Brand page admins and social media managers may have noticed a recent drop in the number of fans that your posts reach. Many are asking why and some are angry about the changes; here is some valuable information on why this is happening and how it can be improved.
Facebook chose a format for the newsfeed that shows what they think users want to see instead of a chronological list of posts, like Twitter. This led to an astronomical decline in organic reach per fan (see chart).
Facebook’s algorithm determines what you see on your feed everyday by using your interests to decide how likely it is that the user wants to see this content. In many ways this is helpful for the average Facebook user; they want to see posts that their close friends produce over ones from people who they are only connected to through Facebook. Many businesses and brands are upset with this system because their posts do not reach anywhere close to everyone who likes their page, and this number is decreasing.
According to Techcrunch “the roughly 50% decline in reach over the past year matches the 50% increase in page likes per typical Facebook user over the same time period.” This means that as people like more pages there is more for Facebook to choose from, and your brand’s post is less likely to be included on their feeds.
One of the key ways to increase the likelihood that it is shown is to get people to engage with the post. This is a catch-22 because people need to see the post to engage with it but they are becoming less and less likely to see it because of this formula.
Many have criticized the algorithm saying that the low reach is a strategy to get businesses to pay for the “boost” feature that expands reach, at a cost. The takeout delivery company, Eat24, wrote a “break up” letter to Facebook detailing the poor reach in their algorithm as the reason why they deleted their Facebook even though their page had over 70,000 likes.
Other brands have benefitted from these changes, because they use eye catching, funny or captivating content that still gets them free space on Facebook.
Another way to increase exposure for your brand’s Facebook page is ads. While many would like this process to be free, ads on Facebook are generally inexpensive, especially if your brand is looking to reach key demographics instead of copious amounts of people.
What do you think about Facebook’s algorithm and their declining reach?