If you’ve been blogging for a while and if you are consistently using social media, you may have found yourself in a bit of a fight with Facebook recently. It’s been a while since they changed their algorithm, but where once you could post something and your followers would all see it on Facebook, now they might show your post to only a handful of your followers. And that can be FRUSTRATING!
How can you get your followers to see your stuff on Facebook and how do you grow your following?
How to Succeed on Facebook:
Let me start out by telling you a little bit about my own experience on Facebook. (Feel free to join me there!)
I have been blogging for 4 years now. At the start of December 2015 I had about 32,000 Facebook followers and I had hovered right around that number for well over a year. Each week I gained about 100 new followers. I didn’t post super consistently-just a little here and there when I felt like it-but mostly I considered it a waste of time. And also something that would take up too much time if I tried to put much effort into it.
Early in December I decided to start giving Facebook a solid effort and to see what happened.
I started posting consistently every single day. And I was AMAZED what happened. New followers started to flow in. My reach grew. I was seeing Facebook traffic. I could tell something was working, so I kept plugging away.
Today it’s March 28, 2016-so just shy of 4 months since I started my Facebook experience. I now have about 71,000 followers-more than DOUBLE what I had in December when I started posting consistently. I have great reach on many of my posts and I am currently gaining about 3800 new followers a week-so growing very rapidly!
I want to share with you some very basic tips that have helped me. This CAN be done! Don’t get discouraged, don’t get frustrated, just give it a try.
Facebook Tips for Bloggers:
How to Share: You probably already know this, but just in case, let’s talk about HOW to share things on Facebook. If you are sharing your own, original content (meaning it’s something originating with you on your page, not shared from another page), save an image of it either to your computer or your phone (I usually work from my phone on this-it’s easier. Click Photo and then select your photo. Edit it to make it square, add some text and a link (if needed) and you are set!
If you are sharing from someone else, you’ll need to do one of two things. Either use the share button in the bottom right of the post:
And copy the link and then paste it into your Facebook page, or click the time stamp at the top of the post: (see the 1 hr below)
That will pop open a new window-then copy and paste that URL into your Facebook page.
Wait for the content to populate, then delete the link text, add your own text, and share. (Delete that link showing below and add your own text).
Post Consistently: The very first thing to do is to start posting. And don’t post in spurts-do it regularly. Pick an amount of Facebook posting that will work for you and stick to it. I started out posting about 6 times a day. I would recommend at least 6 times a day to get going. You can go quite a bit higher than that-probably up to about 15 times a day (certainly some bloggers do more). Just figure out what works for you and do it consistently.
What to Post: I used to just post a link to my post, let Facebook populate it with an image and a little text and I would call that good. I’ve learned that that is not the way to get the best reach. I recommend posting a variety of the following:
- Images: Post a square image with a link to tutorial, recipe, story
- Videos: Videos get a better reach for me 99% of the time than other posts. So I try to work in about 1 each day. (I’m talking about videos that play automatically when people are scrolling through.)
- Memes/Sayings/Funny Things: You know they’re all over Facebook. Things that make people laugh or think or want to share with their friends. They are Facebook gold. Find some that fit with your brand and share them.
- Viral Content: Share content from other Facebook pages that is performing well. These will often go very well. Find pages that you love and see what they are sharing and share something from there.
Pay Attention: Start posting and pay attention to what goes well. Look at your Facebook reach at the bottom of each post. Here’s a look at a post I shared earlier today:
Here you see how many people have seen this post so far. I have posts from today that have been seen my about 1,500 people and other posts that have been seen by 30,000 in the last 24 hours. So quite a variety. That’s ok! There’s going to be variety-don’t stress. But DO pay attention to what does well and share more of it. I’ve learned there are some things that FLOP on my page, so I have stopped sharing those. I try to focus on things that I know my readers will love.
Shares and Engagement: The number of shares you get on a post, as well as the engagement (likes, clicks, and comments) will greatly enhance the reach of a post. Do what you can to get your readers talking, sharing and engaging on your page. Ask questions. Make them want to click on the link (although frankly I HATE click bait so I am careful not to do that), find things that are very sharable. This is why funny memes work or things that readers will want to share with their friends. Watch your engagement and see if you can get them talking and sharing!
Share Your Own Content: In the midst of all this, be sure you are sharing your own content! I post about 8-10 times a day on Facebook right now. I typically post 2-3 of my own posts in that mix. Don’t share too much of your own, but be sure to get some of it in there.
Schedule Ahead: It’s very easy to put together your Facebook schedule ahead of time. On a good day I will sit down first thing in the morning and schedule out the posts for the day. That way I can be sure a get a good variety-a few recipes, something funny, a sewing post or two, maybe a video. Several of mine in the mix along with others. Some are shared content, some are originating from my page.
To schedule, click the publish button and choose Schedule from the drop down menu:
You can then choose your time frame.
I typically post about 1 an hour spaced out through the hours of the day between about 8:30 am and 7:30 pm.
You can also Save Drafts. When you find great content, create your Facebook post and then click Save Draft. (See above again.) When you are ready to schedule you can then go into your Drafts folder and choose from the things in there.
This is at the top of my page:
If I click drafts this is what I see:
I can then choose from the posts there and schedule them out. I love to keep this draft folder full of at least 20 posts at a time so that it’s easy to schedule things.
2 Week Facebook Challenge:
You ready for this? I want to give you a challenge!
Over the next two weeks, start posting to Facebook and follow the tips I gave you. Post consistently, post a variety, put stuff on Facebook!
I want you to pay attention to your reach and followers but I DON’T want you to stress over it. Pay attention to see what is working but keep plugging away anyway. Just keep going for 2 weeks. You can tweak a little, but mostly I want you to just post and post and post and don’t give up.
I think you will see a change for the better in those two weeks. Will you let me know?
Then keep going from there!
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