If you’re getting your feet wet with social media marketing and digging into the analytics provided by Facebook, things can be confusing at first. There’s a lot of metrics to wrap your head around and it can be hard to tell what actually matters. More importantly, it can be hard to figure out how to actually use this information to tailor your social media campaigns to reach a larger audience, net more business and achieve your goals.
Some of the most important statistics that Facebook offers its users is numbers on organic and paid reach. “Reach” refers to the number of people that have been exposed to a post. There’s no promises that someone actually saw or read the post– they might have scrolled past it and ignored it or read a few words and skipped it, but it did appear on the screen of their mobile device, PC or tablet. It might not seem like much, but you can safely assume that the larger the reach, the more people see and read a post.
Now, onto the different types of reach:
- Organic reach is based upon the number of people who saw your post through their News Feed, Ticker or on your Facebook page. Your post will appear in their News Feed or Ticker if they are fans of your page. It’s called “organic” because it’s viewed to be the most “natural” of all the types of reach– someone either sought out your page or saw the post because they liked your page. This also contains viral reach. Much on the internet happens virally, and Facebook is no different. Viral reach is anyone who saw your post when one of your fans liked, commented on or shared your post. As it’s considered a branch of organic reach, they are both now lumped in the same total.
- Paid reach concerns people who saw your posts only because you paid to get extra reach. It’s also divided into Paid Reach and Paid Fan Reach, allowing you to see how many more of your fans saw the post as opposed to just anyone.
Now how do you use these metrics to your advantage?
- Figure out what times result in the highest post reach. Every business will have different fans with different schedules– by figuring out when your posts get the highest reach, you can plan your posts accordingly for the best results.
- Re-use posts with a high reach. If something was useful to readers a month ago and is still relevant, don’t be afraid to share it again. Not every post needs to be breaking news, and quality social media content doesn’t go out of style.
- Post frequently. You’ll notice that the more you post, the higher your reach will be. Additionally, watch which posts get the highest reach and try to figure out why these posts are the most successful. Once you’ve figured that out, tailor upcoming posts to be more similar to that style.
Confused about social media or uncertain how to boost your campaigns? PGN Agency has an extensive track record of bringing our clients returns on their marketing and advertising campaigns. If you would like to learn how PGN can come up with creative marketing solutions to drive YOUR business’s growth, feel free to contact us directly at 248-414-6860. One of our friendly team members will help assess your needs, and put together a game plan for success!