During a marketing team meeting, “Facebook reach” or “social media reach” are words you might often encounter. Often, entire meetings happen around these ideas.
The idea of reach is fundamental in digital marketing because, after all, most of the things we do on social media concern reaching as many people as possible. However, with competitor pages and accounts spewing out content, it can be a pretty challenging job to make your mark out there. Add the changing Facebook algorithm and how policies changes affect Facebook marketing campaigns, and you can judge the extent of the challenge.
That being said, it is not entirely impossible to grow your reach and make sure that your brand and its social media presence stand out from the rest. This guide discusses the basics of Facebook reach, the difference between reach and engagement, and what strategies can help you grow your reach.
What Is Facebook Reach?
Facebook reach is essentially the number of unique people who come across your page or posts. It doesn’t matter whether they engage with your post/page!
However, there’s a catch; reach is usually calculated over a certain period.
For instance, say that a post was on your page for a month, and around 5000 people saw it all together.
But most of them came across the post in the first week, and others saw it in the third or last week. This way, the post has a much better reach than last the three weeks.
This means that there is no metric for an overall reach. Instead, you should track Facebook reach over a certain period, like a week or a month.
Of course, Facebook has no way of checking exactly how many users come across the post or the page. So what they do is that they basically track the number of unique screens your post displays on.
Facebook’s reach keeps on changing is rarely ever-constant because many factors, including; influence it.
- Engagement from followers and other visitors
- Content types and formats, such as text, image, videos, and so on.
- Other optimization factors like timings, hashtags, topics.
- Paid vs. organic posts.
One thing to always remember is that Facebook reach will always vary from post to post.
What Are the Types of Facebook Reach?
Facebook reach is broken down into two parts; post reach and page reach. This is further broken down into three basic types that you can aim to target. Here is a rundown of them all and how they are different from each other.
Facebook Ad Reach
Facebook ad reach is the number of people who saw your ads at least once. This number is, of course, estimated. This type of reach mainly depends on the budget you set for the ads and audience targeting.
This metric can help you identify how well your ads are performing.
Facebook Viral Reach
Viral reach is the number of people who saw or came across your content because another person engaged with the post via likes, comments, tags, or shares. Essentially interactions branching from other accounts from followers and non-followers.
Highly engaging or opinionated posts usually have a higher viral reach than others.
Facebook Organic Reach
Most people only think of Facebook reach as organic. However, Facebook organic reach typically refers to how many people saw a non-sponsored post. All posts that are unnaturally boosted using some special features are exempted from it.
Organic reach has taken a big hit between sponsored posts, viral posts, and constant changes to the Facebook algorithm. Many marketers have noticed a decline in not only the reach but engagement as well.
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Why Is Facebook Reach Important?
Tracking Facebook reach is essential as it helps you track your goal of building a solid online presence and growing brand awareness. While it is a challenge, you can quickly increase your reach by carefully planning and executing strategies.
Since reach is the total number of unique users who see all you post on your feed, it is not limited to your followers! It can be anyone from your competitor’s followers to the people who came across your post or page around the globe.
When a user comes across your post on their Facebook feed, their next step is usually to visit the page if the content interests them. This helps grow visibility and increases your chances of getting higher engagement on the pages.
While paid reach is return on investment, viral and organic reach is also severely critical. If your post goes viral organically or generates higher reach with interactions on a non-sponsored post, it helps identify which content is worth investing in!
One of the goals of all your social media strategies should be to increase reach!
How Is Reach Different From Impressions and Engagement?
The three terms, reach, engagements, and impressions, are usually used interchangeably. Not because they are similar to each other but because most people cannot understand each term separately.
However, here is a little cheat sheet to explain what each one of them means:
- Reach: Facebook reach is the unique number of people who saw your page or post.
- Impressions: Impressions are the number of people who viewed your page or post. This would track how often your page or post was viewed regardless of how many times a single person has seen it.
- Engagement: Engagement is the individual interactions with your posts and pages, such as comments, likes, and shares.
Impressions are always much higher than reach and engagement as it measures the overall views instead of unique views.
Facebook marketers should try to measure all three. Reach and impressions are more important, but you should work on increasing interactions alongside as well. Doing so essentially means exploring and discovering new ways to ensure that Facebook shows your post/page to as many people as possible.
What Is Considered a Good Reach on Facebook?
There is no such thing as the perfect reach on Facebook. However, around 6% to 8% of the total likes are an ideal Facebook reach. If we talk about Facebook organic reach, the average is 6.4% of total likes.
