6 Ways Brands Can Maximize Facebook Organic Reach

Face­book has changed its news feed algo­rithm to reduce ‘over­ly pro­mo­tion­al’ posts. What strate­gies can help brands main­tain an endur­ing reach?

Pat Hong By Pat Hong from Linkdex. Join the discussion » 0 comments

Face­book is rolling out changes to its news feed algo­rithm in a bid to reduce “over­ly pro­mo­tion­al” posts. The changes fol­lowed a user sur­vey that revealed peo­ple felt there was too much pro­mo­tion­al con­tent in their news feeds from pages they had liked. With the changes due to roll out this month, how can brands ensure they main­tain an endur­ing reach?


When Face­book announced changes to its news feed in Novem­ber, it was swift­ly fol­lowed by a wave of com­men­tary pub­li­ciz­ing the end of organ­ic reach. It’s lit­tle won­der that more than a few experts pre­dict­ed a ris­ing bud­gets for paid media in our 2015 social media pre­dic­tions post.

The social net­work insists that the changes are an effort to improve the over­all expe­ri­ence for users. What are the three kinds of posts Face­book says are too pro­mo­tion­al?

  1. Posts that sole­ly push peo­ple to buy a prod­uct or install an app.
  2. Posts that push peo­ple to enter pro­mo­tions and sweep­stakes with no real con­text.
  3. Posts that reuse the exact same con­tent from ads.

Face­book’s new algo­rithm will fil­ter out such con­tent deemed to be of less­er val­ue.

Here’s a typ­i­cal exam­ple of the kind of pro­mo­tion­al post users won’t be see­ing in their feeds any longer:

facebook-algorithm-changes1

And the kind that does­n’t direct­ly encour­age a pur­chase, and instead offers a invi­ta­tion to engage:

facebook-algorithm-changes2

(Source: Fal­conSo­cial)

The Implications For Brands?

Brands that are already win­ning a great deal of audi­ence engage­ment, will be affect­ed the least by the changes. Cre­ative brands that con­duct stand­out cam­paigns and focus on engage­ment are exact­ly the kind of the brand that the algo­rithm will like­ly ben­e­fit.

So what fac­tors sep­a­rate the brands doing well, and those the algo­rithm changes are giv­ing a kick up the prover­bial?

6 Ways Brands Can Maximize Facebook Organic Reach

1. Get Creative

Face­book is a social plat­form. That means reach is tied to engage­ment lev­els. Posts that illic­it the most shares, likes, or com­ments are invari­ably the ones that see the biggest gains.

So get cre­ative and give your users a rea­son to engage. Ask ques­tions, pro­vide tips, recipes, or host polls. In short, add val­ue to your posts and give users a rea­son to like and share.

national-geographic-ad-facebook

(This post from Nation­al Geo­graph­ic gives a strong incen­tive for users to com­ment and share.)

2. Observe & Listen To Your Consumers

Face­book is an out­stand­ing resource for unbi­ased data about what your con­sumers and think­ing and feel­ing. Social lis­ten­ing will enable you to gauge the mood and sen­ti­ment of your users, as well as inform you as to the top­ics and con­tent they are most inter­est­ed in. Don’t under­es­ti­mate its use­ful­ness!

3. Find Your Social Media Voice

The voice of your brand’s PR and mar­ket­ing isn’t the same as the one that should be heard on social media. Social media is where you can talk and engage with your con­sumers. Speak in their lan­guage, but main­tain the iden­ti­ty of the brand, and find your brand’s own unique voice.

4. Use Posts To Drive Users To Other Web Channels

Suc­cess­ful posts add val­ue with­out intrud­ing on the expe­ri­ence of those who aren’t inter­est­ed. But what about those who want to find out more?

In addi­tion to send­ing peo­ple to your own web­site, you can use posts to dri­ve users to your pres­ence on oth­er plat­forms, such as YouTube. That way, you’re tap­ping into an audi­ence you would­n’t oth­er­wise have access to, and com­ple­ment­ing the per­for­mance of your oth­er chan­nels. spaceship-post-facebook

(Social Fresh’s post links to a land­ing page with addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion.)

5. Have A Paid Budget

Paid adver­tis­ing on Face­book still has a place with­in users’ news feeds. Con­tests, events, or ads that lead to a direct path of sale may now require a paid bud­get to be vis­i­ble, but in cer­tain cas­es it remains the best way to com­ple­ment an organ­ic cam­paign.

6. Be Social

This might seem obvi­ous, but brands com­mon­ly make the mis­take of mere­ly churn­ing out con­tent on their own chan­nels. Be a thought-leader, lis­ten, and engage with users on oth­er chan­nels, not just on your own posts. Poten­tial­ly, they’re your cus­tomers too!

Here’s the SlideShare ver­sion of the arti­cle (it’s down­load­able!):

Pat Hong

Written by Pat Hong

Editor at Linkdex/Inked, Linkdex

Pat covers the SEO industry, digital marketing trends, and anything and everything around Linkdex. He also authors Linkdex's data analysis and reports, analysing the state of search in various industries.

Inked is published by Linkdex, the SEO platform of choice for professional marketers.

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