to promoting content on social media, @facebook has the biggest audience and the best range of ad products. In this ultimate guide to Facebook promotion, we’ll help you find the ad strategy that best fits your marketing goals. https://t.co/EjEii7UahE pic.twitter.com/wsL6M1Xxan

— Castleford Media (@castlefordmedia) September 21, 2018

7 quick action wins

Facebook is an real time  platform that works in the moment so there are some great ways to tap into people’s interests in a short time frame.

1. Interact with followers

Facebook is designed to make connections and build relationships – which makes it perfect for developing trusting bonds with your followers. The easy to use reply function means that you can instantly respond to any comments on your wall posts and build a rapport.

However, use discretion in your replies, even when deciding whether to reply at all. As a general rule it’s best never to get involved in confrontation or anything that could damage your brand’s reputation.

2. Hit on a viral trend or follow on the coattails of one

Nothing finds eyeballs in the digital world quite like a viral hit. Take any example of a social media craze and you’ll see that it and some successful imitations became known worldwide in less than 24 hours. But how on Earth to go viral is a challenge that plagues even the most experienced social media marketers and there are doubts about whether it is even possible to preempt.

While aiming to go viral is probably not the most sustainable of goals, making sure that your content is creative and engaging still hugely improves the chances that an audience will be interested, and hopefully share it with their friends. Similarly, keeping an eye out for viral posts and jumping in to get involved can mean that you get some of the benefit of a viral hit without having started it.

3. Hold competitions

It may seem cliche but people are always interested in bagging free goodies. Within the current rules of Facebook you can now hold contests and run promotions with the aim of giving out free prizes through your page. Followers generally take part by commenting on the post, entering them into the lottery to win.

Here’s a suggestion for you: Ask your followers to leave creative responses as their entry into your competition, for example “best dad joke”. Pick out some of your favourites and hold a public poll for your followers to choose their own winner!

4. Promote your Facebook page

People can’t engage with you on Facebook if they don’t know that you’re there – so tell them, in every form possible. Make sure you mention your Facebook page in all your other outlets, be it your website, business cards or other social media accounts.

Another useful string to this bow is having company employees sharing your Facebook posts through their own social media accounts, or in their email signatures.

15 Experts Reveal How To Explode Your Organic #Facebook Reach: https://t.co/IcHVHh5p04 #contentmarketing pic.twitter.com/PT7PSDwcsV

— Castleford Media (@castlefordmedia) May 8, 2017

5. Ask questions

Building relationships is as much about listening as it is about talking, and fortunately people love giving their opinion – especially online. Using your posts to ask engaging questions that seek people’s viewpoints on recent events or products not only encourages interaction but it can also be a really useful insight into your target audience.

The key here is to work out the best question, which very much depends on your brand voice.

Example: A light hearted company that make soft drinks is probably less likely to ask people’s opinions about the current economic state. But for a magazine that writes about economics this would be an obvious conversation starter.

When thinking about good questions it’s again good to stress that staying out of controversy (however much engagement it gets) prevents any potential brand damage.

The phrasing of the question should also be carefully considered. You will want to avoid closed questions that only require a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. Equally, short, snappy questions are often better suited to the fast-paced-scrolling mind frame of a Facebook audience.

6. Share comments

If you’ve put the effort in to gather interesting opinions, why not share them? Not only does this drive up interactivity within your community, but good comments can be really useful as customer reviews or authentic, trustworthy promotion of your product.

7. Have a poll

Facebook polls are a quick and fun way for people to share their views without leaving a wordy comment. It is often a useful way to get people involved who are less likely to directly chime in with their views.

#TipTuesday Facebook is a powerful tool for lead-gen, and you don’t need to sell a kidney to compete for traffic. Here’s how to win at Facebook advertising on a low budget. pic.twitter.com/jW4IbS5I9N

— Castleford Media (@castlefordmedia) May 1, 2018

What not to do

Just as there are ways to quickly drum up a following, there are ways that can just as quickly lose them. Here are our top activities to avoid:

Only talk about you: Don’t be the worst person at a dinner party. The one who just won’t shut up about themselves. We get it, you’re on Facebook to market your products or service but that alone will not win you dedicated customers or leads that could turn into customers. Remember that social media is designed as a social network between friends. Obvious advertising or click bait type posts will annoy people very quickly and you could end up unfollowed or even reported.

