Is Organic Facebook Worth Your Time and Effort in 2019
What is happening organically on Facebook?
We’ve heard it all before. THE FACEBOOK ALGORITHM is changing… AGAIN 😳
With changes happening multiple times a year, it is your job to test what works best with your target audiences. This applies to both business owners who have a Facebook Business page and social media marketers who create organic campaigns for clients,
Doing this will ensure you are always producing and delivering the most relevant content to start conversations that lead to engagement (likes, comments and shares), conversions (PDF downloads, mailing list sign-ups and completed purchases) and revenue — YAAAY 🙌.
With average organic reach on Facebook at around 1% to 6%, it’s more important than ever to utilise data and insights from your previous campaigns to inform future content decisions.
Put it this way, if you have 1,000 page likes on your business page, on average only 10 to 60 of your followers will see any given post you share on Facebook.
So, with that said, is there is still a place for organic Facebook in your marketing strategy?
The answer is simple… It depends 🤷♂️
Are you in it for the numbers?
Although organic reach is low, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should stop sharing content on Facebook. With Facebook switching its emphasis to high quality content and engagement (in particular comments), the 10 to 60 people (based on 1,000 page likes) that you reach with could help you drive additional revenue to hit your monthly revenue targets.
How I hear you ask?
It is IMPORTANT to remember that the number of followers you have, doesn’t directly correspond to business success. Believe it or not, it is possible to run a sustainable business that generates six figures in revenue with a small following of 1,000 people.
The key to achieving this is to focus on attracting the most relevant people to like your page. Of course, this must be combined with the ability to sell!
Qualify your leads
Although a Facebook page with 500,000 looks great, a page with 1,000 qualified followers who are highly engaged and frequently comment and share your content will help you achieve your goals a lot quicker. A page with a large following but little to no engagement doesn’t pay the bills!
Picture this, if just 1 of the 10–60 people who see your posts organically regularly take action (for example download a lead magnet and sign-up for your mailing list), you will be on your way to scaling your business (or your clients business) in a sustainable and effective way.
What DOESN’T work organically on Facebook?
Memes or quotes
If in the past you have experienced success with memes or quotes, you will have noticed a dramatic decline in engagement with these posts in 2019. Why… because these types of posts don’t fall into the ‘high-quality’ category that Facebook deems to rank has relevant and engaging.
Links from YouTube
If you are in the game of creating video updates for your YouTube channel, you might be tempted to upload you content natively to YouTube then copy and paste the YouTube link into Facebook…
NO, NO, NO, NO
Although, Facebook will display a nice-looking preview image for your YouTube link, your organic reach will be limited even further for the simple reason that YouTube is owned by Google — If you didn’t know Facebook and Google are not the best of friends.
To get around this, if you are the video creator and owner, take the time to upload the video natively to Facebook as well. Doing this will give you the option to add a .SRT file if you have captions and also add relevant tags to your posts. With organic reach being so low, every little counts!
Remember to take advantage of Facebook’s native scheduling tool. This will help you plan your content ahead of time. Upload all of your videos at the same time, add a date and let Facebook do the rest.
What works organically on Facebook?
Video, video, video….. VIDEO!
Image taken from: https://buzzsumo.com/blog/facebook-engagement-guide/
As you can see from the graph above, video leads the way in terms of the average number of engagements. With giveaways and coupons ranking 4 thand 6th respectively, it’s time to start thinking of ways to use video at the top of your marketing funnel to generate the traffic and leads you need to increase revenue.
Remember, video is a great way to warm up a cold audience. Sending an offer to somebody who isn’t fully invested in your brand is not going to result in revenue.
How much time do you spend watching TV vs Online video?
If I’m honest, YouTube video is where I spend the majority of my free time. Whether it’s to watch basketball highlights or keeping up to date with the latest LinkedIn trends, YouTube is where I go. With Facebook keen to compete with YouTube for video watch time, a ridiculous amount of weight is being attributed to native Facebook video.
According to BuzzSumo’s research conducted in 2018, video posts outperform static image posts by 73%. With the bar to access for video being as low as ever (all you need is your smartphone), now is the time to consider testing what types of video best work for you.
The important thing to remember about video, is it doesn’t have to be the best-looking or even be expensive to create. You can raise awareness for your brand by simply using the cameras on your smart phones.
For the best organic results, look at ways you can start to incorporate video content into your social media strategy.
Short Form Video
Short form videos between 15–20 seconds long work really well organically on Facebook. Similar to any piece of content, you are constantly competing with other content producers for the attention of your target audience.
So with that said, even if your video does appear on 1% — 6% of your followers news feed organically, you have to create something that really stands out and grabs their attention within the first 1–2 seconds. This is a result of the average person seeing upwards of 5,000 ads and marketing signals per day
If your short video is designed to promote your vlog on YouTube, aim to include the two most important points visually and reiterate those points in the copy below (main ad text). Make the video the most important asset of the post — essential, use it as a visual hook to win the attention of your followers.
If you are unable to grab the attention of your audience, they will never complete the action you want them to.
Test video formats and work out which works best for your brand.
PRO TIP — If a piece of content works well organically, you can guarantee that it will perform well if it has advertising budget behind it and your audience targeting is spot on.
Send me a DM on Instagram @alexrenemartin if you would like to learn more about running successful paid campaigns.
Behind the scenes video
Behind the scenes video is a great way to give your followers insight into your brand (or your client’s brand). Living in a world were we are more connected than ever, your followers are keen to know what allows you achieve success on a daily basis.
To create successful behind the scenes videos, all you need to do is set up a camera (smartphone or DSLR) in the background and film the magic as it happens. Short 5–15 second videos work well for this type of video. In addition, you can use the Boomerang app to create short gifs that work extremely well alongside traditional video.
Behind the scenes video is great way to start conversations with your audience.
Long form ‘How To’ videos
Tutorial style videos filled with value are a great way to highlight your expertise in your field while also giving others the tools to achieve their business goals.
For an example of a long form tutorial, check out this mastering your craft video that I filmed while visiting Taiwan earlier this year.
Long form videos do not have to be exceedingly long. At the beginning of your video adventure, aim to produce videos between 5–10 minutes in length. Use these videos to display your expertise and show your audience how what you have to offer can help them achieve success.
Whatever form of video you choose to test, be sure to incorporate questions to encourage your audience to get involved in the conversation. The more people who comment and share your posts, the more people will see your post organically.
Facebook is all about the pay to play
So, is there is still a place for organic Facebook in your marketing strategy?
In my opinion, YES there is, but you have to be aware that the results you see will be nowhere near the results of a strategic paid campaign.
For now, the key to building awareness for yourself or your clients is to get into the habit of consistently producing short form, long form and behind the scenes video that gives value and asks questions that drives engagement.
Now it’s over to you… How will you use video to boost your organic engagement on Facebook?
Originally published at https://alexrenemartin.com on September 4, 2019.
