Science Facebook

Posting content on Facebook; pretty easy, right? Yes, easy in the sense that Facebook has made their applications extremely user friendly over all platforms. But if your purpose of posting is to draw engagement, and new fans, throwing up anything on the wall isn’t going to stick.

Organic reach on Facebook has been plummeting for sometime. As of 2014, organic reach is as low as 3-4% for smaller companies with less than 500,000 fans, and under 2% for larger companies with over 500,000 fans. This puts us in the situation of “pay to play”. Boosting allows you to reach a much larger audience than an organic post. But before you start spending money, you need to look at the facts.

Less is more. A post with less than 80 characters receives 66% more engagement than a post with over 80 characters. The ideal number is actually around 40 characters, which on average receives 86% more engagement than a longer post. If your post is a question to your audience, on average you will see a 100% increase in engagement. Example: “Tigers have won 6 in a row! Who’s your Tiger?”

Posting without a photo is boring in the eyes of the consumer and in the eyes of Facebook. A post with a photo receives 39% more engagement than a post without a photo. This includes more click throughs, comments, likes, and shares. Facebook wants brands to create a post that has validity. Engaging fans to share your posts broadens your reach and allows for you to gain a larger audience.

It’s sad to say, but it looks like we are trending to an age where organic reach may be terminated entirely. Whether it will be a monthly fee for a business to own a Facebook page, or a $ amount per post, the free ride is coming to an end. Facebook, however, is not going anywhere. With an audience now of over 1.3 billion people, Facebook is bigger than ever and still growing. If you want your brand to be represented properly across this channel, you have two choices. A. Do your homework B. Hire a team of social media professionals.