Social Media, what a crazy thing that has become. It adjusts and will continue to adjust. I’m going to talk about social media in general but specifically, Facebook for the algorithm for those that don’t understand it. And the reason you care is that your message isn’t getting to all of your friends.
Facebook business pages are near worthless. Unless you are creating amazing content, few people are seeing those posts. You have much better control posting on your personal Facebook page because the algorithm would prefer you to pay to have your business posts viewed. What you may not know, is that you are not seeing a significant amount of everyone’s posts, which is annoying when you consider how often you see the same posts.
Here’s what Facebook does. You make a post. They send that out to people who have generally engaged with your content. Based on who engages with it this time, the algorithm will send it out to more people that like you and the people that engaged. As engagement goes up it continues to expand the reach. If people don’t like a piece of content, the opposite happens.
So how do you beat the algorithm?
Wish people a happy birthday. Every day Facebook tells you whose birthday it is. I have 70+ pictures of cakes and happy birthday messages. I post that on their wall. It stands out to the low-effort, “Happy B-day” everyone else does. My thing is humor so if I know someone well enough, I’m humorous. If I know they like something, I find a cake that fits their fandom. This reinforces the signal to Facebook that I want to see this person’s content. When they like it, it makes the same signal. If my post is interesting enough, mutual friends might like it and that’s another signal. In certain circumstances, I will send a private message. Sometimes I fall off the Happy Birthday bandwagon and I feel guilty if I missed a common friend’s birthday. If I’m worried they might see it and feel slighted I will hit messenger.
Find engaging questions. Be topical. Yahoo and Twitter both have trending stories that you can use. While likes don’t feed my ego, I understand that it’s one of the many signals Facebook uses. Asking people’s opinions of something works as everyone has an opinion. Asking for help. Ask for suggestions. Someone had a post that says, “Tell ’em a G-rated joke.”
If it’s trending on Facebook, do it. While some of the challenges and things might seem ridiculous, Facebook is pushing it. You might as well get into the flow and use it to your benefit.
There’s a window for real estate. It’s small and it doesn’t come back for years.
No links. Facebook wants to be its own internet. When you post a link, Facebook just won’t kick it out to as many people. They don’t want you leaving the platform because they can’t show you ads. I’m not 100% about this but I think it might help when I need to post a link. I try to get a photo posted and then put the link in. I think it might get around it.
No scheduling posts from a different service or app, including Instagram. Facebook wants you on their platform and that doesn’t happen when you use these services.
Comment on people’s posts. If you are only posting, it’s about you. If you spent time connecting this way, it will connect you as far as Facebook sees it and it will strengthen the connection with the actual person. I had someone call me yesterday that I hadn’t spoken to in years because I had been liking their content. I upped a lot of my actions in the run-up to launching ROARing Agents and I’ve gotten a referral and a new buyer lead plus some reestablished relationships.
Use Facebook Stories. I notice people post different things on there and the interaction is pretty good.
Lastly, download your friend’s list. Load it into a spreadsheet and then start systematically going through your list and connecting with everyone. Once you are done, do it again. If you don’t use the list, you will not hit everyone.
Gary Vaynerchuk is a legend in the social media space. He has a strategy for Instagram that he calls his $1.80 Strategy. It doesn’t actually cost money. What he means is give your two cents, your opinion, on 90 posts. Engagement. I have seen some high-level stuff for Instagram but it changes so much I’m not going to go there. But hashtags can be helpful. Quality of photos I have heard is important. Tagging people helps as well.
Twitter is a dumpster fire compared to what it was when I got in long ago. I have no opinion about it right now.
Tik Tok is interesting but you for it to be businessworthy, you have to get your message down.
Exercise: Schedule certain times during the week to do social media on purpose.
Do the work, get the results.
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