Automating everything: It’s cost and time efficient and does the job just as well right – wrong! Brands need to be creative and have the all important human touch. Noone wants to be bored with templated updates when they could be cooing over pictures of their baby niece.

Buying likes: The black market is rife with quick leg-ups to perceived Facebook success, but don’t be fool enough to cheat your way there. Facebook, unsurprisingly, tries very hard to curb these sort of practices and their detection could range from simply deleting your bought likes to removing your posts altogether.

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[unifiedsocialblog]

Instagram Predictions for 2018 and Beyond

Instagram’s user base grew by a third in 2017. It won’t be long before it hits a billion users. And with a slew of exciting changes and new features, it’s only getting better with age.

But even brands with the strongest Instagram strategy need to be looking ahead. User expectations will evolve with the platform, which means that today’s strategy can’t guarantee results in the future.

To help you stay ahead of the curve, we’ve rounded up some expert-informed predictions for Instagram in 2018 and beyond.

Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps an adventure photographer used to grow from 0 to 110,000 followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

Prediction 1: More users of all ages will join Instagram

Instagram has over 800 million monthly active users and is showing no signs of slowing down. Many of those new users belong to Generation Z, so marketers would be wise to get to know this important demographic.

Instagram is also growing in popularity with older adults: there are currently more 45- to 54-year-olds on Instagram than 13- to 17-year-olds.

As Instagram succeeds Facebook to become the new home for brands, it will become an essential part of every company’s social strategy. Regardless of who your customers are, it’s likely that they’ll be on Instagram in the years to come. There are already 25 million companies using Instagram, but that number is likely to grow dramatically in the next few years.

Want to bring your business to Instagram? Here’s everything you need to get started.

Prediction 2: Augmented reality will explode on Instagram

Augmented reality (AR) was a hot topic at the Facebook F8 developers’ conference. Mark Zuckerberg announced that the Facebook AR effects studio would debut on Instagram in 2018.

This feature will allow anyone to create custom filters, face effects, and other visual elements. These elements will interact with users and their surroundings in Stories.

Instagram also plans to customize effects offered to users, based on the accounts that they follow. Compared to a platform like Snapchat, this will offer a more tailored experience. Users will be able to try out effects and filters they see on their Stories feed, adding a sharable element.

Interactive content is a growing trend, and AR/VR is going to play a big part in it. By 2020, revenues will likely exceed $162 billion and 135 million people will be users. For Instagram’s Gen Z users, 22 percent of whom are already using geofilters each month, the addition of this familiar feature will be especially welcome.

The possibilities with AR are endless: allow customers to virtually try out a product or service, or get a 360-degree view of a store or event. Companies that capitalize on this emerging technology to create fun, immersive content will reap big benefits.

Prediction 3: Your hashtag strategy will be more important than ever

In late 2017, Instagram added the option to follow hashtags as well as accounts. This change allows users to see more of the content they’re interested in, and curate their feeds by topic. And at the F8 developers’ conference, they announced changes for the “Explore” section, which will soon be grouped by topics.

Topics will be populated by relevant hashtags, making it easy for users to dive deep into niche categories and interests.

Hashtags have always been a valuable tool for boosting the visibility of your posts, and these updates make them even more important. A targeted approach is key: you can’t just max out the 30 hashtag limit and hope for the best. Instead, research the hashtags your target audiences are following, and use them strategically.

Before these changes take effect, learn how to master hashtags to grow your audience.

Prediction 4: Live video will be king

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last few years, you know that social video is exploding. In 2017, Instagram reported that the time users spent watching videos increased by 80 percent over the previous year.

In the same period, video content quadrupled. Over 300 million people watch Instagram Stories every single day. At this point, there’s no question that video needs to be a part of your Instagram strategy, and it’s only going to get more important in the years ahead. Especially live videos, which users can’t seem to get enough of.

A study from Livestream and New York Magazine found that 82 percent of users would rather watch live video than view a social post. Cisco predicts that live video will grow 15-fold between 2016 and 2021. And users spend three times longer watching live content, compared to other types of video. No wonder Instagram decided to launch video chat for users to score an endless fix.

