Since its launch in 2004, Facebook declared a clear mission which was and will always be to allow people to share interests and connect with their friends and family members.
That’s why Facebook’s priority will always be to enhance the experience these people are having while killing their time surfing the biggest social network ever.
After the enormous milestones Facebook accomplished and for the sake of monetizing, Facebook invited brands and businesses to be on the social networking site and present what they have to the millions who are enjoying their stay.
This invitation, however, was always guarded and secured by Facebook’s algorithm that is biased to the user’s side regardless of what brands and business pages are getting.
Lots of complaints and unpleasant results
Because Facebook only cares about getting people to spend more time on their website by bringing them what genuinely interests them, its algorithm was always being updated strictly and contents were judged firmly with almost no second chances.
Whenever a page displays an unsuitable content or even good content in an unsuitable time that gained little engagement, that page’s visibility will go down.
And to make the issue crazier, Facebook dramatically minimized the organic reach for brands to reach less than 1% in some cases.
This means that only a small fraction of fans actually get to see the brand page’s updates.
Lots of businesses spent real money on their Facebook ads and on creating super content but they didn’t get what they were promised and even break-up letters were sent to Facebook.
In addition, a controversial issue concerning the feasibility of paid ads raised doubts about this investment.
Facebook Fraud
The solution lies within the problem. Facebook’s hunger to satisfy its users’ pleasure implied that it will only show users what they wanted to see, or at least what Facebook “thinks” these people want to see.
Facebook’s algorithm works on analyzing and saving interactions of users with posts on their news-feed.
The more interactions (Likes, Share and Comments) a post will win the more visibility the page owning this post will gain.
In order to achieve this and after suffering from disappointing results, I’ve reached the following methods that produced organic reach and pleased my clients:
- Post provocative content, controversial issue, asking opinions and feedback and always remember that negative publicity and positive publicity are both publicity.
- (Negative publicity, however, helps individuals in the showbiz industry mainly. For a company, don’t try it.)
- Start contests and quizzes randomly and occasionally, but make sure to include a REWARD or else it will look lame!
- Post content that provokes fans to tag their friends.
- Make sure you know the type of fans you are targeting and find out the hours when most of them are online.
- Post tempting photos of your products and ask people to share their experience (unless you’re not sure of the feedback).
- Remember that Facebook is a personal social network where people come to entertain not to buy and make decisions, ENTERTAIN YOUR FANS!
- In some situations post photos of people (friends or the kind you think to relate with your page; for instance, a musician on an entertainment blog Facebook page), or just tag them so that you can win their friends.
- Ask your visitors to check in with selfies and let them tag themselves on your page.
At a store of one of my clients, we started a check-in for a 10% discount campaign where customers enjoyed a 10% price discount on their flower bouquet for every check-in with a selfie they take inside the store. That was really fun!
- Publicize your Facebook page address all over the place. Your business card, packages, office or store etc. and select random new fans to reward them.
Don’t Forget to post photos of them very happy getting your gift. In a computer training centre, we started the free workshop winner. Every 10 days, we choose a random Facebook fan to attend a free course.
These were some of the resolutions that helped in growing our clients’ Facebook presence. What else can you suggest?
