Facebook Organic Reach
I hear all the time about how Facebook organic reach is dead. And, frankly, I beg to differ. I have had another experience with organic reach and I felt like it would be a cool thing to explore what it means and why it’s important.
First of all, let’s talk a little about what organic reach is. How do we think about it? I like to think of it in TV advertising terms. Reach on facebook is equivalent of someone being in the room when a TV commercial plays. If you think about it like that, there are brands that spend millions per year just getting their content on the TV in front of people. A view is like you can verify that someone in the room actually watched your commercial even if just for a little bit. A like or reaction is like they liked it so much they said something to someone in the room. A comment is like they tell someone at work about the commercial, and a share is like they showed someone the commercial on their phone. I think all of these things are very valuable and something everyone trying to share a business should be aware of. Not to mention, all of this can be had for 100% free! Like what? Why isn’t everyone doing this?
Conditions
So, like everything, there are a few conditions. Let’s talk about that.
- The video has to be compelling. That’s a super critical part of this. It doesn’t have to be professionally made or polished. But, it does have to connect with your audience. It can’t drag even for a second. It has to be something that your audience wants to see for the amount of time they want to see it. If you’re blanketing an audience that you’re not as familiar with, then it should be considerably shorter. If you’re talking right to an audience that is interested in what you have to say, you can make it as long as you want.
- You have to ask people to do what you want them to do. You should find those connectors who people will listen to and ask them to share your video. Some people will do it out of pride, or just because they know you. Direct messages work best. Direct emails, texts or phone calls to a few key people can get the ball rolling and then it will roll on its own. The example above where we got 23k in organic reach has 1835 likes on their page.
- Captions are super critical nowadays because people are watching on mobile devices without sound. You can create your own through a .srt file or once you’ve posted it, you can go to the “captions” tab on the video post to generate captions.
- Be Social. Just like everything else that works on facebook, your video has to be social. There are certain subjects that aren’t inherently relatable but if your video is primarily about people and not just an advertising piece about what you do, then it can work.
The great thing about organic reach is that you aren’t relying on Facebook to distribute anything for you. You’re relying on your audience to spread it for you. That adds the additional bonus of not feeling like advertising. It feels like people are sharing something meaningful. Which is true. This isn’t a new concept. It’s been around forever, just applied to a new medium.
The other interesting part is what can happen to the rest of your page. Generally improving reach can improve engagement through your whole page.
Here’s the video just for reference.
This is something we’ve just started handling for our clients and have seen this kind of result over and over. It’s very cool to watch. Am I wrong? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.