Live video can be intimidating, but it’s also a great opportunity. Audiences don’t just want to be entertained; they want to have a conversation. If you’re the only one doing the talking, you won’t keep their attention.

Master the best practices for live video and start using this format to connect with your audiences.

Prediction 5: Instagram will transform how your customers shop

With its focus on strong visual content, Instagram has always been the perfect place to show off your products. Unlike on Facebook, where people want to see posts from friends and families, users on Instagram are eager to discover and follow brands. Who among us has not made the journey from Instagram post to shopping cart in the span of a single elevator ride?

With the debut of in-app shopping in late 2017, Instagram commerce is about to get even bigger. Now users can shop directly from brand accounts, tapping the screen to see item details and going directly to a website to buy. Brands can tag up to five products per post, or 20 per carousel.

As Hootsuite’s CEO Ryan Holmes pointed out, in-app shopping is old hat for platforms that dominate outside of North America, like WeChat. But as our continent catches up, audiences and brands can expect a bigger focus on making sales on Instagram in the months ahead.

Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps an adventure photographer used to grow from 0 to 110,000 followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

Get the free checklist right now!

It’s not as simple as tagging your products and waiting for the sales to roll in. If anything, the increased visibility of products for sale means you need to work for yours to stand out. As ever, the focus needs to be on creative, eye-catching, and engaging content.

Here are some tips for driving sales using this new feature.

Prediction 6: Influencer marketing will become an essential part of your strategy

Influencer marketing is very effective with younger users, who make up a growing majority of Instagram users. And among Gen Z, online influencers can have even more sway over purchasing decisions than celebrities. Their perceived value is backed up by numbers, too: businesses report a $6.50 return on investment for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.

Recognizing this trend, Instagram is creating tools and guidelines for influencer marketing. For example, they introduced a Paid Partnerships feature in late 2017, which makes it clear when a post is sponsored.

Instagram’s Millennial and Gen Z users don’t mind being advertised to, but they want honesty and transparency. This new feature allows companies and influencers to be clear about their relationship.

An influencer who is aligned with your brand values and voice can be a great asset. Word-of-mouth accounts for 20 to 50 percent of purchasing decisions, and adds credibility and visibility to your brand.

Making influencer marketing a part of your strategy is a smart move in 2018 and beyond. Check out this guide to working with Instagram influencers to get started.

Prediction 7: Anti-bullying filters will make Instagram a more positive space for everyone

Social media isn’t all wedding hashtags and dog photos; there’s a dark underbelly, too. In recent years, bullying and harassment have emerged as important concerns for all social media platforms. So the announcement that Instagram is launching a bullying filter was a welcome one for many users.

The new filter will automatically filter negative comments related to appearance and character. While this will have more immediate impacts for individual users than brands, the outcome will be a safer, more welcoming platform.

Prediction 8: You’ll need to be ready for change

Right now, companies on Instagram are riding a wave of high engagement. But it’s not likely to last forever. More algorithm changes will inevitably arrive, and they’ll impact engagement rates, as we’ve seen on Facebook.

Users may also reach a saturation point as Instagram grows in popularity, and start tuning out the endless parade of content in their feed. Companies should expect a decline in organic reach over time.

When that happens, the best strategy will be a focus on quality content and a diversified ad strategy. Don’t expect that one tried-and-true method will work forever. Pay attention to emerging features on Instagram, like Story Highlights, and incorporate them into your strategy to stay fresh. Re-evaluate and adjust your marketing strategy regularly.

Most importantly, listen to your audience and engage with them often.

Get your Instagram strategy ready for the future, alongside your other social channels, and save time using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can schedule and publish posts, engage your audience, and measure performance. Try it free today.

Get Started

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15 Experts Reveal How To Explode Your Organic Facebook Reach

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15 Experts Reveal How To Explode Your Organic Facebook Reach http://bitly.com/2pZboSi

15 Experts Reveal How To Explode Your Organic Facebook Reach http://bitly.com/2pZboSi

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Which social platforms should businesses use in 2019?