Unfortunately, it is not always possible to reach this number, but something close is also acceptable.
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8 Ways to Boost Facebook Organic Reach
Despite popular belief, it is not entirely impossible to boost your Facebook reach, and no the algorithm is not the only thing that matters. Here is a list of 8 amazing techniques to give Facebook a run for their money!
Don’t Forget the Basics
We understand that the Facebook algorithm is no longer what it initially was, but it certainly doesn’t mean that they have completely changed the infrastructure. A few basic things such as authenticity, clarity, uniqueness, and a spot-on profile are still important.
Before you start putting out content on content, focus on getting the profile right. Start by selecting an original profile picture, a description paragraph, no fuss name, and a cover picture that perfectly aligns with your business.
Then try to be as original as possible with your content, abide by the community rules, and you are good to go!
Oh, and stay away from plagiarized and unverifiable content. It could potentially get you blacklisted and kill whatever reach you are currently getting.
Make the Most Out of Facebook Live & Videos
Facebook live is your ticket to success as more and more people can join you in real-time and mingle with your business. Facebook has not exactly been discreet about its love for videos. Therefore, it is about time that you start investing in them as much as possible.
Whether you make small TikTok style videos or just save your live sessions, videos on your page are a smart move that can put you ahead of your competitors. Also, more videos go viral as compared to still images and text posts!
Use a Mix of Content Formats for Posts
No one likes a boring page that puts out similar content all the time. Let’s be honest; it’s no fun to keep going through the same things day after day.
For Facebook, this could be a bit challenging since it has been around for some time, and most of the business already has a set format that they don’t want to get away from.
However, here are a few ways you can mix and match content formats;
- Instead of marketing your blogs with run-of-the-mill links and text posts, try posting an infographic or an image or a quote from the article with the link.
- Integrate your YouTube videos with your Facebook page and put up a catchy caption.
- Use a witty caption to draw attention to your post.
- Avoid posting too many external links and focus on keeping people on your Facebook as much as possible.
- Add a CTA! Call to action is an excellent way to attract more people to your posts (and increasing your CTR).
Schedule Posts for Consistency
We honestly cannot emphasize the importance of scheduling posts and having a consistent timetable for all your social media channels. It is very common for most of us to check our phones and Facebook first in the morning (well, at least for millennials) and engage with some posts.
This is because we like the algorithm to know that we are well and alive.
Scheduling and social media management tools like Social Champ can help you be on time by posting on your channels. All you need to do is schedule content using the dashboard or the bulk uploader, and you are good to go for months on end!
Schedule Content With Social Champ!
Upload bulks of content using a single CSV file. You can include links, first comments, text, images, mentions, and much more!
Trigger an Emotional Response
Here is a rule of thumb! Never beg your followers for attention; however, inspire your followers so that they cannot help themselves but react. One of the best ways to inspire them is to trigger an emotional response.
The more strongly your audience resonates with your post and feels that it is a part of their lives, the easier it would be for them to engage with them. This, in turn, would increase the Facebook reach as well.
Repurpose and Repost Evergreen Content
No one can put out new content like a machine all the time. However, the chances are that if one of the pieces of your content is doing good, it will perform well if you repurpose or reuse it.
An old piece of content, a blog, or a video can be used differently. Don’t mess with content that is already doing pretty well or repost an old post as it is. Alternatively, pick out an old(er) blog post, convert it into an infographic, and use it in your Facebook promotion and campaign.
This increases your chances of getting shares as well.
Figure Out the Best Time to Post
Optimizing blog piece your posting time is the best way to increase your engagement and boost your Facebook reach. We have previously posted about the best time to post on Facebook in 2022. However, there is no fixed time where everyone can post and get enough eyes on the content.
You need to experiment with consistency, content formats, and captions to identify the timings that best works for your business.
For ideal results, start your experiment with the best performing content on your Facebook page and take it from there!
Be Human in Your Approach
No one likes to interact with bots or, worst, with automated content all the time. Take a human approach to your content, use attractive pictures, integrate videos, and add CTAs. It makes your posts look good and stops them from becoming boring!
Also, respond to all comments, shares, tags, and mentions so that your audience engages with you even more!
So, What Are You Doing About Your Facebook Reach?
There are numerous ways to give a boost to your Facebook reach. This list of tips will help you skyrocket your reach and help get all the right eyeballs for your Facebook page and posts.
That being said, it is essential to understand what your audience and target market want before you start rolling out content. Use these tips and more and see what grabs their attention!