By now social media should be a cornerstone of your digital marketing strategy. The opportunities it offers to engage with, hear and, yes, sell to your target audience makes social an invaluable weapon in your arsenal.

However, with an ever growing number of platforms to choose from, it’s not always obvious which is right for your business (Hint: establishing a presence on every single one isn’t the way to go).

Even if your business is already set up with successful social media accounts, we’d ask you to consider the following:

2018 was the year that Facebook announced its giant algorithmic update, making it harder for your brand to be heard.

2018 was the year of GDPR

2018 was the year IGTV went global

2018 was the year Instagram introduced shoppable media

See what we’re getting at? Things change in the world of social media, and fast. What worked last year might not achieve the same results in 2019. Consistently reviewing your approach is the best way to maximise the potential of social.

The good news? We’ve done the research that will help you plan for 2019. This article will give you  the facts and figures on the top performing platforms, the need to knows on this year’s newcomers, as well as some questions to ask yourself when whittling down your shortlist.

15 Experts Reveal How To Explode Your Organic #Facebook Reach: https://t.co/IcHVHh5p04 #contentmarketing pic.twitter.com/PT7PSDwcsV

— Castleford Media (@castlefordmedia) 8 May 2017

The big guns

Facebook

Once the undisputed ruler of social media land, recent years have seen Facebook’s competition really turn up the heat.

The numbers: As of September 2018, 60 per cent of Australians* have active Facebook profiles. Kiwis are even more keen with a whopping 73 per cent using the site**.

Key demographics:  Globally, active Facebook users tend to be in the 25-34 age bracket, and overall there are more male than female profiles, according to Statista.

Which businesses should use Facebook? To put it simply, all of them. While Facebook is generally thought to be a B2C forum, every organisation should have a presence.

Top tip: Make use of video content this year. This medium is on the up, and live videos in particular, provide an authentic, in-the-moment way of sharing,

*All stats on Australian social media use are pulled from Vivid Social

** All stats on New Zealand social media use are pulled from Statista.

YouTube

YouTube is Facebook’s biggest competitor for our attention, and its ascendancy shows no sign of stopping.

The numbers: YouTube has overtaken Facebook as New Zealand’s social platform of choice, with 74 per cent of the population using it. Attracting 15 million unique Australian visitors per month, the video sharing site also carries serious clout north of the Tasman.

Key demographics: The key age group here has traditionally been younger, with the largest single category being 18-34, says research from Google/Nielsen. That said, the 35+ and 55+ age brackets are currently the fastest growing. Again, men slightly outnumber women here.

Which businesses should use YouTube? If driving organic traffic to your website is a key goal for your social strategy, YouTube is a brilliant option. Snappy and entertaining videos, with a relevant call to action can grab the attention of your target audience, and turn them on to your brand.

Top tip: This year is predicted to swing towards micro influencers. While they have far fewer followers than the likes of Huda Kattan and Zach King, those who subscribe to their channels are generally highly invested.

Instagram

Two large rollouts in 2018 (the introduction of IGTV and shoppable media), have given marketers new ways to exploit the potential of the popular photo and video sharing platform.

The numbers: In Australia, Instagram comes in behind Facebook and Youtube, boasting 9 million monthly active users. This position is mirrored in NZ, with 35 per cent of the population owning an account.

Key demographics: Over 70 per cent of the world’s Instagram users are under 35 years old, with 18 to 34 again representing the key demographic, according to Statista. There’s a 50:50 split between male and female users.

Which businesses should use Instagram? It’s a common misconception that you need a visual product if your business is to be successful on Instagram. Rather, creativity is the order of the day.

Instagram is great for businesses who want to build their brand recognition by posting fun, and engaging imagery, while also establishing a community by responding to customers’ questions and comments.

Top tip: On all platforms the use of stories is only increasing in popularity. In fact, some believe that these will eventually overtake the newsfeed as the primary way of sharing on social media.

Snapchat

Snapchat has been somewhat overlooked by businesses in previous years, but its popularity is making it increasingly hard to ignore.

The numbers: While there isn’t reliable data available for New Zealand, Snapchat has 6.3 million active monthly users in Australia, rounding out the top four platforms.

Key demographics:  Females are more active on Snapchat then males, holding a majority of 59 per cent. (Statista) The audience is also particularly young, Snapchat is the most popular platform for 12 to 24 year olds, according to Edison Research.

Which businesses should use Snapchat? Snapchat is about authenticity, so better suits brands who are willing to show behind the curtain, over those with strict corporate messaging. It’s also a great way to show the fun side of your business or tease your newest release.

Top tip: Embrace geofilters. These are cheap and effective ways of getting your branding in front of users.

Twitter

Twitter has seen a slight a revival recently, thanks in no small part to a certain political leader. Despite never quite recapturing its former glory, it certainly still holds a place at the marketing table.

The numbers: An average of 4.7 million Australians, and over one million New Zealanders, click on the little blue bird every month.

Key demographics: Twitter is used far more heavily by men than women (Statista), and the age-spread of members is interesting, with a mixture of millennials and older users.

Which businesses should use Twitter? Twitter is a good option for B2C companies to share updates on their products and services. It’s also become an essential customer service channel for taking on board and responding to feedback.

Top tip: Social listening is set to become even more important, and here Twitter excels. Tools like Tweetdeck make it easy to search for brand or keyword mentions, perfect for identifying pain points and even potential leads.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is still the go-to platform for professionals and B2B companies, and this look set to continue in 2019.

The numbers: There are roughly 4.5 million active monthly Australian users on LinkedIn, and 22 per cent of Kiwis also have an account.

Key demographics:  As with Twitter, men are more heavily represented on LinkedIn, representing 57 per cent of users. The largest single age bracket is 25-34, and overall 63 per cent of members are aged 25 to 54, says MarketingMojo.

Which businesses should use LinkedIn? LinkedIn is a platform for B2B companies. This is the perfect forum for posting industry specific content, and for building relationships with potential leads and influencers through InMail, LinkedIn Groups and by following their feeds.

Top tip: Keep a close eye on which posts your followers are engaging with. As platforms aim to become more personalised, what appears on your users’ feeds will be based increasingly on what they interact with.

Should your staff be using LinkedIn profiles? It might seem odd to encourage social media use at work, but it could have a lot of benefits for you and them! https://t.co/o2iyoiuZiZ pic.twitter.com/reT7j2VZfT

— Castleford Media (@castlefordmedia) 8 November 2018

The newcomers

Predicting which new social media platforms will be successful for businesses in 2019 is a risky affair, but we’ll stick our necks out:

Vero

An easy way to share photos, TV, music, books and movies, Vero is a challenger to Instagram.

Perhaps the platform’s biggest USP is the way that users can choose to share content with either ‘close friends’, ‘friends’, ‘acquaintances’ or ‘followers’. You also have the option to group posts according to subject matter – i.e. places or books.

The platform doesn’t allow advertising, but offers marketers a great opportunity for social listening – building up a broader picture of customers’ interests.

Musical.ly

While this may sound like an alternative to Spotify, Musical.ly is more in the mould of Snapchat and Vine.

It focuses on video content lasting 15 seconds to one minute, and allows creators to add soundtracks and effects to their visuals. Due to the modern emphasis on live content, it’s no surprise that Musical.ly also offers the option to create shorter “live moments”.

If you plan to emphasise video as the way forward for promoting your brand (and we highly recommend that you do), Musical.ly might be the outlet you’re looking for.

Questions to ask yourself

With these facts and figures fresh in your brain, here are a few questions to help you make a decision on the best social media platforms for your business in 2019:

Who is your target audience? As we’ve seen, different platforms cater more to different demographics. You also need to consider whether you’re B2B or B2C, or a mixture of both.

What is the goal of social media for your organisation? Are you looking to raise brand awareness or do you want to engage in conversations with your customer base? Video and photo based platforms hold great potential for the former, while Twitter and Facebook are great for listening and responding to customers.

Is your industry known for this platform? If you’re the only representative from your industry on a given platform, you may want to take a raincheck. Either all of your competition is missing a trick, or you should reevaluate your consumer research.

What content do you want to post? Knowing where to direct your content will stop you wasting valuable time and money. Look at what content is receiving the most positive interactions (and where it is), and tailor your future posts accordingly.

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